The Aero Thread..

[Vipersan]

Been destroying the brickwork of my house again today ..
I needed to get another 4 coax cables out of my playroom and into the backyard ...so ..
Out cabe 'the beast' ...
a heavy duty wall drill mains powered that takes 2 hands just to hold level ..
It has push fit drill bits ..and can also take chisels ..
A rotating drill action and also a combined hammer action that almost pushed me backwards off the ladder ..
Anyway ..job done ..I was able to bore an WC overflow pipe sized hole right through 2 layers of brick (with cavity) ...and slide a plastic pipe in ..
all pointed up after the damage ...but should be solid by tomorrow.
I might use RG6U shotgun cable ...that way I can get more than 4 through the wall ..
we shall see..
rgds
VS

 

[spacedish]

Morning all

Sorry I have been MIA for a while , had a sneaky heart attack couple of weeks ago so now trying to catch up with bits and pieces.

Above is a simplified set-up " road map" for Inmarsat monitoring which hopefully helps anyone thinking of giving it a go.
PlanePlotter has more or less global coverage now , although I'm short of cover at 63 east...always a problem from the UK.

Our star performer is Confucian , who is monitoring three satellites simultaneously !

As always , I'm happy to answer any questions via PM

Regards

John

 

[Topper]

Hi John

Glad to hear you have not ascended to the ether above and are still in the land of the living, just take your time and do as the doc tells you

 

[Confucian]

Just to let you know Mick ..
T channels at 54W were strong at 7:30AM this morning when I woke ...and still are ..
at least 6 or seven planes evident on PP although some bad RT packets now evident ..
I expect much like yesterday my reception will degrade as the day progresses..
rgds
VS

My 54W seems to be peaking in the evening. According to N2YO.com - real time satellite tracking 54W from my location is at it highest (17.6°) at 21:00 and its lowest (14.1°) at 09:00, so I make the Mid points around 13:00 & 01:00 (15,85°). So it would appear my 54W dish is pointing a little high for the best "all day" performance.

 

[lovelyperson]

Hi John

Glad to hear you have not ascended to the ether above and are still in the land of the living, just take your time and do as the doc tells you

I will second that and best wishes to you 'spacedish'.

 

[Archive-8]

View attachment 94865


Morning all

Sorry I have been MIA for a while , had a sneaky heart attack couple of weeks ago so now trying to catch up with bits and pieces.

Above is a simplified set-up " road map" for Inmarsat monitoring which hopefully helps anyone thinking of giving it a go.
PlanePlotter has more or less global coverage now , although I'm short of cover at 63 east...always a problem from the UK.

Our star performer is Confucian , who is monitoring three satellites simultaneously !

As always , I'm happy to answer any questions via PM

Regards

John

You should take things steady, and not push yourself to much!

But good to hear that your ok.

 

[Vipersan]

So ..
this is what I finally settled on ..having tried the Helical antenna on a 60cm offset ...RF linked indoors using RG58 .. (shorter cable run ..)
Yes it gave results ...and fairly good results too ...approx 7db ..
but this dropped dramatically to 5db in the rain ...which there was plenty off ..
So ..I made the decision to get the Dongle close to the helical again ..
..a guaranteed increase of about 3 or 4 db ...by removing the RF cable linkage and only tranferring digital data indoors ..
These mk2 dongles are relatively inexpensive so I could afford to tie one to the Helical permanently ...
Not much more to do on this now ..
a bit more waterproofing ...and it will become a permanent outdoor fixture at Inmarsat 2-F3 15W ..
rgds
VS

...and welcome home John ..
good to hear you are recovering well ..
rgds
Evan

 

[spacedish]

...and welcome home John ..
good to hear you are recovering well ..

Thanks everyone for the good wishes.
All fine here thanks to the expertise of the cardiac team at Broadgreen , Liverpool.
Bit of pipe work to sort out later .

Back to the task in hand.....
Has anyone tried sticking a C Band lnb onto a 1m dish by using one of the multi lnb arms?
With Alphasat only three degrees away from Astra 2 location I have been asked if this will work on an offset dish.

I have suggested if the C band is put at the focus with ku for Astra set to the side , this might just work although will be touch and go.
Any thoughts?

 

[Vipersan]

Not tried this SD but I may be able to test this soon at the focus of a 1.1 if that is any use ?
What exactly is the purpose of the experiment ?
is Alphasat inclined ?
what is the target ?
rgds
VS

 

[Vipersan]

All usb extensions are not created equal ..
Tried the Helical antenna on a fully screened 10m extension cable ..
Nothing doing ..
Tried just an RTL dongle on the end ..
Nothing doing..
Tried a USB pen drive at the end ..
Yep ..it sees it ..
The repeater is an absolute must have ...
I still have my 20m USB extension with repeater mid way at 10m ..
This works with RTL dongles just fine..
So ...I want to get my hands on a shorter cable fully screened but with repeater ..
If I cannot ...then I'll have to buy a long one and shorten it to the required length..
rgds
VS

 

[spacedish]

Hi VS
I've had enquiries from folk in Europe who have slightly larger dishes pointing at 28 east Ku [ 1m to 1.2m]
They have lost most of the programming from that position after the footprint changes a couple of years back but
wondered if the same dish could be used for Alphasat at 25 east. Its slightly inclined at 1.8 degs , but a smaller dish would keep the signal for most of the orbit.
In addition , those looking at 19 east with a good sized dish might be able to point at 25 east C band and
get 19 east Ku on a multi lnb arm.
Once I'm "allowed out" I'll be looking at this myself. :O)

 

[Vipersan]

