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Hi<br>
<br>
Here are some details for the aircraft tracking system I showed at
the meeting last night. What I was showing was a TV dongle based SDR
receiving ADS-B transmissions from aircraft combined with google
maps data for tracking.<br>
<br>
I was using a TV dongle bought from Deal Extreme. I tried to get a
dongle with the E4000 tuner chip, ordering the same one Richard had
bought. But it is no longer produced and Deal Extreme sent me an
alternative product that had a FC0012 tuner chip. Reasonable if you
want it for TV, but I wanted it for SDR work and I found it could
not tune to the 1090MHz required to receive the aircraft ADS-B
transmissions. So after a bit of research online I found that there
is a newer tuner chip, the R820T, that would work and found one on
Deal Extreme <a
href="http://dx.com/p/rtl2832u-r820t-mini-dvb-t-dab-fm-usb-digital-tv-dongle-black-170541">http://dx.com/p/rtl2832u-r820t-mini-dvb-t-dab-fm-usb-digital-tv-dongle-black-170541</a>.
I ended up replacing the USB connector with an old mouse cable
because I found the connector intermittent. This also allows me to
place the dongle in the window while I sit on the couch with the
laptop. <br>
<br>
The dongle was driven by GNU Radio with gr-air-modes - <a
href="https://www.cgran.org/wiki/gr-air-modes">https://www.cgran.org/wiki/gr-air-modes</a>.
This package can serve the decoded aircraft data as a KML for
viewing in Google Earth, as raw data or in "base station" format
("base station" refers to the Kinetic SBS-1 Basestation commercial
product from Kinetics Avionics <a href="http://www.kinetic.co.uk/">http://www.kinetic.co.uk</a>)<br>
<br>
I used the "base station" output and feed the data into Virtual
Radar Server
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<a href="http://www.virtualradarserver.co.uk/">http://www.virtualradarserver.co.uk/</a>.
This is a .Net application that runs under mono (there are Linux
install instructions on the site). It runs a web server that gives
you the GNU Radio output combined with google maps data. There is
also a database writer plugin that can be used to record aircraft
"hits" into a database for later analysis and reporting. It has
basic reporting capability. The database is in "base station" format
too. To get aircraft silhouettes and operator flags you need to
install bitmaps in the Virtual Radar Server directory. You can use
bitmap resources designed for the SBS product, these are available
on the internet, just google for them or visit
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<a href="http://www.sbs-resources.com/download/index.html">http://www.sbs-resources.com/download/index.html</a>
or
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<a href="http://www.sbsbst.co.uk/iank/index.html">http://www.sbsbst.co.uk/iank/index.html</a><br>
<br>
There are a few "get going" guides on the internet <br>
-
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<a
href="http://www.hamradioscience.com/the-rtl-2832u-sdr-and-ads-b/">http://www.hamradioscience.com/the-rtl-2832u-sdr-and-ads-b/</a><br>
-
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<a
href="http://blog.opensecurityresearch.com/2012/06/getting-started-with-gnu-radio-and-rtl.html">http://blog.opensecurityresearch.com/2012/06/getting-started-with-gnu-radio-and-rtl.html</a><br>
<br>
NZ airspace it not that busy, to see if your setup is working
compare what you receive with <a
href="http://www.flightradar24.com/">http://www.flightradar24.com/</a>
or
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<a href="http://planefinder.net/">http://planefinder.net/</a> <br>
<br>
Not all data is transmitted from the aircraft. Once your database
starts filling up you'll want to fill in the missing data. I use a
program called "SBS-1 Populate" to automate this. It is published by
Gatwick Aviation Society, and is unfortunately Windows only -
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<a
href="http://www.gatwickaviationsociety.org.uk/sbs_populatebeta.asp">http://www.gatwickaviationsociety.org.uk/sbs_populatebeta.asp</a>.
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It can add registration, type, operator, c/n details and the Logo
code if known.<br>
<br>
If you run Windows instead of Linux you can still use Virtual Radar
Server works, but replace GNU Radio with RTL1090 (<a
href="http://rtl1090.web99.de">http://rtl1090.web99.de</a>) or
ADSB# (
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<a
href="http://sdrsharp.com/index.php/a-simple-and-cheap-ads-b-receiver-using-rtl-sdr">http://sdrsharp.com/index.php/a-simple-and-cheap-ads-b-receiver-using-rtl-sdr</a>).
A windows setup guide can be found here
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<a href="http://sonicgoose.com/using-a-rtlsdr-dongle-for-ads-b/">http://sonicgoose.com/using-a-rtlsdr-dongle-for-ads-b/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
Other things to try:<br>
- a Coaxial Collinear Antenna for ADS-B <a
href="http://www.balarad.net">http://www.balarad.net</a><br>
- decoding with a PIC18F2550 <a
href="http://www.sprut.de/electronic/pic/projekte/adsb/adsb_en.html">http://www.sprut.de/electronic/pic/projekte/adsb/adsb_en.html</a>
<br>
- some Java software
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<a href="http://nzradar.com/?page_id=2040">http://nzradar.com/?page_id=2040</a><br>
- receive automatic picture transmissions (APT) from NOAA weather
satellites
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<a
href="http://www.oz9aec.net/index.php/gnu-radio/gnu-radio-blog/451-howto-receive-and-decode-noaa-apt-images-with-funcube-dongle-and-gqrx">http://www.oz9aec.net/index.php/gnu-radio/gnu-radio-blog/451-howto-receive-and-decode-noaa-apt-images-with-funcube-dongle-and-gqrx</a><br>
- use dump1090 instead of gr-air-modes -
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<a href="https://github.com/antirez/dump1090">https://github.com/antirez/dump1090</a><br>
<br>
Let me know how you get on if you give it a try<br>
<br>
Stuart<br>
<a href="http://www.flightradar24.com/"></a>
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