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Flight tracker screen display for clubhouse

Being winter, I am spending a little time on the clubhouse IT and specifically what computer display screens might be helpful to have on the wall. I’ve used a Raspberry Pi to create a Kiosk (fixed, full size web browser, no keyboard or mouse) that switches on only when people are detected in the room. This works well for the booking system we use, so that at a glance you can see who has which aircraft/instructor and when its next required.

I’ve seen other clubs show flight tracker screens, typically Flight Radar 24 or one of their competitors, but sometimes these have a lot of clutter and/or don’t show our planes. I’ve also seen traffic screens used by R/T operators and FISOs at GA fields – sometimes a bit bare on the geographic details but with everything flying nearby. Several of these subscription based sites provide free access for those operating a receiving station, which is fairly simple and cheap to provide again using an Raspberry Pi or similar.

Does anyone have recommendations of which system works best for the type of information pilot members would be looking for? I’d say that’s typically figuring out where the club aircraft are, when they might be back, how busy the local area is. Of course it’s always interesting for instructors to see where their solo students have gone but that might need a different scale/range.

We currently have ADS-B out fitted to one of the aircraft, which means it’s tracked much more easily than the others which will hopefully be upgraded at some stage in the future.

FlyerDavidUK, PPL & IR Instructor
EGBJ, United Kingdom

Flightradar24, offer them to stream traffic and they might send you a receiver.
You can, among other settings, activate filters to only show traffic below a certain altitude, or alerts for specific registrations.
They use MLAT, so also non ads-b traffic is displayed.

always learning
LO__, Austria

You could also set up your own receiver. I don’t know what software is available but it is probably really easy, and would avoid any filtering which FR24 may be applying. You will see all Mode S and ADS-B OUT (certified or not) emitters.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

I don’t know what software is available but it is probably really easy, and would avoid any filtering which FR24 may be applying.

I think dump1090 for Linux is the easiest for Raspberry PI

EGTR
You could also set up your own receiver … you will see all Mode S

If you set up your own receiver, you will only be showing ADS-B traffic which is very much less than all Mode S!

Why can’t you pick up Mode S returns? You won’t get their position because you won’t be getting MLAT; that’s true. I wonder how far apart a few receivers would need to be for an aerodrome to get MLAT?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

You can pick up Mode-S returns, but unless they contain ADS-B data, or you have multiple receivers with MLAT support, you cannot know where the returns originate.

The distance between MLAT receivers needs to be at least λ/2, 13.75 cm at 1090 MHz, but that requires shared clocks or synchronized iridium clocks, and it would be a phased array. For time of arrival kind of estimation, clocks synchronized over GPS or NTP would be fine, but that requires farther distance between the receivers, and it depends on how accurate the clocks are.

From FlightAware: “For optimal coverage, receivers should be 10-150 km apart and in a triangular, square, or circular pattern – not in a straight line like along a road.”

A phased array would not be hard to construct using a few raspis with rtlsdrs sharing clocks. I wonder if anyone has done it.

ESME, ESMS

We had the same idea and contemplated two options.
The first one was to contribute to an existing network, as already mentioned. I recommend adsbexchange over FR24, because they don’t have subscriptions or filters. And, if you try to run the FR24 web page on an earlier RasPi, it will freeze.

The second option was setting up our own MLAT net by picking club members whose homes formed a nice triangle with about 30 km sides. That worked well for our local, flat area.

If you are interested, I’d put you in contact with the person who did that.

Last Edited by CharlieRomeo at 09 Jan 10:29
EDXN, ETMN, Germany

CharlieRomeo how would you do own MLAT, what software will you use?

EGTR

Gliding clubs use FLARM receiver on the ground as input for FR24. I think anything can be used. It doesn’t have to be ADS-B or some fancy M-LAT based on mode S.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway
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