OH ... I agree ... Decoding generally available FAA data is one thing ... But actively intercepting Real Time SSR and IFF signals and computing position data therefrom is a completely different ball game IMHO.
MLAT stands for Multilateration, which means that we are calculating position of aircraft without ADS-B. MLAT on FR24 is done with the help of our new FR24 receiver, with built in GPS, that we have been offering for free to feeders around the world. In order to make MLAT work, we need 4 receivers covering the same area. By using GPS for time synchronization, we can now calculate the position of aircraft, with just a ModeS transponder, from 4 receivers.
After almost 12 months of hardware development and 9 months of software development we are now ready to publish a first beta version to show what we have achieved. By comparing ADS-B plots with MLAT plots of the same aircraft we verified that we have reached an accuracy of about 10-100 meters on MLAT calculations.
We have decided to invite all our premium users (feeders or paid users) to take part in the beta testing if you want. By enabling "MLAT" in settings you can view aircraft with calculated positions on our FR24 map. Today we only have MLAT coverage in parts of Sweden, Poland and Germany. Our next steps will be to improve the quality of MLAT data, improving the stability of the service and fixing all potential bugs. We will at the same time expand our MLAT coverage to other parts of the world with primary focus on Europe and USA where we have most feeders and best coverage.
During our tests we have seen most of the passenger traffic including CRJ-200, CRJ-700, CRJ-900, Embarer E135, Embraer E170, Dash 8, ATR72, Saab 340, Saab 2000, MD80, Boeing 717 and many, many more. But you have to remember that we need coverage from 4+ receivers in order to calculate positions, and there are today no areas where have coverage below 10.000 feet from 4 receivers. In most areas where we have coverage from 4+ receivers today, it's only on altitudes 25.000 feet and above so don't expect to see any Piper 28 or Cessna 172.
Help us with coverage!
There are already another 25 units in distribution to feeders in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, UK, Germany, Poland, Latvia and Estonia. But we need more!
If you live in Europe and if you are a FR24 feeder today and want to upgrade your receiver to MLAT, please contact
[email protected] together with you radar code, Google Map link with position of your installation and picture of antenna installation.
If you live in Europe and if you are not a feeder but would like to become a feeder please fill out this form.