Listening/watching it all
 

(Mods - if in the wrong place, apologies and please move as appropriate!).

A question here - have spent today tracking the BAW285 (LHR-SFO) as a family member was on it. Was using 3 sites to see how good they compared to one another and as one site lost the aircraft as it transited Greenland.

The question is - when the aircraft arrived at SFO why is that all three sites gave different arrival times?

Further, same family member is returning later this week ... can anyone recommend a flight tracker? (Apologies - I know this question has been asked before, but the search button isn't being friendly).

Thanks in advance

Jordan

I understand that flight trackers are restricted by law from displaying accurate times for security reasons. Some of them even state this on their website.

What sites were you using?

I noticed in a recent magazine that a real-time virtual radar is for sale ion the market at £500. Apparently it uses mode S and the base station plugs into your PC using a USB port. It looks guite interesting but I'm not sure of the quality of the imaging and, an not sure if it picks up data from all transponder fitted ac (not really familiar with Mode S. I don't want to p1$$ of any mods by stating the manufacturer and model but if you want more info the PM me. (no I don't work for the company!!!)

S-MODE flight tracking equipment?
 

Evening,

im pulling my hair out here trying to think of the company who produces the software for tracking aircraft. You are able to tune you local airport and watch the approach path etc on you pc screen, it uses MODE-S signals i think,

any one know what the company is called??


cheers


scott waterworth

Kinetic Avionic Products.

Hi Scott. You don't "tune in" to your local airport as ground stations are not involved with this device; the equipment receives Mode S transmissions from aircraft, decodes them and plots them on a PC monitor. The result is representative of a basic radar display and it is very effective, especially now that more aircraft are Mode S equipped. Depending on the sighting of your house and the type of antenna you might use, aircraft from considerably further away than your local airport could be seen.

yes ive just been to the kinetic avionics site, i live in Atherton, about 20miles from EGCC, Im also under the path from MIRSI to 24, so i think this equipment would be very effective.


thanks for the replies guys



scott waterworth

I suppose the only other comment one could make is that the use of such equipment must be illegal in the UK because it involves the reception of radio signals for which Joe Public cannot obtain authorisation. However, one imagines that this technicality will not prevent the sale and use of thousands of them!!

In these days of paranoia, when a friend of mine was handed a ticket by the Police suggesting he might be a terrorist when he was simply looking at aircraft on an airfield from a public road, one wonders what the official line might be if the Police found one using such a device near an airport?

Well, the entire mode-S protocol has been known to the public for years so it is hardly a surprising development.

email sent to you
 

hi
i have sent you an EMAIL with advise where to go to get more information
and advise but this system is in use by spotters UK and Europe with
great Success

Tony
EGLF

Bear in mind the equipment is ONLY capable of showing those aircraft with a FUNCTIONING Mode S transponder. It will NOT show you an aircraft with a mode A/C transponder, or aircraft with no transponder. I would suggest you save your money until 2008, when all aircraft (supposedly) will be required to carry mode S.

Heathrow Director. My thoughts almost exactly. Are these things leagal?

Rgds Dr I

Would seem that they are at least tolerated until users stream live images to the web. A number of people seem to have acquired them around Christmas, and were streaming them by January. However all the UK-based ones have rapidly disappeared, seemingly due to Ofcom warning them off. NL-based ones are still functioning though (of the ones I know about). Interesting to watch (for a short time!) but it immediately becomes apparent that either not all aircraft are using s-mode, or the receivers in use aren't picking up everything. No doubt a combination of both, but I believe that as it relies on line of sight then having your aerial in a ground floor flat won't produce the quality of results that access to your own church tower in the country might!

Transair pilot shop are flogging this type of kit for £499 so I am sure its all legal and above board..go to thier web site and have a look

kedz

kedz. The fact that Transair markets the equipment does not mean it is legal. They also sell receivers and transceivers for the airband, which may not legally be used except in the course of duty.
I'm not preaching; merely detailing the facts and I am certain that the reception of Mode S, or any radar signal, is not permitted to the general public.

At the risk of repeating thrads from only last month, Transair also sell airband scanners that are illegal to use in the UK.

I suspect that these fall into the same catagory as scanners, speed trap detectors etc;
They're legal to buy, legal to sell and legal to own, but illegal to use. Figure that one out...

mattcarus. Got it in one. It should have been sorted yonks ago.. and the "sticky" on PPrune quoting ofcom shows what a mess it is. For ofcom to suggest that because air show organisers publish frequencies that can be taken as authority to listen in is simply ludicrous. Personally, I have no objection to someone listening to ATC so long as they use the information sensibly. Unfortunately, experience shows that there will always be the loony who spouts off about something he hears..

HD,

you may have hit the nail on the head.

Two offences;

i:/
Listening/Monitoring

ii:/
Passing-on or abusing access to such information.

Therefore, would you agree that it should be of no concern if a suggestion were to be made moving the offence of listening/monitoring restricted broadcasts off the statute books; while retaining the full weight of law to be concentrated on those that pass-on or use such information for personal financial gain or other nefarious purposes?

(Transmission on said frequencies being punishable, as is the current case, to the extreme extent of the law.)

NB: I am talking about formalising legal direct local reception of MODE-S or ATC RT traffic and NOT legalising the re-transmission of specific details, including streaming over the internet, to other media.

:D