OzRunways outage?

[skippydiesel]

Yesterday afternoon, I was stooging around, just to the West of the new Badgerys Creek airfield, when , for the second time in as many months, my OzRunways Blue Balloon Traffic indicators, all disappeared. About 3-5 minutes later they came back. 

 

I have no recollection of this sort of "outage" any time in the 10 years + that I have subscribed to OzRunways.

 

Anyone;

 

• Got an explanation?
• Had a similar experience?

 

I have writen to OzRunways & hope to receive a response next week.😈

 

 

[PureCaboose]

Did you keep you internet access as well?

 

The issue with flying and using the mobile towers is you can transition between towers at speeds that the network does not plan for. This can lead to outages as the network re-routes you traffic.

 

The interconnects are planned on the basis of how most users will transition between towers, it sounds like you were out over the dam/waterboard area. You could have been switching between towers on either side of the area and they would not be configured to easy hand off between towers.

 

Caboose

[Moneybox]

4 hours ago, skippydiesel said:

Yesterday afternoon, I was stooging around, just to the West of the new Badgerys Creek airfield, when , for the second time in as many months, my OzRunways Blue Balloon Traffic indicators, all disappeared. About 3-5 minutes later they came back. 

 

I have no recollection of this sort of "outage" any time in the 10 years + that I have subscribed to OzRunways.

 

Anyone;

 

• Got an explanation?
• Had a similar experience?

 

I have writen to OzRunways & hope to receive a response next week.😈

 

 

 

Very interesting Skippy. I was sitting in bed last night preparing a route from Cue to Northam. I can't fly it but I will drive it and do various calculations as I travel just as an effort to further understand OzRunways.

 

While I was at it I turned on traffic and saw none. It was the middle of the night so I thought it may be possible but then I went to Flightradar at there they were. Right now I only have five aircraft in all of Australia.

 

[Arron25]

Boeing'🤣?

[Garfly]

 

 

16 hours ago, Moneybox said:

 

Very interesting Skippy. I was sitting in bed last night preparing a route from Cue to Northam. I can't fly it but I will drive it and do various calculations as I travel just as an effort to further understand OzRunways.

 

While I was at it I turned on traffic and saw none. It was the middle of the night so I thought it may be possible but then I went to Flightradar at there they were. Right now I only have five aircraft in all of Australia.

 

 

Moneybox, I think the reason you are seeing so few targets is that your OzRunways is, by default, only set up to show the aircraft participating in its own (web-based) 'traffic' exchange system. It does not include the ADSB traffic that Flight Radar 24 (and similar) apps display.  There is an explanation about how those various systems operate and interact here:

 

15. Traffic

DOCS.OZRUNWAYS.COM

 

But there is a way to have ADSB traffic show on your EFB (OzRwys or AvPlan) map page (short of using an ADSB receiver) and that is by using the AvTraffic app.  The Premium version allows integration with OzRwys/AvPlan such that it displays ADSB traffic (sourced from the ADSB-Exchange) merged with your own EFB's in-house traffic. 

 

The EFBs use various symbols to indicate the different sources of data. But all of this type of traffic info is subject to some slight delay since it is coming via the internet. For more reliable aircraft-to-aircraft, real-time traffic you'd need to have an ADSB-IN device (like the SkyEcho2 or better).

 

But even AvTraffic doesn't bother displaying ADSB targets from all over the country (and world) like FR24 etc. because it's designed as a practical piloting tool.  Still, I think it shows everything within a hundred nautical miles or more. OzRyws' own system limits itself to the 18 nearest (participating) aircraft, which, at night, might well cover the whole country as your screen shot shows.

 

 

 

 

AvTraffic

AVTRAFFIC.COM

 

Edited Sunday at 04:27 AM by Garfly

[coljones]

23 hours ago, skippydiesel said:

Yesterday afternoon, I was stooging around, just to the West of the new Badgerys Creek airfield, when , for the second time in as many months, my OzRunways Blue Balloon Traffic indicators, all disappeared. About 3-5 minutes later they came back. 

 

I have no recollection of this sort of "outage" any time in the 10 years + that I have subscribed to OzRunways.

 

Anyone;

 

• Got an explanation?
• Had a similar experience?

 

I have writen to OzRunways & hope to receive a response next week.😈

 

 

Which mobile service were you using.

 

4 Corners had a segment last week about the limitations of mobile phone coverage. There are black holes even in Sydney.

[skippydiesel]

Some more info;

• I have always used Telstra, as it is supposed to give near nationwide service (recent news seems to dispute this claim).
• I have an SE2 linked to my OzRunways - its info was also absent during the outage.

😈

Edited Sunday at 07:28 AM by skippydiesel

[PureCaboose]

16 minutes ago, skippydiesel said:

Some more info;

• I have always used Telstra, as it is supposed to give near nationwide service (recent news seems to dispute this claim).
• I have an SE2 linked to my OzRunways - its info was also absent during the outage.

