Site 4000 bites the dust

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

I was sitting at my computer below the part of the attic where my two receivers were. I heard a crash. At first I went outside to see if something was on the roof, mostly because that was easier than climbing into the attic. Not seeing anything, I went up into the attic and found a sparrow madly trying to find an exit to the attic. It kept crashing into the screen meant to keep it out.

Throughout the commotion, I noticed that my homemade spider was down. This time it is down fatally. The orange FA receiver was in several pieces, with the antenna connector still connected to the antenna. I imagine a clever person with a soldering gun might be able to repair it. Actually, it looks simple enough, but I don’t know if my iron is up to the task. I may try this weekend. In the mean time, site 4000 is down until further notice (I suppose no notice is required or even wanted - but I thought it might be interesting that it was taken out by a sparrow).

2

Bird strike, then? :wink:

3

Heheh, yes!

4

How you managed to get this special number “4000” ? :astonished: :unamused:
Who got numbers 1000, 2000, 3000, 5000, 6000, …?

5

Timing. :slight_smile:

Actually, that number is a main reason I decided to try and effect a repair. It turned out it was simpler than expected. Four of the leads look like ground with a central antenna lead. They are all soldered back, even though one of the 4 ground pegs broke off, and the receiver is back online now.

6

My antenna is a homemade spider antenna, and I had a metal lamp shade sitting on top, acting as a ground plane. So presumably the crash was caused by a collision between the bird and the plane (ground plane). :slight_smile:

The bird has since either escaped or expired from exhaustion or injury (it had flown headlong into the bird screening dozens of times). I looked but didn’t find a place where it could have escaped, but there probably is a spot.