Once again this year the House Sparrows have had a good breeding season. Plenty make regular visits to the Birdy Bistro and many large gatherings can be heard as they chatter away in some of the hedges around the village.
Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you, even the common everyday ones.
Friday, 18 October 2013
Thursday, 17 October 2013
Observing the Busy Sky
Last month I showed this photo of the aircraft con trails seen early one morning:
That got me to thinking about where they were all going. There are various sites on the net where aircraft can be tracked in real time but me being me I wanted to be able to do the tracking myself. So, after a bit of research, I built up a list of what was needed:
A radio to receive the data transmitted by each aircraft.
An aerial to pick up the signals
Software to decode the signals and plot the aircraft tracks on screen.
Looking round, one of the cheapest receivers is a dongle which is designed to receive TV and radio broadcasts but which is able to be tuned from the computer. This is the one I ended up with. The Newsky DVD-T Stick RTL2832U / R820T SDR package:
It is small and plugs in a USB port. The main thing is to get one which is guaranteed to tune to the correct frequency for the aircraft data signals. 1090.000 MHz. I chose a supplier in the Channel Isles which lists on eBay and supplies it with a disc of programs and clear instructions to get started. An excellent buy for £16 including p&p.
Once it had arrived (in 24hrs from ordering) I set things up and then tried several aerials to see which worked best. First was a quick trial with one of my ham radio aerials which was already in place. Picked up signals and proved the idea would work but not very well. Next was an old discone:
Better but still a compromise so not good enough to pick up aircraft more than about 30 miles away.
Next was to build one using a length of copper earth wire stripped from some mains cable as detailed by G7RQG:
This one being tuned to the right frequency worked much better and I could receive aircraft to about 70 miles distance.
Then I spotted another design, a collinear made from lengths of satellite coax:
This is my final choice, for now. With that I can pick up aircraft up to 130 miles away in some directions.
For the software there is a special Windows driver to access and tune the receiver.
To grab the signals and interpret them I use the new free Beta version of RTL1090
To plot the aircraft on a map I ended up using the free program adsbScope:
The jagged shape drawn in red shows the maximum distance I have received aircraft. My position is dead centre on the map. How far in each direction depends on many factors. Buildings, large leafy trees, local hills and the altitude of aircraft can all limit the line of sight needed to pick up a clear signal.
A short video of the program working:
Video can be seen in 720p HD full screen. Solid lines are used while the aircraft is in reception range and dotted lines used once out of range to show the predicted route based on the last received information. I have the program set to erase aircraft when they haven't been received for more than 5 minutes. Aircraft can be clicked on to display information, type of aircraft, altitude, rate of ascent / descent. Also there is a split screen mode which shows that information next to the map.
That got me to thinking about where they were all going. There are various sites on the net where aircraft can be tracked in real time but me being me I wanted to be able to do the tracking myself. So, after a bit of research, I built up a list of what was needed:
A radio to receive the data transmitted by each aircraft.
An aerial to pick up the signals
Software to decode the signals and plot the aircraft tracks on screen.
Looking round, one of the cheapest receivers is a dongle which is designed to receive TV and radio broadcasts but which is able to be tuned from the computer. This is the one I ended up with. The Newsky DVD-T Stick RTL2832U / R820T SDR package:
It is small and plugs in a USB port. The main thing is to get one which is guaranteed to tune to the correct frequency for the aircraft data signals. 1090.000 MHz. I chose a supplier in the Channel Isles which lists on eBay and supplies it with a disc of programs and clear instructions to get started. An excellent buy for £16 including p&p.
Once it had arrived (in 24hrs from ordering) I set things up and then tried several aerials to see which worked best. First was a quick trial with one of my ham radio aerials which was already in place. Picked up signals and proved the idea would work but not very well. Next was an old discone:
Better but still a compromise so not good enough to pick up aircraft more than about 30 miles away.
