Australian Ham Radio Discussion Forum ( AHRDF )

Hi All,

Apologies as this will be posted across multiple groups.

Users of AirScout, the software that calculates the angle/line between two stations to enable a contacts to be made via AE enhancement, would have noticed that the plane feed information has not been working for a few weeks now due to the sites that the software was gathering the ADS-B data from, either no longer working or have closed off access to the data.

We may have a solution to have AirScout working for all VK Amateurs again!

As noted on the AirScout news page (http://airscout.eu/index.php/news), Thomas, OV3T is providing a server (and backup server) for gathering ADS-B data from volunteer receivers and then distributing the data for users of the AirScout software via a plugin and/or manual feed line.  This has been very successful in Europe - details at http://airscatter.dk/index.php/how-it-works/

This has been so successful in Europe that Thomas now provides this as a free service (but donations are welcome to ensure the service continues).

I've emailed Thomas and asked if it would be possible to provide the same service for Australian Amateurs, and the good news is yes, it should be no problems.

BUT, we need ADS-B data.  If you have a ADS-B receiver currently up and working it could be as simple as feeding the data to Thomas' server.  My understanding is that you can still feed your data to where ever you're currently feeding it to, but you can also send it to Thomas' server to help get AirScout working in Australia again.

Once enough data from Australia is sent to Thomas, Thomas' servers will be able to provide coverage.

Thomas is happy to liaise directly with people willing to share their ADS-B data for setup etc.  Thomas's email address is ov3t@ov3t.dk  Please keep us informed as how you progress.

73
Jayson
VK1JA

I've sent an email to Thomas regarding IP address and ports etc. A worthwhile cause to help the VHF/UHF operators as I'm running ADSB anyway and have a couple of feeds now. One more is not going to affect anything.
73 Peter VK2EHQ

Great stuff, thanks Peter.

I have recently heard that Thomas has had a bad hit of the flu, so may not respond quickly.

Good morning all,

Just as an update, I've been in contact with Thomas and he has now set up a test server for Australian ADS-B data feeds.

He said that he will start getting in contact with the people that have emailed him next week (11-15 Dec 23) and provide details on how/where to send the feed data too. Then we'll be able to test the data and the integration into AirScout. If you don't hear from Thomas, or would like contribute and feed your data to the server, contact Thomas at this email address - eriksen @ ov3t . dk



Thomas says '. If it's success to all of you, we can keep it running and in the future it could be based on private donations to keep the webhosting running (I’m talking small amounts here). Remember in doing this to keep the ham spirit alive and make it work for all of us.'

There is a cost associated with the server, but as Thomas said the donation would be very small (think 1-5 Euro), which I think is very reasonable.

So far interest has been shown from people in the Melb, Canberra and Central Coast areas. Ideally, a receiver Sydney/Blue Mountains, Wagga, Albury, Moss Vale areas to fill in some gaps would be perfect. Remember, feeding data to Thomas' server is just a matter of adding an extra feed address into your ADS-B receiver (you can still feed the data to your normal destination as well!) and AirScout for many Hams will be running reliability again.

For those thinking about building a receiver, it can be as simple as using a Pi Zero W, and SDR dongle and home brew 1/4 groundplane antenna.

If you have any questions, please reach out.

Jayson
VK1JA

G'day All,

A fix has been found to get the plane feeds up and running again in AirScout - big thanks goes to Tim, VK2XAX.

It's pretty straight forward to do, just follow these steps.

1. Make sure you're running the latest version of AirScout - currently that's v1.4.2.0.  This fix will not work on older versions!!
2. Once you're on v1.4.2.0, go to 'Options' then the 'Planes' tab.
3. Select VRS Web Server for your 'Planes Feed 1'.  Set Plane Feeds 2 and 3 to 'None'
4. Double click on the current 'localhost' URL line and delete it/replace it with the following URL

      http://aussieadsb.com/VirtualRadar/Aircr...lng=%MYLON%
     
If that URL doesn't work, then try this one - 

     http://aussieadsb.com/VirtualRadar/AircraftList.json?