😈

I don't have mobile service at my property, and I live in a 'Village'. If I walk up the hill 1km I can get 5 bars of coverage.

 

When I fly over the house/village there is a mobile blackspot at 1500 AGL just west of the village as well. Drops out calls as well as streaming ADSB data. my SE2 keeps working though, so not sure why you's blanked. I am using AVPLAN-EFB though.

 

PureCaboose

[skippydiesel]

"my SE2 keeps working though,"

 

I assume my SE2 continued to work (transmit) throughout the outage but there was no information being displayed on my iPad. Both OzRunways & SE2 came back,  without any intervention from, me after 3-5 minutes being AWOL😈

[NT5224]

Hey Team 

 

related to this theme, is there anyway of testing (seeing) ADSB traffic using SE2 from the ground? I have mine up registered and connected to iPad and IPhone. However on the ground I can only currently see OzRunways traffic…

 

Anyway  of testing if SE2 is working before I’m in flight? 
 

cheers 

 

Alan 

Edited yesterday at 06:02 AM by NT5224

[Thruster88]

My SkyEcho2 with the unit in the house is showing jet aircraft out to about 40 nm. Make sure the SkyEcho2 is connected, not your home WiFi. Have a look on flightradar24 to see if there are any adsb aircraft near you.

[Garfly]

1 hour ago, NT5224 said:

Hey Team 

 

related to this theme, is there anyway of testing (seeing) ADSB traffic using SE2 from the ground? I have mine up registered and connected to iPad and IPhone. However on the ground I can only currently see OzRunways traffic…

 

Anyway  of testing if SE2 is working before I’m in flight? 
 

cheers 

 

Alan 

Yes Alan, it should work on the ground, though it'll only see line-of-sight targets within a certain range.  In normal use it expects to see a good view of the sky from the cockpit.  I suppose that the OzRwys craft you're seeing just don't have ADSB-OUT.  But, if you expect they should have (pretty much all commercial aircraft do these days) but they're not showing as ADSB targets (with the little radio wave icon in the corner of the bubble) even though they're in line-of-sight, then you might want to check your settings. 

If you scroll down to the bottom of your "Settings" menu in OzRwys you should see a  "Device Options" and a "SkyEcho2" option.  In the former you should check that "Enable GDL90" is switched on. And in the SE2 menu you should look to see if all the options are selected ON.  Also, that screen has a window that shows "Visible Aircraft".  If there are ADSB transmitting craft nearby (and in-sight) it will show how many its picking up.  I find this to be a good quick check on its functioning  - as long as I'm sure there must be at least one in range. 

 

Edited yesterday at 07:17 AM by Garfly

[skippydiesel]

1 hour ago, NT5224 said:

Hey Team 

 

related to this theme, is there anyway of testing (seeing) ADSB traffic using SE2 from the ground? I have mine up registered and connected to iPad and IPhone. However on the ground I can only currently see OzRunways traffic…

 

Anyway  of testing if SE2 is working before I’m in flight? 
 

cheers 

 

Alan 

Press On button - thee LED's will light up .

 

Then connect it via WiFi (Settings in iPad) to your iPad/OzRunways. You should then see a lot more traffic Blue Bubbles.😈

Edited yesterday at 07:47 AM by skippydiesel

[Bernie]

Slightly off topic.

A few days ago and American military C3 flu over my place and was on flight radar...I don't normally see military aircraft...he obviously had adsb on...no where it came from or destination...

[T510]

Exercise Talisman Sabre is on at the moment so there are a few more American Military aircraft around at the moment

[NT5224]

 

18 hours ago, Garfly said:

Yes Alan, it should work on the ground, though it'll only see line-of-sight targets within a certain range.  In normal use it expects to see a good view of the sky from the cockpit.  I suppose that the OzRwys craft you're seeing just don't have ADSB-OUT.  But, if you expect they should have (pretty much all commercial aircraft do these days) but they're not showing as ADSB targets (with the little radio wave icon in the corner of the bubble) even though they're in line-of-sight, then you might want to check your settings. 

If you scroll down to the bottom of your "Settings" menu in OzRwys you should see a  "Device Options" and a "SkyEcho2" option.  In the former you should check that "Enable GDL90" is switched on. And in the SE2 menu you should look to see if all the options are selected ON.  Also, that screen has a window that shows "Visible Aircraft".  If there are ADSB transmitting craft nearby (and in-sight) it will show how many its picking up.  I find this to be a good quick check on its functioning  - as long as I'm sure there must be at least one in range. 

 

Yes I have checked setup but still no ADSB aircraft visible in OzRunways. At present the central ADSB light is not switched on on my SE2 device. Is this the reason? And how do I switch it on ? 
 

Edited 15 hours ago by NT5224

[PureCaboose]

Have you reigistered with CASA for the ICAO hex number for you plane and entered it into the SE2?

 

I have a Stratus 3 that only does ADSB-IN, and recently upgraded to the SE2 with ADSB-IN and ADSB-EC. When I run them both at home, eventually the ADSB light comes on. From what I understand, the light comes on when it detects/connects to another ADSB transponder.

