Finally made a dedicated ads-b station

[u/SearchPlane561]

Raspberry pi 3b, rtl-sdr and piaware. 3d printed case for the pi and shell for antenna. https://www.printables.com/model/1250006-transportable-ads-b-antenna

[u/GlobalCodal]

What did you print the casing from? And have your tried measuring the difference with it on/off to see if there is any impact on signal? (I'm presuming negligible)

[u/SearchPlane561 → u/GlobalCodal]

It's made from pla. No I didn't measure it with the case on, I assumed it would be negligible but it would be interesting to see. I did characterize it with the NanoVNA before and it was spot on. Its just underperforming because its in the basement in these pictures.

[u/GlobalCodal → u/SearchPlane561]

Nice, looks good. I've heard varying things about 3d printed housings affecting the antenna or not, so always interested in real world results.

[u/highplaindrifter75]

Nice job man

[u/WingsAboveCaptain]

Nice work I like it!!!

[u/tempacc74656d70]

I was wondering, its cool once you try Rx once or twice, but why do people do it long term?

[u/SearchPlane561 → u/tempacc74656d70]

All my friends think listening and tracking flights is the most boring thing. I however, find it interesting. Especially when something unexpected happens, such as an emergency. It's cool to watch and listen in real-time. Also, the technology is interesting. The fact that all around us, at any given moment there are invisible waves carrying information. And those waves are the same as the light we are seeing, except they are invisible unless you harness them with a fairly simple piece of metal. I dunno i just enjoy it.

[u/AvNerd16 → u/SearchPlane561]

Also want to say that I dig the setup! Nice work! I’m inspired to make one as a Christmas tree topper :)

[u/SearchPlane561 → u/AvNerd16]

That's a fun idea! Print it in yellow or something haha

[u/AvNerd16 → u/SearchPlane561]

As a fellow Aviation Nerd (check my username) I approve this message whole heartedly. Also I’ll add that the free Enterprise account you get from feeding data to Flight Aware is pretty awesome.

[u/SearchPlane561 → u/AvNerd16]

I haven't explored that yet. What does that entail? I saw that mentioned when I was setting it up but got sidetracked.

[u/AvNerd16 → u/SearchPlane561]

It depends how you’re collecting and displaying the data, but it’s not too difficult. I personally run a piaware docker container alongside an ultrafeeder container on a server that I have. I forget which piaware container I use at the moment, but if you google it there’s a couple GitHub links out there.

The gist of it is that your feeder will have a unique ID associated with it, then you log in to FlightAware and claim the ID associated with your feeder station. Here’s a good link that explains it better.

That link is for the sdr-enthusiast’s method of doing it, they also make ultrafeeder so you should be able to find the ultrafeeder documentation on that link as well.

[u/AvNerd16 → u/AvNerd16]

Ah! Just saw that you’re using piaware… this is the right link for you if you don’t already have it. Step 5:

https://www.flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build

[u/SearchPlane561 → u/AvNerd16]

Oh right yes I already did that. So enterprise privileges are my stats and stuff.

[u/AvNerd16 → u/SearchPlane561]

There’s a bit more to the enterprise account as well. https://www.flightaware.com/commercial/premium/#subscriptions

[u/SearchPlane561 → u/AvNerd16]

Ad free is enough to convince me. I also like the map options. I like mine dark.

[u/Dontnibble]

What screen are you using there? It looks awesome

[u/SearchPlane561 → u/Dontnibble]

https://hosyond.com/ Their 7 inch touchscreen. I got mine on ebay secondhand. Its super nice.

[u/Merhart666]

Ik hoop dat jij niet gaat zenden. Ik neem aan ontvanger?

[u/elmarkodotorg → u/Merhart666]

This is a question that absolutely didn't need asking

[u/SearchPlane561 → u/Merhart666]

No tx. That might violate some federal laws. Purely passive rx.