Author Topic: Australian ATC received via Satellite now streaming 24/7  (Read 10082 times)

Offline mfahey

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Australian ATC received via Satellite now streaming 24/7
« on: June 04, 2006, 03:53:55 AM »
Hi,

Now up 24/7 is my stream of two Melbourne Centre ATC sectors in Australia. Soon the link to the audio will be available at liveatc.net, but if you can't wait till then you will find the audio here...

http://audio.liveatc.net:8012/au_sat.m3u

The two controller sectors are being scanned and presented as one audio stream. The first sector includes the high and low airways over Central Australia including A576, A461, T29 etc. You will hear aircraft flying between Asia and Melbourne/Sydney on this sector including aircraft on the ground at Ayers Rock, Olympic Dam etc.

The second sector I am feeding is a sector covering Western NSW (a state of Australia) where you will also hear international and domestic aircraft on T74, A576, G222, J141 etc.

I am receiving these signals at my home in near YSRI Richmond (just west of Sydney) via the Optus B1 satellite. The satellite links I am feeding from are used to monitor and feed remote VHF transmitters and receivers in remote areas of Australia. There will occasionally be slight disruptions or a drop in audio quality during the hour or so just after sunset and sunrise in Sydney, or any other time when there is a rapid change in the air temp at my receiving dish. During the Australian day and night the audio should be nice and clear. This is due to the low noise microwave amplifer drifting as the air around it changes temp.
 
To see photos of the dish I am using for this feed and to read more about my satellite ATC setup surf over to my website:

http://www.satdirectory.com/--atcviasat.html

En-route charts covering the areas being streamed are available as free-of-charge downloads via the USA National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) at:

https://164.214.2.62/products/digitalaero/terminals/enroutelist.cfm?charttype=enroutechartscur&country=paa

The charts to download are PAA15, PAA16 and PAA18.

Cheers,
Mark
« Last Edit: June 04, 2006, 04:51:26 AM by mfahey »



Offline JetScan1

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Re: Australian ATC received via Satellite now streaming 24/7
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2006, 01:22:32 PM »
Great feed, very interesting. Thanks for adding it to the network ! I was listening for a few hours during the middle of the night (Oz time), good connection and reception. Using the DX tuners radio in Broome you can monitor the adjacent Brisbane sector at the same time. With both you are covering a huge chunk of airspace. Lots of international traffic during that time. Interesting how they appear to be using CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link Communications) with aircraft that are equipped, unfortunately making it kind of quiet as all position, clearances and handoffs are done via datalink, the only time you hear them is on initial contact for a check when they are given a new voice frequency. Although there were still a few flights that didn't appear to have CPDLC doing it the old fashion way. DJ

Offline jasonw

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Re: Australian ATC received via Satellite now streaming 24/7
« Reply #2 on: June 04, 2006, 07:29:03 PM »
Hi Mark
This is interesting, i was not aware of atc being feed over the b1 satellite.
Has this been done for long?.
I was looking at getting free to air sat tv which comes off b1 for us here in NZ, now this makes even more appealing to get.
Also is it only the one atc feed on the sat or are there more feeds?.
I will defenently have a listen to this feed.

Cheers from Jason in NZ.
 :-D

Offline mfahey

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Re: Australian ATC received via Satellite now streaming 24/7
« Reply #3 on: June 04, 2006, 10:01:48 PM »
Hi Jason,

There are hundreds of channels on Optus B1, I am only scanning between two for this feed. I have been listening to them for about 10 years, and have only just in the last year got broadband available up here in the sticks so hence now is the time to put up a stream! The B1 ATC seems to be only on an Australian beam of Optus B1, many have tried with my help to hear the transmissions in NZ - but without luck.

HOWEVER!!! There is also Australian ATC on Optus C1 and this is being received in Auckland and other parts of NZ just fine! Again many channels (hundreds of circuits?). Surf over to my website and then go to the support page and there is a request service for you to get hold of an excel spreadsheet with what I have logged. Then get a dish!!

Cheers,
Mark

Offline mfahey

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Re: Australian ATC received via Satellite now streaming 24/7
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2006, 02:15:38 AM »
A heads up for anyone listening to my sat feed. There are few annoyances that are have shown themselves on my feed!

One is that it looks like I have the squelch set a bit high on my receiver which is leading to broken transmissions, the other is that scanning two different Melbourne Centres with different controllers seems to be a recipe for confused listening as I forget to set delay on the channels I am scanning! I am away from the feed till Thursday - so I will be fixing this later in the week. Once fixed the feed should be a bit more pleasant to listen to.

Also on order is a new LNB (low noise amp) that will improve the reception off the satellite. Also in case you are wondering the high pitched tone (that sounds like a heterodyne tone) behind each transmission is how the signal arrives from the sat - has anyone got a suggestion for an audio filter or other solution that could be dropped into the audio line to minimise this?

Cheers,
Mark