[Kurt A]

G'day Ben,

Thanks for the post. Good thing about having a laptop, you're already on your way

Is it worthwhile setting it up here as there is already quite good coverage.

This is always a tough question to answer. It really depends on what you consider worthwhile. You have to decide what it is that you want to get out of starting your own feed. For most of us, it's the pleasure of actually being able to track live aircraft real time via our own set up and antenna from our own location with all our own equipment; it's almost like a personal achievement of sorts. There's also that guarantee that what we see on our own radar is completely accurate compared to any sort of delay or discrepancy on a third party sharing site.

Whilst you might already be located in a highly covered area, (I believe you're referring to a sharing site like PlanePlotter or other etc?) there are still benefits to running your own feed. The fun of the hobby, it's emerging and interesting technology to be involved in and to understand, you can maintain your own personal database of flights tracked and log them accordingly should you wish, the enjoyment factor of seeing your feed in lights on third party websites, the ability to take your setup into a remote location when travelling and view traffic overhead almost anywhere etc...

There are also other technical benefits which aid in the setup of any system, these include supporting accurate coverage for third party plane plotting websites, and the capability to visually track Mode-S Aircraft via PlanePlotter through and advancing technique in technology called MLAT; if you went down the track of purchasing a Kinetic Box and shared to PlanePlotter. (Mode-S a/c presently do not appear on radar screens, as they do not transmit the required information, namely LAT/LONG coordinates) If you're able to MLAT, then these Mode-S A/C sometimes display on the PlanePlotter map with a predicted position. If you do some quick checking against your live ADS-B feed data for the same aircraft, and direct the eyeball mark III into the sky, usually the predictions work out reasonably accurate. (Currently, the AirNav Radar Box is not MLAT capable).

Of course with having your own feed you would join the list of sharers already sharing in your area, and in the case that their feed goes "offline", yours might be the only other feed operating in that area that keeps the traffic alive on third party websites. There's also the chance that even with your new setup you might yield slightly extended range than that of other sharers around you, or depending on your antenna type you might have better in-close or on-ground coverage than others.

So there's many things that could work in your favour. Just think about what's most important for you and your interest and then determine if you'd like to invest.

how much would it cost to set up?

OK - so here's a really rough price guide for you. And you must understand that depending on your locale situation, your setup might vary with regards to cable length, antenna type etc. But here's the basics to get started.

- $620 AUD for a Receiver Box (SBS-3; also comes with 3dbi antenna, software for free on website)
- $100-$200 AUD for an external antenna yielding more range (sometimes at the sacrifice of close-in, on-ground coverage however)
- $50-$150 for 5 to 10 meter good LMR 400 cabling if required (it's very thick. Thinner is cheaper, but attenuation loss is greater)
- $25 Euro for full version of PlanePlotter if planning to share to network
- Feeding to PlaneFinder and FlightRadar24 is free. (Also, you can become a premium member of FR24 for free if you feed 24/7 and can receive their APPs for free too.)

You'd also need to factor in any other incidentals like connectors, pigtails, mast mounts and brackets for any external antennas, water-proofing connectors, grounding equipment if you really want to get serious, and then any fees payable to people who can fly to Melbourne to help you get setup properly, lol

For an external antenna, well there's so many ADS-B antennas available for 1090mhz, but you really must do your homework because they all have different connectors etc and different dbi or db ratings... so you want to make sure they match your receiver and suitability too. You could start by looking at this list of antennas:

http://www.kinetic.co.uk/estore/inde...iewCat&catId=1
http://www.moonraker.eu/Avionics-and...nd-Accessories
http://www.ssejim.co.uk/26-sseads1090sj.htm
http://www.mobileone.com.au/antennas/airband.html (bottom of page)
http://www.dpdproductions.com/page_vhf_air.html#adsbout
http://www.wimo.com/cgi-bin/verteile...antenna_e.html

what is a good system to buy?

There are different receivers on the market. AirNav have a product, Grahame can speak its praises, there's also a MiniADSB product on the market that's only the size of a USB stick, perfect for traveling. These are all different prices too, but doing some further research via google will get you prices on those.

Here's an all-in-one thread that will help you out: http://radarspotting.com/forum/index...ic,1318.0.html

You can do some more research via these two websites here.

http://radarspotting.com/forum/index.php?action=forum
http://www.radarspotters.eu/forum/

There's much more related content on receiver suitability on those than I could ever explain in a reply here. Let's just say that the majority of ADS-B sharers in Australia either use Kinetic Avionics SBS products, AirNav Systems' Radar Box or the Mode-S Beast. Some use the now discontinued Plane Gadget Radar and I know others use the Micro or Mini ADSB. See how you go. You might even be lucky to snag a deal for a receiver on eBay. Just be cautious of warranty though if you do.

does it use much Internet to upload to flightradar24 or anything like that?

Couldn't tell you. I have a fairly hectic data plan so from my perspective that question is irrelevant Someone else might have some figures, but I doubt it's much at all, as I imagine a lot of the data transfer is text based algorithms, formulas and numbers, rather than images or files. Given most of the internet plans available in this country today, I don't think you'll find this even the slightest bit concerning.

Let me know how you get on, or whether you have any other questions. Good luck!