please post output of following command.
cat /lib/systemd/system/aiscatcher.service
groups aiscat
So sussed it by changing the config file to - D 00000001 and it started working fine I didn’t have to serilaize it back to 1 either. But what is strange once working I was getting serisoually scaled back reception compared to standalone on its own PI. on the pi combined with piaware max was getting 3-4 ships, now its back in the standalone pi I’m getting 10+ vessels again, its like the BiasT was not on but it was as I was getting 5v out the dongle and the LNA power led was illuminated.
The BiasT software does NOT recognize “Serial Number” parameter. It recognizes only “device number” parameter.
With -D 00000001, the AIS-catcher is using “device 1” and NOT “serial number 00000001”. The “device 1” has “serial number 00000162” i.e. it is AIS dongle, so it has selected the right dongle.
May be the Power Supply Unit is not capable to supply power to 2 dongles, and there is a low voltage.
With both AIS and ADSB running on same RPI, AND LNA power led illuminated, issue following command to check low voltage:
sudo dmesg --ctime | grep voltage
If above command gives no output, then Voltage is OK
I’m going to have another mess about with it today, it a pi4 with original pi power supply
How to Uninstall AIS-catcher AND remove all its files
Note: As all the the files & folders of biast are located inside folder /usr/share/aiscatcher, it will also get removed when commands in STEP-2 are executed.
STEP-1: Stop & disable aiscatcher service, and remove aiscatcher service file.
sudo systemctl stop aiscatcher
sudo systemctl disable aiscatcher
sudo rm /lib/systemd/system/aiscatcher.service
STEP-2: Remove files and folders pertaining to AIS-catcher and Biast.
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/aiscatcher
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/AIS-catcher
sudo userdel aiscat
Right so i started with an image of my piaware before I installed AIS on a new SD card. Installed ais catcher, tested ok sending data to sites, changed dongle to 00000162 rebooted, all ok still sending data. Installed ais dispatcher & changed port to 8181, all ok loads the page on 8181 also piaware still loads on 8080. Installed the biast part and this is where it went wrong, everything else started up, LED illuminated on LNA, but no msgs recieved. used “sudo dmesg --ctime | grep voltage” and was blank, nothing reported back.
So I removed ExecStartPre=/usr/share/aiscatcher/rtl_biast/build/src/rtl_biast -b 1 -d 0 from the service file, rebooted, used seperate power source for LNA and back to receiving vessels again.
So its something to do with the biast on it, but I can live with is powered up from an external adaptor
If the LED on LNA is lighting from power through the dongle, and LNA is still not working properly, it is wiered. May be dongle is not passing enough current to LNA?
I dont have RTL-SDR V3 dongle and Uptronics LNA to recreate your situation.
As the AIS-catcher software has a builtin biast switch on/off, try this.
(1) Disconnect external power supply to LNA
(2) Stop aiscatcher systemd service, then manually run AIS-catcher, using BIASTEE on parameter. Leave it for 15 minutes and check the message graphs at VesselFinder.
sudo systemctl stop aiscatcher
sudo /usr/local/bin/AIS-catcher -d 00000162 -v 10 -M DT -gr BIASTEE on -s 2304k -o 4 -u 127.0.0.1 10110 -u ais.vesselfinder.com XXXX
(Replace XXXX by your port number at VesselFinder)
Click on screenshot to see larger size
Click again to see full size
I have left it running on the combined PI in the loft, but I have changed back the FA dongle on 1090mhz to the spare rtl one with LNA at 1630 UTC and I’m going to track it overnight as normally the vessels count increases
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Since today morning sarted feeding:
https://pocketmariner.com/
I’ve started feeding ShipXplorer.com recently. They are owned and operated by AirNav, the same company the runs Radarbox.
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This is my feed to ShipXplorer
https://www.shipxplorer.com/stations/SXAISD0000174
This is ranking by country (Canada)
https://www.shipxplorer.com/stations/country/canada
CLICK ON SCREENSHOT TO SEE LARGER SIZE
So I did testing between combined and standalone and both were getting the same results, so it can only be factors like weather/vessels in the area that was causing strange peaks and lulls in the count.
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That is exactly my conclusion also after observing performance of my station for about 3 weeks.
The weather, and the number of vessels navigating in the area, are the two main factors which cause a 1:2 variation in reception in my case, both in terms of the maximum range covered and in the number of vessels detected.
Yeah I don’t think it helps being 19miles from the nearest shore as sometimes it can drop from 16 to 3 in a matter of 5-10 mins but also the other way, I do wonder it their is some frequency interference though
In my case there is definitely very strong RF interference. Even with indoor antenna and 6 inch coax from antenna to dongle, the RF interference forces me to drop gain to 38.6 dB for Generic DVB-T and to 18 dB for Orange ProStick.
On ADS-B, if I don’t use FA Light Blue external filter, even with FA Blue Pro stick Plus, the performance drops to 20%. 
Tbh I can’t even think what runs around the 162mhz frequency
Spektrum - How-to Speedily Scan RF Noise in band 24MHz ~ 1800MHz
This is RF noise at my location (Horizontal Scale at bottom: 24 MHz to 1800 MHz):
CLICK ON SCREENSHOT TO SEE LARGER SIZE
CLICK AGAIN TO SEE FULL SIZE
Is their a way of running this on the pi and getting some graph output? Would be interested to see what the 162mhz amp & LNA actually does using the antenna on the roof.
Unfortunately either there is no way to run software “Spektrum” on Pi (Linux), or if there is, then I am not aware of it.
There is a Spektrum release for Linux here.
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