Matt Dralle Site Admin
Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 25471 Location: Livermore CA USA
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Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 11:20 am Post subject: Matt's KLVK ATC Streaming... |
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Dear Listers,
A couple of weeks ago I found a web site on the Internet called LiveATC.net that has the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower communications on line for streaming for a number of airports around the country. Lo 'n behold, they even have a stream for my home base, the Livermore Airport. But, much to my dismay, the quality of their KLVK feed was just plain awful. It was obvious the airband source didn't have a decent antenna or perhaps even a good radio. I suppose that given that their site is a consortium of local citizens providing the feeds, the lack of quality goes with the territory.
But, I really liked the idea of being able to monitor the LVK ATC and also the ability to bring up the archives and listen to my personal communications with the tower after a flight.
Since I had a computer at the hangar along with a pretty decent Internet connection and, in the spirit of Experimental Homebuilding, I had an idea... I mounted an air-band antenna on the top of the hangar and brought the RG-58 coax down to near the computer and plugged it into my trusty Icom IC-A20 hand held. I was AMAZED at the quality of signal I was getting. It was picking up guys in airplanes 19 miles out like they were sitting next to my hangar! I set the radio to high-speed scan between the Tower and Ground frequencies so with a single feed I could get all communications.
So next, I made an audio connection from the handheld to the Line In input on the computer. Sure enough, now I was getting great sound from the hand held on the computer! I found some software from Australia called BroadWave from a company called NCH ( http://www.nch.com.au/streaming ). It lets you connect to the Line In port on the computer and then generate real time audio streams that can be served up via the Internet. And sure enough, it works great!
Next, I found some software from Germany called Loop Recorder ( http://looprecorder.de ) that let's you monitor an audio input on your computer and generate archive files. You can select an increment in which to rotate the files automatically, for example, every 30 minutes. I downloaded this software and installed it and sure enough, I was able to start archiving the ATC transmissions coming in, all the while streaming them live as well!
The last piece of the puzzle was to enable the Web and FTP servers on the Windows 7 system and come up with a front-end web page that would tie all of these new resources together for easy access from the Internet. I'm happy to report, the whole thing came together very nicely and even allows you stream directly to your Android or iPhone as well as your desktop! Pretty darn cool!
And so, without further ado, here is my new web site for monitoring the ATC communications at KLVK:
http://klvk.matronics.com/
Just to state the obvious, the stream is silent if there isn't any current ATC or aircraft communications. During the day, you'll usually hear something within five or ten minutes. Sometimes much quicker.
I contacted LiveATC.net and they were excited about adding my new stream to their web site as well. So, at some point soon, the LiveATC.net feed for Livermore Airport will be coming from my hangar! My site http://klvk.matronics.com will continue to be available as well.
For entertainment purposes only!
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Matt Dralle
RV-8 #82880 N998RV "Ruby Vixen"
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Matt's Livermore Airport Live ATC Stream!
Check out the live ATC stream directly from my hangar at the Livermore
Airport. Includes both Tower and Ground transmissions. Archives too!
For entertainment purposes only. http://klvk.matronics.com
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_________________ Matt Dralle
Matronics Email List Administrator |
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