MLAT Sync'ing with nearby receivers

What is the reason for the number of sync’ed nearby receivers to change from minute to minute, literally. I don’t mean from 40 to 45, for example, but from zero to 70, as another example.

There are no error messages that I can see.

Thanks.

MLAT timing is very dependent on the clock value and the number of planes that your site is able to see. The synchronization happens for about 1 minute intervals and any break or problems with MLAT data will boot your system off MLAT for a short time.

The problem you probably having is that you are only seeing a few planes to synchronize with. This limits the number of sites that your site can be synchronized too.

So say you are seeing one or two plane that is being watched by 70 other sites. Then your site will synchronize with it and report 70 synchronized sites with your site. If you lose track of the planes your synchronized numbers goes down to 0. You need to actually see active planes to synchronize. If you aren’t tracking any planes at all you can’t synchronize.

The other thing that might be happening is that you lose connection to FlightAware. MLAT is very time dependent on timely information. If your connection goes out or packets are dropped then MLAT will boot you off the system for a bit.

Your stats page usually shows if you have a connection problem. If you don’t see any errors you can check the logs (with the gear icon).
https://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/Dxista#stats-74011

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