IMHO Mode S must be supported because most “higher end” planes have it, and have had it for about 15 years, but many don’t have certified ADS-B OUT and/or don’t want to install one of the uncertified products for various reasons.
@DavidC can I suggest that you consider installing a RPi based OGN-R groundstation at your clubhouse. By adding a second SDR to capture 1090 MHz signals you have effectively constructed a PilotAware/360Radar Virtual Radar Station and local traffic having a variety of different electronic conspicuity (EC) such as Mode S, ADS-B, PilotAware and Flarm can all be displayed. It is not possible to display pure Mode C, as the signal has no position or unique identity data assigned to it.
Not only that, but you will be doing a great service to the local flying community as the groundstation functions;
1. to detect traffic equipped with FLARM EC and rebroadcasts its position data to PilotAware EC equipped aircraft, within range, for visual and audible alerting real time.
2. the groundstation simultaneously feeds 1090 MHz traffic data to the 360Radar MLAT servers and and receives details of MLAT targets (with slight latency or delay), which is also then rebroadcast to PilotAware equipped aircraft as in 1 above.
Details of how to cheaply assemble this amazing system are fully detailed in a download available from pilotaware.com (See OGN, then Building OGN-R).
Just looked it up and (as an electronics hobbyist/engineer since the 1960s) wow that’s not a small amount of work! It may be cheap but it is for the very dedicated. Somebody ought to make this in a proper box and sell it.
In fact, PilotAware are able to supply a complete system, called Trident, I believe because of its 3 antennae mounted on a pole for exterior mounting. They will also supply all components individually whilst some such as the RPi, case and Bridge (the transceiver) are now supplied free! You can also source items yourself via eBay, Ali-express etc.
Not sure that I agree with your assessment regarding the amount of work involved. I assembled a system for my home, and also one for the local airfield EGBS. It might appear daunting but was very straightforward. Obviously external mounted antennas are preferable, but not absolutely necessary. Software is provided by download, and nowadays automatically updates itself. I have added a second SDR for 1090 MHz reception to my station at home (currently internal antenna supplied with SDR) and I see what’s going on throughout the region via the Virtual Radar facility provided, using a laptop.
I was an electronics engineer earlier in life but honestly didn’t need any of this or related knowledge to put the system together. Not even any soldering, just plug and play. Technical support is always freely available from PilotAware, should it be needed.
Thanks for the suggestions. I already have an FR24 Pi at the clubhouse so that would be the easiest solution but will consider replacing with or adding an OGN receiver. I would expect connecting a feed from an existing cloud based system would capture the most data including MLAT.
I’d appreciate any screenshots of possible views that could be displayed. It may be possible to drive he screen from the receiver which I hadn’t really considered as an option before.
@DavidC I refer you to the build instructions downloadable from the pilotaware.com web-site. The latter part of which, describes setting up the Virtual Radar facility and gives a zoomed out photo of the radar display showing Southern UK, Ireland and the near continent, and showing ADS-B airline traffic within range of the Receiver. In fact zoomed in, the display is much better and the ground mapping is also pretty good. There is a settings menu with appropriate filters, range rings, etc.
The main reason that I pointed out this system is because amongst the GA fleet there is not much penetration yet of ADS-B, whereas there are a lot of PilotAware and Flarm users. This system captures these targets also so, from a clubhouse display perspective it is perhaps more relevant than just displaying mainly commercial traffic. Plus, the system benefits local flyers by making Flarm users (mainly gliders) and Mode S targets more easily detected/ avoided.
RocketRoute has a FlightBoard product that might be of interest to you. Details here: https://www.rocketroute.com/flightboard
