Aircraft Radar on Alexa

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

What do people think of the Alexa Aircraft Radar skill? No doubt it works on the Google speaker too.

Apparently they get the data from ADSB Exchange - I’ve only just discovered it, quite entertaining, not sure how useful though. The various voice commands are a mystery at the moment, wonder if the Alexa car attachment might make this a useful Speaker Skill for portable units as often screens difficult to read in sunlight.

Geoff

2

Sounds interesting great idea with the portable Alexa.

Found a few commands that may help?

  • “what airplanes are around?”
  • “what jets are overhead?”
  • “what was that?”
  • “are there any helicopters nearby?”
  • “what’s the nearest aircraft?”
  • “are there any military planes around?”
1 Like
3

Thanks, that is useful. Yes, the portable Alexa might be handy with it, assume you are referring to the car Alexa or is there a device I’ve missed?

Geoff

4

Hi Send2gl, most welcome, sorry thats correct the in car Alexa.

Ray

1 Like
5

Never knew this Skill existed but after reading this yesterday I installed it and it works here in the UK so thanks for the heads-up.

I always find the full way to invoke a Skill by asking for it by name and then issuing the command a longwinded way of going about things so I set up some Routines to keep things short, For example;

Name: Aircraft
When: Alexa, Aircraft
Add action: Alexa, Ask Aircraft Radar if there are any aircraft nearby
From: The device you speak to

So now all I say is Alexa, Aircraft and it invokes Aircraft Radar and passes on the query; Ask Aircraft Radar if there are any aircraft nearby.

I have also added other routines called Helicopter, Jets, Military, Nearest etc. so I only need one-word command to return a proper response.

Works well for me apart from Alexa sometimes trying to pronounce the callsign instead of spelling it out phonetically but I can live with that.

Nice addition to the armoury…

-=Glyn=-

2 Likes
6

I have a routine set up, I just say ‘Alexa, nearest jet’, if it starts listing too many aircraft I lose track of what it is saying.

I have had it list the nearest Jet as travelling from and to mainland Europe so as I think there is a range limit for ‘nearest’ aircraft guess something is incorrect there.

Interesting and fun.

Personally I’d prefer less data and maybe model, distance and location.

Geoff

7

As I understand it Aircraft Radar looks for all aircraft it classes as nearby or within 40km of the address where the Alexa device is located.

It can also filter by Helicopters, Jets & Military and determines the nearest aircraft by simply sorting all contacts by distance from close to furthest away and returning details of the first or closest one on the list.

Like you Geoff I would prefer a briefer report on multiple aircraft as it does get difficult to follow and might make a suggestion or two on the authors Github page after I make a donation to the cause!

-=Glyn=-

1 Like
8

Good idea re suggestion and donation.

Geoff

9

The more I get used to Aircraft Radar the more I find it quite fascinating.

I have a routine set up for ‘Nearest Jet’, if you have the app setup on your phone or netpad then outside you can just say ‘Alexa, nearest jet’ when one passes overhead. Quite useful if you want to improve recognition of aircraft silhouettes.

Geoff

10

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.