Okay, 1 month in to this new hobby and I decided to upgrade to the FA antenna. Right now it’s mounted to the eaves of the garage until I can get an antenna mast kit for the chimney. But, wow! What a world of difference it’s already making!
In the photo below you can see a weather balloon out at 129 nm and 57,000ft. Yes, i’m Giddy at the moment
Just as an aside, today I also completed my mobile ads-b rig and took it for a spin during this morning’s commute. It worked great and I can’t wait to use it for road trips/commutes.
Chris
Oh cool! Thanks obj! How does one tell it’s a project loon? (I grew up In New Mexico and saw weather balloons as a kid all the time. Hence why why brain went there first)
MLAT is possible with a usb gps dongle. I’ll do a full right up about my mobile gig soon. But the high level reason is “I wonder if I can!” I believe others have set up mobile configs as well. For me it started with the realization that the cheap 1090 antenna I started with had a magnet on its base. I also work about 2 miles from San Jose airport and a decent amount of my commute has me close to the flight path. Once I decided to upgrade my home antenna, it was just getting the other pieces in place.
Well there you go! Thanks for sharing how you figured it out. I’ll definitely add that to my tool box on how to get more insight on the interesting flights I see on my map.
