My current MLAT figures over the last week are:
Aircraft Seen MLAT 1 1 3 1 3 6 1
As you can see, they are rather rare! I’ve looked in the logs but cannot find any information. Is there any way I can find out what these a/c were other than sitting here looking at the live data and waiting? At one a day it’s a pound to a penny it will occur just as I’m heading for the fridge.
Phill
The system uses MLAT for older Mode S transponders.
These transponders only give Alt, Squawk and a Unique 6 digit Hex ID.
They do not give position so MLAT must be used.
Your location doesn’t have many receivers so cannot always triangulate their position. The ones that are there are almost in a straight line.
I see Albecete, you, one near Denia and another few on Palma.
There is a Flightfeeder in Valencia, however, they currently don’t support MLAT. When it does, you should get more MLAT A/C (Others will turn into MLATs).
Look at the coverage map on flightaware.com/adsb/coverage#data-coverage
Zoom in on your location then select MLAT only and you can see that there isn’t much coverage.
On some dump1090 setups they are coloured differently. Mine(MLAT) are a shade of purple with the Mode S-ES coloured green.
Hi Jon, thanks for the reply.
I know we are thin on the ground here. Checking with FR24 I estimate I miss maybe 20%. Never having seen an MLAT on dump1090-mutability live yet I don’t even know what to expect.
Kind regards
Phill
Phil,
dump1090 mutability shade MLAT planes purple.
This is the text that I see today for MLAT A/C(when the A/C is highlighted).
n/a ⇒ [Canada] C0635C
Country of registration: Canada
Altitude: 24000 ft | 7311 m Squawk: 1753
Speed: 261 kt | 483 km/h RSSI: -49.5 dBFS
Track: 303° (Northwest) Last seen: 1.9s
Position: MLAT: 41.478°, -75.477° (1.9s)
Distance from Site: 82.9 NM | 153.6 km
It is going out of range.
Have you enabled 2.4Mhz over sampling. It increased my range and may help with distant MLAT receivers.
Jon
Thanks for showing the MLAT format. I know what to look for now.
I changed from the Cantenna to a 5/8 wave antenna last Friday and so far haven’t noticed a lot of difference in range or message numbers. Oddly I can see 1000’ lower north towards Valencia, now down to 4000’.
I was taking it slowly but will definitely change the oversampling now and see what occurs. EDIT I seem to have set this up originally!
Many thanks
Phill
My range sucks because one setup has a 3.5dbi Antenna 3’ above ground(outside) and the FA Antenna 15’ above ground but inside a bedroom in a corner.
I will move one to the attic with a chimney mounted antenna shortly.
I have the gear to run a poe cat5e cable to the attic, I just need a ladder that will reach under the eave.
The Antenna, LMR400UF cable and chimney mounts are due this week.
It may be a few weeks before I get the whole thing together. I may run for a week or so with an Antenna in the attic.
The 5/8 wave may have a lower “takeoff lobe”(I think it is called).
You get a lot more range than I do at the moment. only about 5-10% of my juts are >40NM
Juan, flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/ea5wa, in Albacete has great range but only has a few MLAT A/C per day.
I think he is a HAM so should have a good setup. The name matches the callsign. He works on Helos in Albacete as an avionics tech according to this qrz.com/db/EA5WA
