Ideas About Next Generation FA Antenna

Thank you for your stance on proprietary hardware this is something I like to hear.
I like the option of being able to change things up and not have to rely on FlightAware to make what I want/need.

As far as what I would like to see?
A cheaper dedicated 978MHz antenna for around the price of the 1090MHz only antenna not one which covers 1090MHz as well at twice the cost.

With two separate dvb-t dongles for 978 & 1090, one needs two separate antennas as well.
Under this condition, two single frequency low cost antennas are better than two high cost dual frequency antennas.

We got the extra 2db gain on the dual band with the idea that people wanting both frequencies would split it (which should be -3db if I recall my EE101) and end up at about the same place as a dedicated antenna.

I’m personally kind of surprised at the level of interest in 978 on the ground, given that 978 TIS-B is just what’s on 1090 ADS-B and 978 FIS-B is no better than weather products you can find online for free. That leaves the bug smashers with 978 ADS-B as the reason to do 978, and there’s generally not much equipage unless you happen to be near one of the training fleets that did 978.

UAT does nothing to assist FA tracking. No reason to pursue that or tailor gear for it. Makes sense.

At least for me bug smashers are more interesting to observe than straight flying heavy bodies.

How do you figure?
UAT tracks can be sent to FA through dump1090/PiAware.

Maybe I need to give it another shot. last time I tried dump978 I got nothing.

@k5ted
uat2esnt converts UAT to MODE S which can then be sent to dump1090.
github.com/mutability/dump978#u … b-messages

I still only get 45-50 “real” adsb planes a day on UAT which is a very small drop in the bucket compared to the 3000+ a day for 1090. I don’t count the TIS-B broadcasts as “real” planes. Maybe as we get closer to the 2020 deadline or when the price of the UAT systems get cheaper we will begin to see significant UAT traffic. Or maybe when Amazon starts shipping via drones with onboard transponders: http://www.aviationsafetymagazine.com/issues/34_16/features/ADS-B-For-Small-Drones_10936-1.html

Cheers!
LitterBug

Or possibly google: [https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/google-targets-low-cost-ads-b-out-avionics-market-410473/](https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/google-targets-low-cost-ads-b-out-avionics-market-410473/)

I agree there is very little UAT traffic at the moment. My antenna is still inside and I only see an aircraft or two a day. I hope to see considerably more when I setup the outside antenna(I have the dual band FA Antenna but may splurge for the DPD one)

The 2020 mandate should help a lot, however, note that in the US, cars have had unleaded petrol/gas for 40 years and the aviation community is still balking at its use. We have seen the same issue with decent drivers licence security, NYS drivers nearly lost the ability to use their licences as IDs to get on commercial aircraft this year. It had to be extended again, despite being told about the issue 10 years ago.

The promise of UAT was 1090 like position reporting with the carrot of free “realtime” weather and traffic via TIS-B and ADS-R. It was also supposed to be much cheaper than the 1090 equipment. I believe that we are getting there, however, it is expensive and time consuming to certify the equipment, especially considering it can only be used in the U.S. Anyone thinking of flying International will need to consider 1090.

A low power version, similar the the EU FLARM, for gliders, would also be nice. It seems silly to use a different system, however, I understand the power limitations for gliders.

There are many aircraft that don’t fly in Class A airspace (above FL180 in the U.S.) so don’t require the full 1090 setup. There are very very helicopters that fly that high. Few GA aircraft fly that high. I am sure that there are many “puddle jumpers” that don’t fly that high too. They would be worth tracking, even if FA is not that interested in them.

Personally, if I could afford it(I don’t even have an aircraft), I would like dual in/out UAT and 1090 for safety and awareness reasons. Free access to weather and other FIS info would be great. I know that it won’t help with non-electrical aircraft, but they may not even have Mode A/C so radar may not help much either. I also like the SAR aspect. Being able to have an accurate last known position would mean that searches for people like Steve Fossett wouldn’t take 9 months to find the AC.

The 1090/978 UAS (drone) transponder lives:
http://www.uavionix.com/product-2/

From this perspective, a massive number of localized short range receivers makes a lot of sense due to the low flight level < 500 feet. Long range receivers are not going to be picking up the low level flights.

Cheers!
LitterBug

Another interesting DOC related to Google’s plans for UAS:
.pdf

Cheers!
LitterBug

I expect the puddle jumpers will equip with 1090, not 978.

Lots of aircraft that can’t reach FL180 are doing 1090 anyways.

I do intend to run the dual band FA antenna + amp for UAT and 1090, but I saw a few warnings that a decent splitter must be used as dongles are noisy on the RF side. Are there recommendations for cheap decent splitter I can use with the FA dual band antenna?

Mini-circuits do some splitters for around USD30 e.g. http://194.75.38.69/pdfs/ZX10-2-222+.pdf (I haven’t tried them)

The splitter would also depend on what type of feed line you are using between all your components. I use RG6 coax and F connectors throughout my setup and can use standard satellite F connector splitters.

Cheers!
LitterBug

Where can I find the proper script for installing dump978 and uat2esnt? I muddled though dump978 once and was disappointed in my ineptitude as it didn’t seem to work…

[quote=“k5ted”]

If you use Joe’s scripts, they do it all for you.
ads-b-flight-tracking-f21/ads-b-feeder-receiver-setup-scripts-t36532.html

[quote=“jonhawkes2030”]

Thanks!

Ted,
You location looks great.
You should get even more out of piaware and MLAT. You should see three times as much traffic(well three times as many aircraft positions), looking at your PlanePlotter stats.

UAT978 is heavily dependent on the location. Some areas just don’t seem to have much traffic. I see an aircraft or two per day and also saw it on the website once in the last few months. My antenna is inside at the moment so won’t have a great range. It should do well when I mount it on the chimney.

Jon K2TCW/VK2TCW.

I can attest to the quality of mini-circuits’ splitters. Performance from their product approaches theoretical ideal most of the time and the construction is usually robust enough that I’m surprised how little I paid for it. There are a couple of mini-circuit splitters that are actually specced by part number in Garmin GPS installation instructions.

No, I don’t own stock in mini-circuits.