I occasionally run an adsb receiver in South Vietnam, I never hooked it up to publicly transmit anything to the global internets, but I can confirm that "enthusiast" coverage over large parts of SE asia is spotty and random. Most of these gadgets are not online 24/7, not redundant in any way, and a lot of airspace isnt covered. Central Europe is different, but believe me, That the track disappeared but others were tracked says ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
(And for those here who might be interested in looking at the ongoing search operation by tracking ships: publicly accessible martitime transponder - AIS - coverage is much worse. Last time I checked, there was a french electrical engineer working for a shipyard who set up a very capable yagi out of Saigon, but that's about it).
A good friend of mine worked at the maritime rescue coordination centre in Vung Tau, and now works for the central SAR coordination in VN. He's a hard-working, highly dedicated professional, a ships officer by training (just like me, originally, before I found myself in aviation), he once spent a half a year working at Solent MRCC as part of an exchange and professional development program. His father was a professional mariner, before him, I attended his funeral. He sometimes complains about being underfunded, compared to the armed forces in VN, but I'm very impressed with the capabilities of vnese Search and Rescue. They have some state of the art equipment, patrol aircraft, very modern vessels, and most importantly, highly dedicated and motivated professionals. They have a tough job, with no opportunities for financial gain.
I wont disturb him with any questions now, but my thoughts are with him, and all the others involved in this massive search operation. Let them do their job.
Last edited by deptrai; 8th March 2014 at 10:39.