Fullscreen HTML5Med Res (??MB)HTML4

  SILICON CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Production Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc. (Hons.) Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Ross Tester Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc Nicholas Vinen Photography Ross Tester Reader Services Ann Morris Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst Rodney Champness, VK3UG Kevin Poulter Stan Swan Dave Thompson SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 003 205 490. ABN 49 003 205 490. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Hannanprint, Noble Park, Victoria. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $105.00 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or the subscriptions page in this issue. Editorial office: Unit 1, 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. Fax (02) 9939 2648. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 Recommended and maximum price only. 2  Silicon Chip Publisher’s Letter Tracking commercial aircraft throughout the world Our feature articles this month on tracking commercial aircraft throughout the world, starting on pages 12 & 40, document a truly startling development. You can now track tens of thousands of commercial aircraft flying around the world, in real time. The premier website for this information is www.flightradar24.com but there are others, listed on page 17 of this issue. I have to say that I have spent an inordinate amount of time on this website, looking at aircraft flying in Australia and all over the world. And as you look at the display of hundreds or thousands of planes depicted on your computer screen, you can click on any one of them and immediately learn its flight number, airline, type, destination, estimated time of arrival, speed, rate of climb or descent and so on. You can view a picture of the actual aircraft and see a simulated view from the cockpit, based on Google Earth, together with some instrument readings. As you look at the screen, you can see all the planes moving. Just think about the huge volumes of data that is being transmitted from all these planes, to be picked up by ADS-B receivers right around the world and then collated and processed to be presented on the flightradar24.com website. Now I know that ADS-B was in the process of being implemented over the last five years or so, and in fact, we featured an article on this topic back in November 2008, but to see it all happening in real time right on your computer screen is truly mind-boggling. If you watch over a sustained period you realise that incredible numbers of planes, like huge flocks of migrating birds, flow from the USA to Europe and Asia and back again, every 24 hours. And you can see it all unfolding before your very eyes. Absolutely incredible! Furthermore, you can even view it on your smart phone! Just a couple of years ago I remember being amazed at being able to follow the status of any commercial flight, provided you knew the airline and flight number. It was and still is handy to check flight status at any time, without the hassle of phoning the airline office. But those websites only show the flight status and the estimated time of arrival. Now we have so much more. It is like AIS for commercial shipping (see SILICON CHIP, August 2009) but multiplied many times, since there are so many more aircraft than ships and more data is displayed. If anyone had predicted that we would have real-time access to all this data just 10 years ago, they would probably have been regarded as a starry-eyed nut-case. Then again, maybe not. We should never pooh-pooh what might happen in the future, because no matter how outlandish the prediction might seem today, it just might come true, using technology that is not yet dreamed of. Back to the present, if ADS-B and all it has made possible is not enough to boggle about, think about the cheap, tiny USB DVT-B dongles that you can use to monitor the ADS-B data being transmitted from every commercial aircraft at 1090MHz. That such advanced miniaturised RF circuitry, combined with truly elegant programming, puts this in the reach of anyone, whether they are technical or not, is again, a startling development. Less than five years ago, it would cost you about $1000. That is on top of the previous articles on these dongles, about how you can use them in a Software-Defined Radio (See the May & June 2013 issues). Not only that, we have not yet finished with those dongles. There is still more interesting stuff that you can do with these ridiculously cheap USB devices. Stay tuned (and sorry about the pun). I have used quite a few superlatives in this Publisher’s Letter but that reflects the fact that we live in truly wonderful times. We should enjoy it. Leo Simpson siliconchip.com.au