Today, I received a package that I had been waiting for since last month. I had applied for a FlightFeeder from FlightAware. My request was approved pretty quickly, and it took a while to get it shipped out, but I finally received it, today. For no cost at all, they sent me a FlightFeeder Orange, an ADS-B antenna, filter, and coax. They did this because my geographical area had no coverage on their site, and I have a pretty good location. The nearest person that is feeding data to their site is 83 miles away.
As soon as I got home from work, today, I opened up the box and unpacked everything. since I already had my home brew 1090 MHz antenna mounted on the roof, I decided to just hook it up to that, and get it working. In under 30 minutes, I had it connected and talking to the FlightAware website. Super simple process!
Just in the past couple hours, my stats are rolling in. You can check the current stats out here. On August 17th & 18th, they actually tested the hardware, before sending it to me from Texas. That’s why you’ll see a spike for those days (if you view it within the next couple weeks).
I have the next couple days off from work, so I plan on trying the antenna that they sent, also. I’ll be installing a 10′ mast at the peak of my house, with the antenna they sent near the top. I’ll measure out the cable run, first, just so I don’t have to use anything other than the cable they sent. I have a feeling that I’ll be able to get it up that high without a problem, though.
I am able to get a live view, directly from the feeder, anywhere on my local network. The tracker on their site is slightly behind…. just by a minute or so. Since I am now feeding data, they also gave me a free Enterprise account. That, in itself, is worth about $90 per month (which is what they charge). Lots of little extras come with that.
It still amazes me how much air traffic is 25,000+feet overhead (and lots of others lower). Some days, after working 10 hours, I’d come home and have 200+ planes in the log.