978 Setup

[mmeadows]

I’m trying to figure out how to set up a stand-alone 978 system. I have a RadarBox 978 FlightStick and an AirNav UAT 978 antenna, and also a new Pi kit. No filter. First question - will this combination work?

The instructions on the flightAware website are not clear to me.

I have I followed the 1090 steps 1, 2 and 3 and then went to modify the piaware-config file.

The 978 instructions say:

To enable UAT mode, set “uat-receiver-type” to “sdr” and “receiver-type” to “none”. A reboot is required for receiver changes to take effect. Other piaware-config UAT options can be found in the table above.

I opened the piaware-config.txt file on the SD card, and added the two lines uat-receiver-type sdr and receiver-type none.

The system powered up just fine and is now visible online. But, hardly any traffic visible.

What am I doing wrong?

[jepolch]

@mmeadows

What am I doing wrong?

Maybe nothing. Depending on your location you may not have many UAT aircraft flying near you. The most I’ve seen at any one time was five. I average about 25 UAT aircraft a day out of a total of about 2000-2500 total aircraft seen.

[markrrichardson]

@jepolch

Maybe nothing. Depending on your location you may not have many UAT aircraft flying near you. The most I’ve seen at any one time was five. I average about 25 UAT aircraft a day

Definitely concur. Also, very weather dependent and time of day (mostly daylight hour) as well. GA aircraft only with the occaisional Goodyear Blimp thrown in. Here’s 48 hours worth for me…

[jepolch]

@markrrichardson

Also, very weather dependent and time of day (mostly daylight hour) as well.

Absolutely. Here’s my graph from the last 24 hours.

(Edit: You may get more than I do!)

[mmeadows]

Thanks, you were correct. Just a little patience and I see a trickle of aircraft now.

[Jerryh47]

@mmeadows

But, hardly any traffic visible.

What am I doing wrong?

The number of aircraft using 978 UAT is a small fraction of the total, they tend to fly lower and only in fair weather.

At my site the 978 and 1090 antennas have the same horizon visibility and RF performance.

On a good day the 978 traffic (red row) is about 2% of the total.

[ralawrencejr]

Friday was a very good VFR day in the New York Metro area. The peak aircraft of 6 includes TIS-B targets from either LGA or EWR.