5. Click on the red X top right hand corner, then 'ok' on the options box.  All going well you should get planes appear.  Remember, if the first URL doesn't work, use the second one.
6. Make some contacts

If you have a ADS-B receiver, consider sending a data feed to aussieadsb.com.  Details on how to contribute are detailed here http://aussieadsb.com/contribute

There's been some reports that on opening AirScout, an error 400 is received.  I've found that if you go into the plane feeds 1 line, simply copy/paste the same URL back into the address field and save that it gets it working again.  No idea why, but it's worked for me!

To add to this...

In AirScout you will notice that you have the option to add a second ADSB server to the config to permit load sharing. This also provides some redundancy and the ability to add aircraft that may not be seen by the other server.

I've been in contact with the admin of http://anz-air.ddns.net/ and he is quite happy to allow us to use his server to retrieve data as well.

He is in need of feeds to fill in holes of his coverage too.

I've also been working out how to feed his server with my data. He doesn't have a "feed package " that you can download and install like you can with aussieADSB.

BUT... that doesn't matter ?

AussieADSB uses a program called ModeSmixer2 to feed it data, the nice thing about MM2 is it can feed multiple servers once you know the destination, port, and data type of the server you want to feed.

For those of you who have installed a feed to AussieADSB its a simple task to edit the config file and add to the config of its MM2.

On your system you should find the config here...

/usr/share/aussieadsbclient/mm2.sh

Open that with your favourite editor and change the feed line to this...

/usr/share/aussieadsbclient/mm2bin/modesmixer2deb10x86_64 --inConnect 127.0.0.1:30005 --log-file /var/log/aussieADSB.log --log-level 4 --outConnect beast:aussieadsb.com:30088 --outConnect beast:feedanz-air.ddns.net:35140

That command should all be on one line, this post will probably wrap it so pay attention to this.

I've added the log statement so you can see what is going on but the important bit is the --outConnect statements.

If you have an install of ModeMixer2 from some other feeder you are using, the same addition applies, just add --outConnect beast:feedanz-air.ddns.net:35140

Save your edits and restart the feed service. On my system it was this...

sudo systemctl restart modesmixer2

If you look at the log file you should see something similar to this...

timt@cumulus:~$ tail /var/log/aussieADSB.log
2023-12-24 05:50:20.908  INFO    Closed successfully
2023-12-24 05:50:21.079  INFO    outConnect(beast:aussieadsb.com:30088) connecting 108.61.184.236:30088
2023-12-24 05:50:21.093  INFO    outConnect(beast:aussieadsb.com:30088) connected
2023-12-24 05:50:21.103  INFO    outConnect(beast:feedanz-air.ddns.net:35140) connecting 211.26.50.123:35140
2023-12-24 05:50:21.104  INFO    inConnect(127.0.0.1:30005) connecting 127.0.0.1:30005
2023-12-24 05:50:21.105  INFO    inConnect(127.0.0.1:30005) connected
2023-12-24 05:50:21.144  INFO    outConnect(beast:feedanz-air.ddns.net:35140) connected
2023-12-24 05:50:21.468  INFO    inConnect(127.0.0.1:30005) BEAST data stream detected
2023-12-24 05:50:24.590  INFO    The Coverage Area was determined
2023-12-24 05:50:24.592  INFO    The Magnetic Declination was calculated
timt@cumulus:~$

As you can see, my ADSB receiver is connected to both radars now.


So... for AirScout, go into your config you have made for AussieADSB and you will see an option to add a second server and load balance between the two.

Set "load Balance" to "true" and change the URL of the server line to this...

http://anz-air.ddns.net:5001/VirtualRada...=%MAXALTFT%

close the config and save it.

FYI... the reason the URL syntax is a bit different between AussieADSB and ANZ-Air is that they are both running different versions of the Virtual Radar Server.

AussieADSB is running v3.0 beta and ANZ-Air is running the current main stream version of v2.4.4. This is also why AussieADSB sometimes returns an error since the server s/w is a beta and it has bugs.


So there we are... two Australian servers to use for AirScout ?

For those of you who are feeding data, or want to feed data and need help, you are welcome to contact me directly for assistance.

If you are in a remote location please consider building a receiver and contributing, this will go a long way to enhancing the service and enhancing the ability of AirScout to provide us with the data we need.

regards

Tim