I did it again! I made another Flight Radar Radar thingy majiggy!
…But this time I used a home-made antenna and an original Raspberry Pi from 2011.
I started off a few weeks ago when I found a coil of copper wire, and a few balun connectors. I measured and cut the copper wire to 28cm, which when bent in half equated to roughly 2 half wavelength antennae for the 1090MHz frequency, which is what ADS-B uses in the UK. I then plugged each end into the balun, and connected it to another nooelec NESDR device. I also found an ancient relic, an original Raspberry Pi from 2011!!! This device still works (amazingly) and surprisingly well too! It does get quite hot though, and- I’m getting off track…
This amazing little SBC still had an SD card with it, and didn’t have anything important on it. After downloading the Flight Radar Pi24 image (which took nearly an hour due to countryside mobile data peaking at 500Kb/s), I plugged in an ethernet cable, and a power cable, and off we go!
I opened the FlightRadar24 “Add your ADS-B Coverage” page, and activated the device by telling it the exact coordinates (down to 6 figures!!!). After an hour or so, I started picking up aircraft, and now it’s away, picking up anything it sees, and sends it off to FlightRadar24 for millions of people around the world to be fascinated by!