Hi from Sunny spain(not so sunny at the minute)

[kered]

Hi all, my name is Derek, hence kered(name in reverse ) I'm originally from Newcastle-upon-Tyne but have been out here in Spain for about 25 years or so.
Retired ships captain, i run 2 ais receivers for shipping round my local coast and i send the data to a few different websites.
one of those in marinetraffic, they supplied me with my first proper Ais receiver complete with antenna etc.
Being in a prominent position between 2 airports and at 500 meters asl they asked me if i would like to participate in a new beta experiment in receiving and plotting aircraft for their site, you can guess my answer, especially as i had been decoding acars for a while with my yaesu 897D.
They promptly sent me a brand new mode-S beast with ethernet/usb, antenna, coax and a power unit for the beast all free.
So here i am T-LECO1 in flightradar24, also gnd/MU  tA on planeplotter.
The antenna they sent is one mentioned in this topic
http://radarspotting.com/forum/index.php/topic,1366.0.html
I'm shadowed to the south towards portugal but well open from about West round to SE with max detection at 203.2 nm but on average about 100-120nm, i'm surethis can be improved so here i am reading all i can.
Thanks for letting me in.
Derek

[kered]

OOPS i forgot
this is the beta site
http://www.skytraffic.com/

and this may be interesting to some
http://www.skytraffic.com/contribute.aspx 

[Anmer]

Welcome Derek and thanks for the introduction.

What software do you run with the free receiver?

[kered]

They don't supply software as for them the beast comes configured to send direct to their server so i bought a copy of planeplotter, and just my luck the day after i paid it went down to 20€ on offer
I have also installed basestation 1.75 but i don't think the pc that rens the beast can handle much more as it runs my wx website
www.laracha-meteo.es (plug plug) lol

[Anmer]

Thanks.

Not sure how you would get Basestation to work with the Beast?

How are you feeding FR24?  Via PlanePlotter?

[kered]

Yes thats right using their app(taping the tcp 30003), updated yesterday to latest. i'm playing with com0com and hub4com to see if i can get 2 virtual com ports, one por PP and the other for basestation and hopefully connect to that. Just experimenting as its all new to me. I also have gpsgate that i use to share the AIS com port but the baudrate in my version is 115200 max so its too slow for the beast thats set at 192600(for the ethernet connection)

[tarbat]

i'm playing with com0com and hub4com to see if i can get 2 virtual com ports,

I find VSPE works very well for sharing to virtual com ports - see http://www.eterlogic.com/Products.VSPE.html

32bit versions are free.

[kered]

Thanks tarbat, thats nice to know 

[Bethsalem]

Kered

As one ex-pat to another, welcome to the Forum.

I'm based in the Reus/Tarragona region, which is pretty overcast here too.

Stephen

[kered]

Hi Bethsalem/Stephen, i thought you must be ex pat as your not called Manuel or Jose 
I also see you have a similar Beast too,  I'm right in the NW corner about half way between La Coruña and Santiago. Galicia.

Do you use basestation and if so have you managed to connect it to the beast? i seam to be going round in circles atmo as everything is new to me, my mode-s beast has both usb and the ethernet option. Am i wasting my time?
thanks in advance.

[Bethsalem]

Derek

I use the latest Populated 'Basestation.SQB' file for use with PlanePlotter from this group http://www.mantma.co.uk/pp_support.html to use with my Beast. My Beast has ethernet too, but I never use it.

I have happy memories of a visit to Galicia in 2008 

Stephen

[kered]

Cheers steve, i already have it thanks 

What sort of coverage are you getting? which antenna do you have? and are you happy with it?
i'm looking to better my coverage as i think i can do better.

still lots to learn
thanks

[Bethsalem]

Derek

My coverage is rubbish because I can only use a KAL-MD1100SBS indoor aerial. The cost of getting a roof aerial installed was prohibitive, but maybe in the future.

I've attached a screenshot to show you what I mean. It's of my RadarBox coverage, but the Beast's coverage is roughly similar, so it's representative of what the Beast's showing.

Stephen

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[kered]

Some of the comunity rules here suck big time, i have my own place in the coutrysideso i do as i please

On the second photo the left of crosstree is the beast antenna and the one to the right is an Ais antenna

[Attachment deleted by Admin to save file space]

[Bethsalem]

I can only dream of a setup like yours 

The only thing that's missing is an all sky cam