Radio status
Last minute
Messages 789
Messages (passed crc) 45
Signal level -5.4
Signal clipped count (overloaded) 349
Could someone tell what the numbers mean.
This question is about the new FlightFeeder Orange system. There is a status screen with the following information.
Radio status
Last minute
Messages 789
Messages (passed crc) 45
Signal level -5.4
Signal clipped count (overloaded) 349
A message is one packet of information sent from a plane. This message might or might no have a plane position in it.
The Message count is based on total number of possible messages that are seen. They might not be real messages but they look like real messages.
The Messages that pass all the CRC checks are almost always good and are sent to FlightAware. This is your real message rate.
Signal level is in dB full scale (0 means high power and -40dB means very low power detected). In this case it is an average power level of all real messages. 0 means it is overloading the circuit and is similar to how turning up an audio amplifier will begin to distort and clip the sound when set too high. A lower power level means a weaker signal from either the plane being farther away or from sending low powered antenna.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBFS
The overload count is just the count of messages that are within a couple dB from 0. The system might or might not be able to decode and CRC pass these.
If you are interested in the dBFS for one plane you can see it on the web page map. Connect to the webpage and click on a plane. The details of the plane are in the top right corner. You will see a dBFS for that individual plane.