Hi All,
I just recently took delivery of the new MODE-S tracking facility from Air Nav Systems. It is similar to the SBS-1 system from Kinetic.
It's called a 'Radar Box' and comes from Air Nav systems in the U.S, but is actually engineered by Primetec in Portugal.
In essence, the AirNav RadarBox is the closest you can be to real world aviation without leaving your chair thanks to next generation Radar decoding.
By decoding ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) radar signals, I can see on my PC, what real Air Traffic Controllers see on their screens in Real-Time. Flight number, aircraft type, altitude, heading, speed are all updated each second.
The sysems also downloads (instantly) an actual thumbnail of the aircraft been currently tracked, it apparently gets this from Airliners.net !!!
The other clever bit is that the RADAR BOX back-feeds it's reception via the net to other Radarbox users around the world, so you get to see their airspace and they get to see your's.
The system also displays the various logos from each airline as it tracks each aircraft, irrespective of it being LOCAL or NETWORK based.
Currently I can track flights here in Ireland, the UK and central Europe. The system was officially launched on July 1st last. I managed to pick mine up a week early at an EXPO in Germany.
I have attached a LINK TO ONE OF MY SCREEN SHOTS for ya'll, so you can 'see' what I mean, if you see what I mean !!!
PS: The system comes supplied with an indoor antenna (which is what I am currently using with excellent results), but I do plan to put up an ouside 1029Mhz antenna very soon.
Best Regards,
Aidan.
http://myhome.iolfree.ie/~ei5hw/balloonteam/airnav1.gif