Problem solved ..
Cracked open this 10m usb screened extension cable ...and it is indeed a repeater ..
ie contains an active hub ..
but as said will NOT recognise an rtl dongle ..
closer examination with a meter reveals that the screening/braid is NOT connected to ground at either end ...so did this for myself with a short jumper ..
et voila ..dongle now recognised ...zadig driver now installs ...and working ..
In other words ...what was the point of screening if you dont use it ??
More likely to encourage data loss and unwanted data pickup with it floating ..
Cheap imported crap made by idiots who dont understand the importance of screening over long cable runs ..
pathetic...
rgds
VS

 

[Vipersan]

So ..
The Helical is up on the 60cm dish ...
Certainly a good-ish signal atm ...
but then ..it is a dry day ..
I'd say 8db plus on the 3 targets around 1.546ghz
Is it weatherproof ...?
I guess I'll soon find out ...as more rain is forecast..
rgds
VS

 

[Analoguesat]

Anyone using a raspberry pi to feed position data to flightradar24?

That looks like it could be an interesting little project

 

[Confucian]

Anyone using a raspberry pi to feed position data to flightradar24?

That looks like it could be an interesting little project

Me !
1090ADSB

 

[Vipersan]

Helical antenna well soaked atm ...as is the dish surface ...
multiple CRC errors now on received data ...
Been raining steadily for at least 30 minutes ..
signal levels have reduced by about 1 to 1.5db ...
fingers crossed I have sufficiently waterproofed ..
I guess I'll know by tomorrow.
When is summer gonna start ?????????????
rgds
VS

 

[Vipersan]

Still finding the use or Jaero confusing as it relates to multiple instances ..
ATM I have only 2 instances open ..
I have 3 virtual audio cables ....2 of which are in use ...
These VACs connected to 2 instances of SharpSDR ...one of which is being used for data from the Helical antenna ...1.546 ghz ...
The other from SDRsharp tuned to a Cband aero channel for positional data ..
I therefore dont want cross pollution of data ..and in this regard one audio stream to one instance of Jaero interpreting data ...
The other VAC to a second instance of Jaero to decode positional data ...which in turn will then be passed to Plane plotter ..
..and soon another instance of Jaero and yet another SDR# will need initiating when I add another dedicated Aero dish to the system (another dongle).
Problem is of course that neither SDR# nor Jaero will retain the settings once closed down ..
..but it also would appear that changing the audio/vac input on the first instance of Jaero also changes the audio VAC input of the second ?
Even whilst running and active.
I'm hopeful in the future that Jonti might make changes to Jaero that allow for multi instances to be run and retain individual settings ...such as VAC and UDP port usage ..
complicated I know ...
But in order to monitor and / or plot from multiple dongles and using multiple Jaeros ..such features are important ....both in Jaero and SDR# ...thus also in dongle/usbport identificaton in Zadig.
rgds
VS

..btw ..
The Helical survived the night outdoors in the rain ..and is still producing data with a sig level approx 8db..

 

[Confucian]

Still finding the use or Jaero confusing as it relates to multiple instances ..
ATM I have only 2 instances open ..
I have 3 virtual audio cables ....2 of which are in use ...
These VACs connected to 2 instances of SharpSDR ...one of which is being used for data from the Helical antenna ...1.546 ghz ...
The other from SDRsharp tuned to a Cband aero channel for positional data ..
I therefore dont want cross pollution of data ..and in this regard one audio stream to one instance of Jaero interpreting data ...
The other VAC to a second instance of Jaero to decode positional data ...which in turn will then be passed to Plane plotter ..
..and soon another instance of Jaero and yet another SDR# will need initiating when I add another dedicated Aero dish to the system (another dongle).
Problem is of course that neither SDR# nor Jaero will retain the settings once closed down ..
..but it also would appear that changing the audio/vac input on the first instance of Jaero also changes the audio VAC input of the second ?
Even whilst running and active.
I'm hopeful in the future that Jonti might make changes to Jaero that allow for multi instances to be run and retain individual settings ...such as VAC and UDP port usage ..
complicated I know ...
But in order to monitor and / or plot from multiple dongles and using multiple Jaeros ..such features are important ....both in Jaero and SDR# ...thus also in dongle/usbport identificaton in Zadig.
rgds
VS

..btw ..
The Helical survived the night outdoors in the rain ..and is still producing data with a sig level approx 8db..

Hi
Are you using the Aux VFO pluggin for SDR\ ?
Install Instances of SDR\ in their own directories, I have three named after the birds, they will then hold their setting when closed down.
A bit tied up getting ready for a show tomorrow but will try and post later or we can have @in depth chat@ tomorrow evening if your not sorted. If you think multiple SDR\'s are confusing multiple Jaero's nearly drove me daft ! lol
Mick

 

[Vipersan]

Hi
Are you using the Aux VFO pluggin for SDR\ ?
Install Instances of SDR\ in their own directories, I have three named after the birds, they will then hold their setting when closed down.
A bit tied up getting ready for a show tomorrow but will try and post later or we can have @in depth chat@ tomorrow evening if your not sorted. If you think multiple SDR\'s are confusing multiple Jaero's nearly drove me daft ! lol
Mick

..tbh ...I've accepted that multiple SDRs is a pita ..but am having trouble with multiple Jaeros ...particularly as I need at least one for L band data ...
later Mick..
Evan

 

[Confucian]

Off Topic but Aero related
45ft mast for 1090mhz ADSB, Pi & Dongle 2ft below antenna.
"Trouble at Mill" , Well at the top of the mast, backup battery died and intermittent ethernet over mains problems. Looks like I may have to do a proper job and run a cable !