Next was to build one using a length of copper earth wire stripped from some mains cable as detailed by G7RQG:
This one being tuned to the right frequency worked much better and I could receive aircraft to about 70 miles distance.
Then I spotted another design, a collinear made from lengths of satellite coax:
This is my final choice, for now. With that I can pick up aircraft up to 130 miles away in some directions.
For the software there is a special Windows driver to access and tune the receiver.
To grab the signals and interpret them I use the new free Beta version of RTL1090
To plot the aircraft on a map I ended up using the free program adsbScope:
The jagged shape drawn in red shows the maximum distance I have received aircraft. My position is dead centre on the map. How far in each direction depends on many factors. Buildings, large leafy trees, local hills and the altitude of aircraft can all limit the line of sight needed to pick up a clear signal.
A short video of the program working:
Video can be seen in 720p HD full screen. Solid lines are used while the aircraft is in reception range and dotted lines used once out of range to show the predicted route based on the last received information. I have the program set to erase aircraft when they haven't been received for more than 5 minutes. Aircraft can be clicked on to display information, type of aircraft, altitude, rate of ascent / descent. Also there is a split screen mode which shows that information next to the map.
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Winged Wednesday
Before the rain arrived a few days ago the exceptionally warm weather had brought out many insects. Most were taking advantage of the Ivy plants which were in full flower. The flowers don't look much to us but bees, wasps, flies and butterflies were swarming around them.
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| Comma |
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| Speckled Wood |
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| Small Tortoiseshell |
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| Common Darter |
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| Always plenty of Crows and Rooks on the Cricket Field |
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| Great Tit still roosting every night in the nestbox |
Monday, 14 October 2013
Macro on Monday - Guess What
Congratulations and the virtual gold star to Wilma, Bonnie, Ragged Robin and Sue Garratt who all identified the Horse Chestnut seed, conker.
The reference to knotted string and knuckles was to do with the game of conkers played by children of all ages around the world. More information can be found on Conkers, How to Play This Traditional Game and a report on the World Conker Championships on the BBC News site.
More a close view than a macro this week.
Guess What:
Clue: Clean up arachnid traces.
No prizes. Just for fun.
Answers left in the comments, along with the answer, will be revealed next Monday.
Friday, 11 October 2013
Friday at the Flicks - Ever Hopeful Hedgehog
At first glance it looks as though a young Hedgehog is trying to chase an adult away. On reflection it seems to me that the youngster is trying to persuade mother that it should be milk time:
Needless to say it had no luck but it did go in the Hedgehog House and eat some of the food that was there.
I don't know what happened to the video camera as it suddenly refused to play ball and now insists that night time will always be in b/w in spite of the extra illumination. It's too wet, cold and windy to try sorting it out as Autumn had re-arrived and looks to stay for some time.
Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.
Needless to say it had no luck but it did go in the Hedgehog House and eat some of the food that was there.
I don't know what happened to the video camera as it suddenly refused to play ball and now insists that night time will always be in b/w in spite of the extra illumination. It's too wet, cold and windy to try sorting it out as Autumn had re-arrived and looks to stay for some time.
Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
Sunrises
Some lovely Sunrises recently, though difficult to capture on camera.
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| iPhone 4 Camera+ |
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| iPhone 4 ToonCamera |
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| iPhone 4 Camera+ |
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| iPhone 4 ToonCamera |
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
Hedgehog Argy-bargy
It is interesting to watch how Hedgehogs react when they meet up. More often than not it ends up with the Hedgehog version of Sumo wrestling. Early this morning there was one hog feeding when it stopped and listened as there was another approaching out of sight.
Enter the second one and there was bound to be a show of strength to see who had the right to feed there. The usual method being for one to charge and shunt the other out of the way:
No hogs were harmed in the making of this video, just some dented pride.
Enter the second one and there was bound to be a show of strength to see who had the right to feed there. The usual method being for one to charge and shunt the other out of the way:
No hogs were harmed in the making of this video, just some dented pride.
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