Problem with receiver (blue model)

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Hi everyone,

I’m a newbie, so please bear with me. I’ve had the blue FlightFeeder running for a few years, with the antenna on my balcony and the cable running through the door frame. Recently, the lock on my balcony door (rented apartment) broke due to the cable, so I had to move the setup indoors.

Now, my receiver is in the living room window without the external antenna, and it’s no longer tracking aircraft. Here’s what the interface shows:

  • 1090: Yellow - “Connected to Mode S receiver but no recent data.”
  • MLAT: Yellow - “No clock synchronization.”
  • Network and Gateway: Green - “VPN connected.”
  • GPS: Red - “No satellites; Antenna fault.”
  • FlightAware: Green - “Connected and logged in.”

Any cost-friendly suggestions to get it working again without damaging my apartment?

Thanks,
Pontus, Kalmar, Sweden

2

Did you try to connect the external antenna indoors? Or is the cable damaged?
Normally the external antenna should be able to pick up signals indoors so that could be worth a try.

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3

That’s expected, you need to connect an antenna.

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4

Thanks for the reply, connected it now and picking up signals but only from and easterly direction. But i guess it is better than nothing. However, the reciever keeps rebooting continously and i cant figure out why. Any ideas?

Contemplating about switching the cable and outdoor antenna out for an indoor antenna set. Any comments or tips regarding to that?

5

Since you are using a flightfeeder you should contact adsbsupport@flightaware.com for support on the system.
They can troubleshoot it remotely.

In regard to the cable and antenna, the external antenna will probably do better then any indoor antenna.
I have a lot of indoor systems but they al use external antennas since the reception is usually better in terms of sensitivity.
If your cable is less then 10 meters in length the losses induced by the cable should be minimal. Otherwise you could opt for an LMR400 cable and place the antenna next to a window or as high as possible in you environment indoors.

6

Remember, the Flightfeeder has a combined ADSB and gps antenna. You will find it difficult to find a suitable indoor replacement.

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7

You should discuss any propodsed changes to Flightfeeder related equipment with the Flightaware support team.
Adsbsupport@flightaware.com

8

Yeah but I think GPS could be received on almost any antenna. GPS is received on smart phones that have minuscule antennas. I would think the Flightfeeder antenna is just a standard 1090 MHz antenna that can also receive GPS (1100 to 1500 MHz).

To me, it’s kind of surprising that a Flightfeeder has a GPS receiver. Do they do this just so you won’t have the inconvenience of entering lat and lon coordinates?

9

The blue FF are very similar in hardware to the Radarcape.
I believe the exact name of the receiver is Mode S beast GPS.

FPGA based hardware decoder which will give the messages GPS timestamps.
That enables MLAT among multiple of those boxes even when no ADS-B aircraft are around. (at least it gives the capability i don’t know FAs mlat server)

10

I may be wrong but I don’t think it is. I think the GPS element of the Flightfeeder antenna has a built in LNA and is fed power by bias-t via the co-ax.

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