ADS-B Receivers

On By JohnIn aircraft, techLeave a comment

And now for something completely different…

I’ve been hosting ADS-B receivers from FlightAware and FlightRadar24 for a few years now. Living in ML, I had an optimal location. Sure, there were limitations from mountains 100 miles away, but in general, I could pick up aircraft broadcasts above Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Richland.

Before we’d sold the house, I started receiving regular alerts from FlightAware that my receiver was offline. Checked everything, of course: it’s connected, nothing’s changed, device is plugged into the network, DHCP service is showing the device is alive. Even its own onboard diagnostics are even showing that it’s fine… except…

I sent an email to FlightAware to let them know it was offline and suggested that perhaps its 1090 radio was faulty.

They were rather dismissive. “No. Just double check it’s plugged in and connected to the network.”

It is. It’s reporting an error with the 1090 receiver.

“No. Just make sure it’s plugged in.”

Time passed. Moved house. And finally got round to taking a closer look…

I don’t have a prime location now. I can’t even get the antenna atop the rental’s roof. But, I can improvise a bit.

Right, so my FlightRadar24 receiver continues to work just fine. Well, limited receive range of course, but still fine.

But the FlightAware receiver…

It has an “internal” USB receiver. Just a simplistic RTL dongle from the looks of things.

I have a few spare RTL SDRs. Soooo… plug it in, power it up and it reports that everything is normal. Works fine. Still rather annoyed that FlightAware was dismissive of the issue I was reporting. But it works now.

Someday, I’ll see about having the receive antennas as high as possible. Perhaps I’ll have an antenna tower installed at the “next house”.

Adding to the Stable?

On By JohnIn motorcyclesLeave a comment

I will never again buy a new or used petrol/gasoline or diesel-powered car or truck… but I will quite happily add all manner of petrol-powered bike after bike to my rather small stable.

Top slot on that list is a Vaquero to replace my V Star. Or add to it.

Maybe a 250-class bike — I have fond memories of the adventures that I had on the baby Ninja many years ago. Maybe even the 150cc-class Honda ADV.

But this one will be quite high on the list if it ever comes to the US.

And, yes, the world is in complete uproar at the moment. No idea if there will be many tomorrows left — but Living means more than just “Walking and Breathing”.

One of my goals, having survived the whole death thing a few years ago and continuing to endure this astoundingly-prolonged recovery, adding a few bikes to the stable seems a worthwhile goal.

You gotta have goals.

Isolation Day 14?

On By JohnIn health, psychologyLeave a comment

Just because somebody says, “Everything will be back to normal in two weeks” it does absolutely not mean that everything will return to normal in two weeks.

If somebody says an emergency is going to take x-amount of time. Multiply by three. At a minimum. Two weeks becomes six weeks.

When faced with an unknown emergency, then add a zero.

About a year.

And with as much as everyone’s finances (and economies, globally) have been impacted, a year is probably the minimum realistic timeframe.

Also, those savings accounts that people have been amassing for “rainy-days” or “unplanned joblessness” or other health crises — this is rather difficult to hear and comprehend:

This is why you have a savings account. That’s what it’s for. The unexpected. The unplanned. The unknown.

Is it going to be wiped out? Quite possibly. Will you rebuild it? Eventually.

Persevere.

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I just heard that the POTUS has extended the recommended isolation period to the end of April. That’s good. But consider that normality, such as it was, won’t return for many months. If ever.