Author Topic: PDX Pictures  (Read 33485 times)

Offline Brad

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PDX Pictures
« on: February 22, 2007, 07:55:46 PM »
The PDX Tower & Tracon feeds.

Just a P4 white box with 2 sound cards running the feeds from two Radio Shack Pro-2052 scanners, both connect to a Scantenna (http://www.grove-ent.com/ANT7.html). The antenna is on the roof above the data center with line-of-sight to PDX Tower (2.5 miles away) and we frequently have inbound turbo-prop cargo arrivals about 100ft overhead on the approach to RWY03 (1.5miles away).

The white box and the scanners are located in our data center on one of the test system racks. Enjoy!



Offline highflyr78

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Re: PDX Pictures
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2007, 03:32:05 AM »
sharp lookin' setup.  i'm a controller here in Canada, and looking to stream some terminal and occaisonal enroute traffic.

do i need two scanners like you have setup?  or will a simple handheld do?

Offline Brad

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Re: PDX Pictures
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2007, 07:42:49 PM »
Originally I was running a single PDX stream off a Pro-91 handheld from about 5 miles from the airport and it worked fine. Adding an external antenna improved the quality a bit, but didn't really get me any more freqs. I split it into two streams and thus 2 scanners due to listener demand when I moved it to LiveATC.net because it is just easier to listen to different types of traffic on different streams.

My advice to you would be to pick which is the most interesting traffic to listen to and set up the stream for that until you have the resources to add more scanners/sound cards to your system. You will need one scanner per stream though if that is what you were asking. You don't need one computer per stream, you can use multiple sound cards in one system but that can introduce some technical challenges.

Brad

P.S. I will mention that when using two scanners on one system with two sounds cards I had a problem with severe cross-talk between the scanners which I solved by introducing a ground loop isolator to one of the audio connections from one of the scanners which elimanted the problem.

Offline PIT

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Re: PDX Pictures
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2007, 09:13:38 PM »
i had a problem with cross talk on the 2052 to, how did you fix it?

Offline Brad

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Re: PDX Pictures
« Reply #4 on: April 10, 2007, 10:21:10 PM »
On the audio connection from one of the scanners to the computer I put in an audio ground loop isolator, $17 from radio shack.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062214&cp=&sr=1&origkw=ground+loop&kw=ground+loop&parentPage=search

Note that if you put 3 scanners on one computer, you'll need one of these on two of the scanners to break the loop again. oddly, using separate antennas or isolated power sources (I even tried running one from a battery unit to remove it from the power grid) did not fix the cross talk, so apparently the loop is induced strictly in the audio connections through the computer. Maybe a better sound card would fix it too, but I can't say for sure.

Brad

Offline highflyr78

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Re: PDX Pictures
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2007, 03:26:47 AM »
Brad,
thanks for the info.

i'm near an international airport that isn't all too busy wiht jet traffic.  it has a mix of mostly turbo props and 737s alike.  the overhead enroute traffic peaks at certain times of the day that doesn't typically coincide with the terminal rush.

will one scanner do the job?

Offline MathFox

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Re: PDX Pictures
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2007, 07:05:47 AM »
i'm near an international airport that isn't all too busy wiht jet traffic.  it has a mix of mostly turbo props and 737s alike.  the overhead enroute traffic peaks at certain times of the day that doesn't typically coincide with the terminal rush.

will one scanner do the job?
I'ld try one scanner first and see which positions you can receive (tower, ground, approach, departures) and whether you can receive both sides of the communication. Planes in the air generally pose no problems and if there are no big obstacles (hills) between you and the airport transmitter antennas, you should have ATC crisp and clear. Planes on the ground can be more difficult. Try what works on your location, it's likely that you'll get something interesting on the airport frequencies.
For enroute traffic, you'll likely get the planes. Whether you'll get the controller depends on where the center transmitters are located. If you're lucky there you can set up a second scanner with a few sectors of enroute traffic.

Offline Brad

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Re: PDX Pictures
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2007, 12:53:07 PM »
Brad,
thanks for the info.

i'm near an international airport that isn't all too busy wiht jet traffic.  it has a mix of mostly turbo props and 737s alike.  the overhead enroute traffic peaks at certain times of the day that doesn't typically coincide with the terminal rush.

will one scanner do the job?

Definately start with one. Put the best reception frequencies on it. I'd suggest Tower and Approach first, maybe Ground if you have good reception from both sides of the conversation. If that works well, add a second scanner for the Center frequencies that you have good reception of both sides, or consider one scanner for Twr/gnd and one for approach/departure if there is a enough traffic. I don't do any CTR freqs here in PDX because I don't get good reception of any of the controller side of the conversation so it really isn't that interesting.

Offline PIT

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Re: PDX Pictures
« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2007, 02:27:30 PM »
On the audio connection from one of the scanners to the computer I put in an audio ground loop isolator, $17 from radio shack.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062214&cp=&sr=1&origkw=ground+loop&kw=ground+loop&parentPage=search

Note that if you put 3 scanners on one computer, you'll need one of these on two of the scanners to break the loop again. oddly, using separate antennas or isolated power sources (I even tried running one from a battery unit to remove it from the power grid) did not fix the cross talk, so apparently the loop is induced strictly in the audio connections through the computer. Maybe a better sound card would fix it too, but I can't say for sure.

Brad

I just used threee seperate antennas but i have 4 of thesse all on one computer and at first i thought i was just crazy but...