New Sydney ADS-B Station

[Grahame Hutchison]

I ran the LMR-400 cable this afternoon (replacing the RG-58) and saw an immediate improvement in the number of aircraft picked up, and the maximum range. I was just watching HA452 (N380HA) departing, and tracked it out to 242.2nm (448.5 Km). Once the Polar Plot has had a couple of days to build, I will post an image.

LMR-400 is 10.29 mm in dia, and the inner conductor is 2.74 mm - one fat cable and very inflexible.

Thanks for the setup tips Noel and Kurt.

[Noel White]

That's great news Grahame.

I went with the RG213 first off with my setup but changed to the LMR400 after reading about its better overall specifications.

Looking forward to seeing your Polar Plot.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hi Noel,

This is the Polar plot after 18 hours of LMR-400 coax, and it already gives a good indication of the performance improvement. The left image is RG-58 (outer pink ring is ~168.1 nm), and the right image is LMR-400 (outer pink ring is ~257.6 nm). I needed to use different scales to get all the LMR-400 plot on the map. The coverage in all directions has improved quite nicely, somewhere around the 40 to 50 nm mark.

The number of aircraft being picked up has also increased, reaching the 40-50 mark at times. I have seen 400 messages/second being processed, and up to 2,500 messages from some aircraft.

Needless to say, I am quite happy with the setup.

A live RadarBox plot is available on www.16Right.com and updated every minute (direct link is http://www.16right.com/YSSY/ADS-B.htm)



My son has just done an overlay version of the two plots above, adjusting for the different scales. The red is RG-58 built up over 4 days, and the Orange LMR-410 after 18 hours, and there are good increases in performance right around the compass.

[Noel White]

Grahame, that's a noticeable improvement especially towards the south east.

Have you setup your share with PlanePlotter? Is your code still xO? Haven't notice any feeds with that code popping up yet.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Yesterday 7/05/2012 I recorded 780 flights on the RadarBox, including this unusual transmission ...

7CF7CA <GND> ... Ground Transmitter 2012/05/07 07:03:05

Any ideas ?

[Donald H]

Variable! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oz-modeS/message/3616

[Grahame Hutchison]

Thanks Donald

[Grahame Hutchison]

Best ADS-B pickup to date is 310nm (574km) out to the east northeast.

[Kurt A]

Wow - maybe the anti-DPD hype from Kinetic is because they're jealous of its range

At what altitude Grahame?

[Grahame Hutchison]

I will see if I can dig it out of the log tonight Kurt.