LiveATC host

E

evapilotaz

En-Route
Joined
Feb 13, 2012
Messages
2,623
Location
Gilbert AZ. VFR All Year Baby
Display Name
Drone airspace abuser
Home Airfield
KCHD
Is anyone a LiveATC host for a certain airport? Just wondering what your equipment setup is and how you went about to becoming a host.

Thanks.
 
Yes, I host KFTW and KAFW.

Doesn't take much-- a scanner, antenna, laptop or computer, internet connection, and live close to the airport you're hosting or (better) have a location on the airport that will let you place your equipment there.

Dave (host of LiveATC) will give you software to install (Linux or Windows) and configure, and it uses very little bandwidth.

OR, if you want a low-power low-cost solution, email Dave and he'll do ALL the configuration for you, and send you a Raspberry Pi set up for the airport and frequencies you want to support... plug it all in and you're done.

From their site:

When are you going to provide a feed for my local/favorite airport?

LiveATC provides many of the major airport feeds on the network but most of the feeds are provided by volunteers. For this reason we sometimes have only limited control over where (and when) new feeds come online. However, we do spend time actively looking for volunteers in areas around very active airports and airports that have been requested.

If you know of anyone in your area of interest who might be interested in becoming a feed provider then please have them contact us . We will work with them to help get them online.

The requirements for a feed provider are as follows:

- Be located somewhat close to the airport (within 15mi/24km)
- Have "always on" Internet connection (but feed uses only 16kbps)
- Have an external or attic antenna (for optimum reception, optional)
- Have audio cable to connect scanner to PC sound card
- Have computer w/ spare sound card (Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux)
 
Thanks for the info Troy. The feed for kchd is kind of crappy.

I think I live too far away about 5 miles from the airport to be a good feed.

I'm not sure how the wife would feel if we move just to be closer to the airport.
 
Do u have to clear it with the tower u want to provide the feed of?
 
eman1200 said:
Do u have to clear it with the tower u want to provide the feed of?
Click to expand...

No, by FCC rule any transmissions made into open air are open for anyone to receive. If you are transmitting something you don't want listened to, you have to encrypt your transmissions (military, law enforcement, cell phones).
 
airguy said:
No, by FCC rule any transmissions made into open air are open for anyone to receive. If you are transmitting something you don't want listened to, you have to encrypt your transmissions (military, law enforcement, cell phones).
Click to expand...


Actually that's not 100% true. FCC banned receiving 800 MHz cellular back in the day and made receiver manufacturers "block" the band.

Which, was stupid and didn't work, of course.

But there are laws against even attempting to receive certain things.

Aircraft band isn't one of those things, however.
 
I listened to 2 of my flight where things went slightly askew. One was my first SoloXC which was aborted due to the alternator going out right after takeoff, the other was when the radios quit on me while coming into KMYF with a couple friends. That one I was curious what I missed when I wasn't hearing anyone.
 
evapilotaz said:
Is anyone a LiveATC host for a certain airport? Just wondering what your equipment setup is and how you went about to becoming a host.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yes, I host 6 feeds around the NYC area. 1 antenna into a 2 port splitter, filter, pre-amp, another filter, 8-port splitter, feeding five scanners (one scanner is MilAir and gets split off before the filter-pre-amp chain). They all plug into a MiniATX PC running Linux, pumping into LiveATC. The whole setup's very compact, and I've had it all running 24/7 for a few years with no problems.

Check out the LiveATC forums (if you register, you can access the Feeders' Forum) for some hardware ideas, and be in touch with Dave at LiveATC directly to get going.

evapilotaz said:
I think I live too far away about 5 miles from the airport to be a good feed.
Click to expand...

It depends a lot on height of the antenna, and if the antenna can have fairly clear line of sight to the airport. Directional antennas may help, also.
 
evapilotaz said:
Thanks for the info Troy. The feed for kchd is kind of crappy.

I think I live too far away about 5 miles from the airport to be a good feed.

I'm not sure how the wife would feel if we move just to be closer to the airport.
Click to expand...

"Radio Horizon" (i.e. the distance that an antenna at height "h" (in feet) can hear a radio signal at distance "d" (in miles)) is given by
d= sqrt (2*h)

​
If you want radio horizon to be 5 miles (or double that if you want some margin for error and fade), then
h= (d^2)/2

​
therefore your antenna has to be up 50 feet for 10 miles and 12 feet for 5 miles;

and that is why an airplane at 10,000 AGL has a radio horizon of not quite 150 miles !!

I sit on top of a hill at 3000 MSL with the open valley towards Sacramento at almost sea level (and the Bay Area AT sea level) so my reception to the west is a little over 75 miles at ground level. My reception to the east is pretty poopy considering everything to the east is higher than I am (the Sierra Nevada, don'cha know) and is a NEGATIVE range. HOWEVER, once the gliders soaring at Minden get over the crest of the mountains, they are like in my back yard.

Howzat?

Jim
 
Wired up the new KFTW equipment today to a shelf with video monitoring, since it will be in an unlocked phone/network closet at the airport instead of at my house. Will install in the next couple days.

Tried to cross audio/power at 90 degrees when possible while securing underneath. This is running on four radios (current feed is one) and a Raspberry Pi Linux server. The two round white things on the bottom are stereo USB sound card inputs for the Raspberry Pi.

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