Update: I’ve added the air to air, guard, and Lake Anna frequencies to the LiveATC feeder here in Mineral.
I’m pleased to announce that a second KLKU CTAF feeder on LiveATC.net is now live! My feeder, listed as “KLKU CTAF #1”, is three miles east of KLKU, positioned approximately twenty-five feet in the air, and is capable of capturing some ground audio depending on the aircraft’s antenna placement and position on the ramp/taxiway.
I am unsure who runs the original KLKU CTAF feeder (#2), but based on audio coverage on busy days, I believe it is west of the airport. Between the two feeders, KLKU should have good coverage.
My rigs are setup in a gym which doubles as a ham shack. I have two Pi’s: one for ADS-B 1080 and UAT 978, the other for LiveATC. Three antennas, not counting the HF radial antenna, and a fourth “spare” that isn’t in use. The system connects to the internet through an air-gapped Ubiquiti U6 Pro to the main building via an outdoor Ubiquiti AC M Pro.
The HF antenna is mainly for ham radio use, but occasionally I’ll tune in to the HF air bands when chatter is down on the ham bands. I control the ICOM 7300 through an HP computer running a remote control software – as long as I’m on my VPN, I can tune in to my HF antenna remotely and control it using an ICOM RC-28.
On top of the silo, I have a Davis Vantage Pro 2 weather station. It is also air-gapped to the main building. It’s the last device to be relocated from the silo, mainly due to lightning, even with surge arrestors in place, but it’s lasted about five years so it’ll stay for now. One of the challenges was finding lighting arrestors that would work within the frequency bands of 978 and 1090 – I found that the Alpha Delta ATT3G50HP worked up to 3Ghz whereas the PolyPhaser IS-50UX-C0 only went up to 700Mhz.
The LiveATC Pi feeds KLKU (Louisa) and I’m close enough to pick up ground traffic and all traffic north, south, and east of the airport. Some west-bound traffic, but KLKU #2 is located west of the airport and has great coverage on that side. My wife and I are both pilots-in-training so it’s nice to go back and listen to our radio traffic after a flight.
Just today, I’ve submitted a request to add 7W4 as well as air-to-air bands to the mix so we’ll see how that goes when Dave and his crew has time (those folks are busy!).
Hope y’all enjoyed the explanation! 73’s.
