Questions about flightstick 978 setup

[boz336]

Need a sanity check on a 978MHz Raspberry Pi 3 setup.

I purchased one of these: https://www.amazon.com/AirNav-RadarBox-FlightStick-UAT-Integrated/dp/B083JJG4LC

Went through the setup.. which seemed to go ok.
But on the website that would presumably show 978MHz data on the map, I don't see anything and it shows my setup as yellow=no data.   It "seems" like it's working, but is hard to verify.
Is it possible the hardware and software are ok, but the radio is just not picking up signals?
Is there any way to look at the actual packet data that is sent via rbfeeder?

When I run  sudo systemctl status rbfeeder
I get:

● rbfeeder.service - RBFeeder Service
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/rbfeeder.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2022-09-11 18:22:41 BST; 1h 58min ago
    Process: 387 ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir /var/run/rbfeeder (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 450 ExecStartPre=/bin/chown rbfeeder:rbfeeder /var/run/rbfeeder (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 457 ExecStartPre=/bin/touch /var/log/rbfeeder.log (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 470 ExecStartPre=/bin/chown rbfeeder:rbfeeder /var/log/rbfeeder.log (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 478 ExecStartPre=/bin/chown rbfeeder:rbfeeder /etc/rbfeeder.ini (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 482 ExecStartPre=/bin/setfacl -m u:www-data:rwx /etc/rbfeeder.ini (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 491 (rbfeeder)
      Tasks: 9 (limit: 720)
        CPU: 9.139s
     CGroup: /system.slice/rbfeeder.service
             └─491 /usr/bin/rbfeeder

Sep 11 20:18:37 raspberrypi rbfeeder[491]: [2022-09-11 20:18:37]  Data sent: 1.2 KB
Sep 11 20:18:37 raspberrypi rbfeeder[491]: [2022-09-11 20:18:37]  Data received: 31 B
Sep 11 20:19:38 raspberrypi rbfeeder[491]: [2022-09-11 20:19:38]  ******** Statistics updated every 60 seconds >

Thanks for any insight on this.

[abcd567]

Need a sanity check on a 978MHz Raspberry Pi 3 setup.

(1) Install package netcat

Code: [Select]

sudo apt install netcat

(2) Give following command and wait till a UAT plane is received. It may take long wait, depending on how frequent UAT flights are in your area:

Code: [Select]

nc 127.0.0.1 28380


If your 978 receiver is working OK, then when there is a flight received, you will see the data as follows:

(To break-out of continuously flowing data, press Ctrl and C keys together)

Code: [Select]

{"address":"a22020","address_qualifier":"adsb_icao","airground_state":"airborne","east_velocity":489,"ground_speed":490,"metadata":{"errors":5,"received_at":1661827138.362,"rssi":-21.7},"nic":9,"north_velocity":-35,"position":{"lat":44.39794,"lon":-80.53944},"pressure_altitude":39000,"true_track":94.1,"uplink_feedback":5,"utc_coupled":true,"vertical_velocity_barometric":64,"vv_src":"barometric"}
{"address":"a22020","address_qualifier":"adsb_icao","airground_state":"airborne","east_velocity":463,"geometric_altitude":40775,"ground_speed":464,"metadata":{"errors":2,"received_at":1661827550.677,"rssi":-17.7},"nic":9,"north_velocity":-40,"position":{"lat":44.32541,"lon":-79.27809},"pressure_altitude":39000,"true_track":94.9,"uplink_feedback":3,"utc_coupled":true,"vertical_velocity_barometric":0,"vv_src":"barometric"}
{"address":"a22020","address_qualifier":"adsb_icao","airground_state":"airborne","east_velocity":463,"ground_speed":464,"metadata":{"errors":1,"received_at":1661827551.891,"rssi":-16.7},"nic":9,"north_velocity":-40,"position":{"lat":44.32518,"lon":-79.27451},"pressure_altitude":39000,"true_track":94.9,"uplink_feedback":0,"utc_coupled":true,"vertical_velocity_barometric":-128,"vv_src":"barometric"}
{"address":"a22020","address_qualifier":"adsb_icao","airground_state":"airborne","east_velocity":464,"ground_speed":465,"metadata":{"errors":2,"received_at":1661827554.801,"rssi":-16.4},"nic":9,"north_velocity":-37,"position":{"lat":44.32464,"lon":-79.26556},"pressure_altitude":39000,"true_track":94.6,"uplink_feedback":4,"utc_coupled":true,"vertical_velocity_barometric":-64,"vv_src":"barometric"}
{"address":"a22020","address_qualifier":"adsb_icao","airground_state":"airborne","east_velocity":464,"geometric_altitude":40775,"ground_speed":465,"metadata":{"errors":2,"received_at":1661827555.732,"rssi":-15.8},"nic":9,"north_velocity":-35,"position":{"lat":44.32451,"lon":-79.26318},"pressure_altitude":39000,"true_track":94.3,"uplink_feedback":0,"utc_coupled":true,"vertical_velocity_barometric":-64,"vv_src":"barometric"}


[Runway 31]

I presume that you have enabled UAT in your set up?

I note that you state you are showing yellow no data so I presume that you are not picking up ADSB equipped aircraft either. Does your antenna have a clear view of the sky and what's your station number?

Alan

[boz336]

Looks like it was just a severe lack of UAT traffic at my primary location.
When I moved to an area where there was more traffic, everything worked fine.
Thanks for the advise on netcat.  That seems like a very handy tool.