scanSydney

Just wondering if anyones used one of these receivers in the Sydney area?

Do many aircraft use it?

What kind of aircraft use it? Large commercial crafts? Helis? Small crafts? RAAF?

What kind of range do you get?

What equipment are you running?

Would you recommend the receiver you use? Why?

Hmm, so apparently nobody here uses it. Thought I'd fill you all in on what I've discovered.

ACARS seems to be whats primarily in use. Apparently ACARS is transmitted on 131.55 MHz and 131.45 MHz - however I've not received anything on these freqs. However, there are some ACARS generated maps on the Internet...

http://16right.com/YSSY/PlanePlotter.htm - updated every 15 min
http://www32.webtrak-lochard.com/WebTra ... index.html - delayed by 30-60 min
http://www.coaa.co.uk/planeplotter.htm - apparently can receive live data if you buy the app, although I've not yet figured this app out

yeah ACARS is on 131.55 i get tons of hits here in goulburn. what program are you using. you'd have heaps there in the blue mountains like a hit roughly every 20sec or so at least. good thing about it decoding ACARS using pdw is you DONT need a discriminater tap. you'd be suprised how far the signals come from too.
cheers

ADS-B is totally different to ACARS:
- ACARS is used by commercial airlines to pass various data back to their ops regarding the flight and pax. ACARS works primarily on VHF, although there is also HF ACARS out there.
- ADS-B is used by ATC to track aircraft - it supplements the existing Secondary Radar Return from an aircraft's transponder. (SSR is known as "Mode-C", ADS-B is also known as "Mode-S"). ADS-B transmissions are in the region of 1.090GHz

ADS-B transmissions can be picked up and displayed using an SBS-1 receiver - there are others, but this is the one I know of. http://www.kinetic-avionics.co.uk/sbs-1.php

Most new aircraft transponders are Mode-S capable, so you will start seeing more and more usage by light a/c and helicopters as their avionics get updated.

Wasn't Dick Smith flagging this transmission in general aviation forums as one that needed to be encrypted between users and ATC a year or so back. I am not sure where that discussion went unfortunately.

Grant

Geoff,

Just out of interest there has been some experimental work in decoding transponders using the GNUradio/USRP framework - looks like its quite do-able for someone with the right coding skills..

http://sites.google.com/site/radiorausch/AvTrans.html

Cheers,
Matt

Hi Criten

I have just joined the forum and I am an active monitor of ADS-B in Sydney and have range to approx 200nm of Sydney.

criten wrote:Just wondering if anyones used one of these receivers in the Sydney area?

Do many aircraft use it?

Most commercial aircraft have full ADS-B showing position, height and speed of aircraft as well as identifiers. Some smaller aircraft only show as Mode-S i.e. positionless.

What kind of range do you get?

Up to 200nm with current set up.

What equipment are you running?

Using SBS Basestation and Radarbox.

Would you recommend the receiver you use? Why?

Both receivers have their own advantages, but my preference is for the SBS Basestation at present.

Happy to answer any more questions you, or anyone else may have.

Cheers
Mark

Awesome! Can you post some details on what antenna system you're using? Are you located in Sydney?

citabria wrote:Awesome! Can you post some details on what antenna system you're using? Are you located in Sydney?

I am using the Panorama BS1100. As I am located only about 3nm NW of Sydney Airport I have good reception of aircraft at the airport.

You can view one of my feeds on the following site:

www.flightradar24.com

Cheers
Mark

You're close to me then. I'm about 3NM DME West of the airport, under the approach for 25..

Thanks for the link!