This is only a preview of the August 2013 issue of Silicon Chip. You can view 24 of the 104 pages in the full issue, including the advertisments. For full access, purchase the issue for $10.00 or subscribe for access to the latest issues. Items relevant to "PC Birdies: Bird Song Without The Mess":
Items relevant to "Build An iPod Charger Adaptor":
Items relevant to "Active RF Detector Probe For DMMs":
Items relevant to "1.5kW Induction Motor Speed Controller Revisions":
Purchase a printed copy of this issue for $10.00. |
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
|