Quidditch First?
Is Quidditch the first Narrowboat in the UK to be equipped with Radar?Being a real flight enthusiast and if the truth be known a bit of a 'geek' I couldn't resist the purchase of the latest in new technology.
AirNav RadarBox is the closest you can be to real world aviation without leaving your chair thanks to next generation Radar decoding. By decoding *ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) radar signals I'm able to see on my computer screen what real Air Traffic Controllers see on their screens and in Real-Time. Flight number, aircraft type, altitude, heading, speed are all updated each second. Included is the award winning software interface developed by the world's leader in flight tracking and monitoring solutions, Airnav Systems. If you click on the screen shot above you can see the information as it's displayed on my computer.
You'll notice in the centre of the screen a + sign denoting the exact position of Quidditch which I'm able to obtain from my on-board GPS. By coincidence our mooring appears to be almost in the exact centre of England! I's amazing how busy the skies are above us. The right hand screen shows all aircraft in 'real-time' who are equipped with *ADS-B that are within the range of my aerial, which quite frankly is astonishing considering where actually in a dip. Then again these aircraft are anything between 1,000 & 40,00ft.
The left hand screen has the information for each aircraft in more detail, this also includes all aircraft that are not equipped with *ADS-B but are within range. Uniquely too the program actually downloads a photograph of the specific aircraft and adds it to my database. In the example the highlighted aircraft is Continental Airlines which as you can see is travelling from Houston to Paris. I was actually able to locate and see this aircraft through my binoculars.
On to other matters and just a quick thanks to Johnny & Pat who joined us at Dee's holiday cottage last week to celebrate Dee's **th birthday. Great to see you guys as ever and were already looking forward to New Year Eve. By the way the pictures are on the way.