 

Looking at the manual, you may need to check that ADSB-IN is enabled on the SE2 as well, via the web console for the SE2. I can't remember if I needed to turn mine on or not as I was not taking notes at the time. Below is a link to the manual, page 20 is the right page.

 

https://www.ozpilot.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SkyEcho-2-User-and-Installation-Guide-REV-M.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOoprv6P-gRFdBQPvr7WIj6jKxLRDELB6w3HojkfioCfywwEnplUa

 

Regards

 

PureCaboose

[Garfly]

27 minutes ago, NT5224 said:

 

Yes I have checked setup but still no ADSB aircraft visible in OzRunways. At present the central ADSB light is not switched on on my SE2 device. Is this the reason? And how do I switch it on ? 
 

 

That middle "ADS-B"  light flashes green when the device is transmitting an ADSB signal.  You can turn it on in OzRwys in the "Traffic" menu which you can reach by pressing on the little rectangular traffic button on the main OzRwys screen (in the upper right). 

But that does not explain why it is not receiving traffic.

As long as you have established a network connection between the SE2 device and your iOS device (via the iOS "WiFi" menu) then it should display visible targets even with ADSB-OUT turned off in the OzRwys Traffic menu.

More info here about how the different symbols indicate different operations.

 

15. Traffic

DOCS.OZRUNWAYS.COM

 

The reason OzRwys give you the option of switching ADSB-OUT off is that it allows you to use the SE2 as an IN only device.  This is very useful for anyone who is operating an aircraft that already has an ADSB-OUT transponder but no dedicated traffic-IN display.  You can use your own SE2 with a paired tablet/phone to see other traffic whilst using the installed Xponder to be seen (it's against the regs to have two OUT devices going at once in the same aircraft).

 

Edited 14 hours ago by Garfly

[NT5224]

25 minutes ago, PureCaboose said:

Have you reigistered with CASA for the ICAO hex number for you plane and entered it into the SE2?

 

I have a Stratus 3 that only does ADSB-IN, and recently upgraded to the SE2 with ADSB-IN and ADSB-EC. When I run them both at home, eventually the ADSB light comes on. From what I understand, the light comes on when it detects/connects to another ADSB transponder.

 

Looking at the manual, you may need to check that ADSB-IN is enabled on the SE2 as well, via the web console for the SE2. I can't remember if I needed to turn mine on or not as I was not taking notes at the time. Below is a link to the manual, page 20 is the right page.

 

https://www.ozpilot.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SkyEcho-2-User-and-Installation-Guide-REV-M.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOoprv6P-gRFdBQPvr7WIj6jKxLRDELB6w3HojkfioCfywwEnplUa

 

Regards

 

PureCaboose

Hi I got my ICAO hex number online from flight tracker, following helpful advice on this forum. It is input into my SE2 setup 

 

Alan I will go back to the web console and check ADSB in 

 

Alan

[skippydiesel]

" (it's against the regs to have two OUT devices going at once in the same aircraft)."

 

The bulk of Forum members, who have a transponder, will not have an IN capacity (mostly bigger aircraft). This advise, while correct, may "muddy the waters", giving some the idea that the SE2 can not be operated, in parallel, with their existing transponder. It can😈

Edited 14 hours ago by skippydiesel

[Garfly]

 

6 minutes ago, skippydiesel said:

 (it's against the regs to have two OUT devices going at once in the same aircraft).

 

The bulk of Forum members, who have a transponder will not have an IN capacity (mostly bigger aircraft). This advise, while correct, may "muddy the waters", giving some the idea that the SE2 can not be operated, in parallel, with their existing transponder. It can😈

 

40 minutes ago, Garfly said:

This is very useful for anyone who is operating an aircraft that already has an ADSB-OUT transponder but no dedicated traffic-IN display.  You can use your own SE2 with a paired tablet/phone to see other traffic whilst using the installed Xponder to be seen (it's against the regs to have two OUT devices going at once in the same aircraft).

 

 

Where's the mud?

[coljones]

Unless you are under an aircraft route an SE2 (or any ADSB IN devices) and on the ground it is unlikely that you will receive any ADSB signals. ADSB is line of sight and when on the ground you are in the weeds.

ADSB aggregation apps like flight radar 24 have networks of receivers mounted well above ground level, my receiver is on a 3rd story pole under the Syd Northerly flight path and can pickup signals up to 10 km.  The SE2 at ground level will only pick up planes overhead in a cone.

Edited 12 hours ago by coljones

[Thruster88]

7 hours ago, NT5224 said:

 

Yes I have checked setup but still no ADSB aircraft visible in OzRunways. At present the central ADSB light is not switched on on my SE2 device. Is this the reason? And how do I switch it on ? 
 

I currently have the transmit function turn off in my SkyEcho2 because it was last used in an aircraft with a adsb transponder, the centre light is off, it still receives and shows traffic on ozrunways samsung tab while in my house.