Club members and Open Glider Network

[Bret Hess]

I sent out an email about setting up OGN at our airports (included at the end of this message).

Below are the members and their messages who have replied so far.  Others who are interested, you can post here, or anyone can discuss anything.  Please organize among yourselves or on this forum who will be the focal guy at each airport and fill out the form, who is going to the Tues meeting.  I think anyone can go

Bruno Vassel

I could see with a little bit of effort and work for us to have a receiver at the Logan, Morgan, Heber, Nephi, Richfield, Hurricane airports.  I bet with these airports we can piggyback on internet already in use.

Feng Xie

I played with raspberry pi before and am interested helping. 

Timothy Taylor

Interested in putting one in Hurricane (UT47)

Tim

Jonathan Foster

I would be happy to help. I don’t have much time to lead anything but always happy to help.

Mike N

I’m interested in this.

Ron Gleason

I have signed up to a ‘focal’ for the airports in northern UT.  I have been interested in this technology for a while and started earlier this year assembling a unit for Morgan County airport.  Stuff got in the way but I hope to get it installed in a few weeks.  I have secured a building for the hardware that has connectivity.

Robert Kidd has offered his house in Logan for an installation and John Ackerson has offered his home or office building in Heber since neither PAUL SCHNEIDER or Dave Robinson have internet connections at their hangars.  John Gonthier is checking with the FBO in Nephi to see if can use their internet connection and possibly mount equipment on their building.

We will have to see how much coverage we can get per station but for complete coverage we will require many more stations.  I see the priorities as Nephi, Morgan, Heber and Logan just based on. The amount of flying being done.  For Nephi I am assuming we will need stations at Delta, Richfield, Manti, Price and Parowan for good coverage and enough overlap with Heber to help them.  For Morgan not sure what we can do but I do have some contacts at Powder Mountain and I will approach them to see if can get a station mounted at the top which will help with Morgan and Logan.

I have limited experience with Raspberry Pi hardware and electronics so I will be reaching out to the club for assistance if I hit speed bumps etc.

I will double checking with the people above and after Tuesday’s meeting we should be able to get something to the USA BOD as a status and to the membership.

______________________________________

Hi, if you are interested in tech and communications, you might want to help lead or work on this project at your airport.  The SSA is funding it, at least partially.  (See end of email for SSA information)

For more information on OGN, see wiki.glidernet.org, and this presentation.   Europe has 1400 receivers.  Here are the ones in the US: wiki.glidernet.org/list-of-receivers#toc36

If you are interested, please reply to me, and if possible attend this online meeting:

6pm PST Tuesday Oct 11 to go over the plan and address any questions. 

invite link is  https://teams.live.com/meet/9328081577438 

Agenda for the meeting:

Review OGN Focal role

Review OGN go-forward plan

Q&A on OGN receivers

Share timeline and expectations

___________________________________________________________________________

Here is the SSA info from Davis Chappins.  He's almost begging us to do this in Utah. 

The SSA has allocated funds to help install 150 OGN receivers across the US. This will create a robust network of real-time glider tracking ground stations that track FLARM or OGN tracker equipped aircraft (similar to ADSB ground stations for transponder equipped aircraft). 

Some benefits include:

- Real-time tracking – viewership and interest/engagement in the sport

- Racing real-time scoring – viewership and interest in racing (coming soon)

- Ability to create and score local contests

- SAR – far more precise than satellite trackers

- Clubs and commercial operators can locate all gliders at the end of the day

- Club management (e.g. auto-logging of tow flights and tow heights, club/rental

ship activity - with the help of low cost OGN trackers ($60) for aircraft lacking Flarm) -

https://flightbook.glidernet.org/logbook/E68/2022-04-08)

An OGN receiver consumes about 2W of power (less than a LED lightbulb) and

uses 2mb of bandwidth a day (less than 30 seconds of netflix). Suitable installation locations require internet (it can be slow) and power.

Current OGN receiver coverage can be found here https://ognrange.glidernet.org/?#,max,all,34.27084_-114.18640,8,#ff0e0eff:#0aff0aff, (very slow site, don’t zoom out) Europe has 1,450 OGN receivers, the US has 35.

Under this proposal, up to two receivers will be provided at a 100% discount and an additional two receivers at a 50% discount, per site. A site is defined as a glider airfield from a pre-existing list that have significant glider activity or have hosted contests on a regular basis. The idea is to provide excellent coverage at home airfields and additional coverage in task areas so as to maximize the benefits of tracking to the most pilots possible. Each OGN receiver covers a radius of roughly 40 miles. If your site already has OGN receivers installed the proposal still applies to you - use it to expand your coverage areas. However, sites with zero tracking may be prioritized.

We are looking for site focals who can be a point of contact to install and manage these receivers. A site focal is the person responsible for the installation and upkeep (minor) of the OGN receivers in their area. Ideally, focals will be local experts who are knowledgeable about the local soaring area, have some knowledge of computers (like Raspberry Pi or linux) and can perform basic handyman tasks like mounting an antenna and routing a coax cable.

Deployment options range from the site focal following a guide, purchasing everything, assembling and installing (DIY from a guide)… down to Davis shipping the site focal an assembled and configured device ready to be powered on and connected to the antenna (plug and play). Due to the cost of and difficulty locating raspberry pis at this time the OGN receiver reimbursement cap will be raised to $400 per receiver. Installations must come online and receive aircraft signals to be eligible for reimbursement. You must fill out the form and be a site focal to be eligible for reimbursement.

This is a very small amount of work and you will be the OGN receiver expert for your area. If you are interested please fill out the form at https://forms.gle/Z8RPCExoDCm8UxHj6

[Moises Romero]

Brett,

I’d be happy to help, but do not have a ton of bandwidth available, working a ton.

I do have a raspeberry pi I use as a wifi receiver for my 3D printer if that qualifies me for anything.

Moises

On Oct 7, 2022, at 22:18, Bret Hess <bret...@gmail.com> wrote:

I sent out an email about setting up OGN at our airports (included at the end of this message).

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[John Ackerson]

I have purchased all the parts for the Heber installation.  I just need a free second when I'm not working or soaring to build the receiver.  
John Ackerson

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[john gonthier]

Ron Gleason and others who have an interest in this topic. 

I talked to Scott the owner of the FBO at Nephi and he said the city actually pays for the internet connection in the pilot's lounge.He didn't think there would be any issues preventing us from hooking up to the internet for the glider tracker. They're actually going to be putting a computer in the pilot's lounge for weather briefings, etc. Ron if you want to contact Scott, he said he would be happy to chat. Also contacting Seth (airport manager) 503-750-5530 might be helpful as well. 

John G.

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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[Michael N.]

I may be able to help with getting access to some radio tower sites on Mt. Ogden and other radio tower sites.

As a Ham radio operator, I belonged to Ogden Amateur Radio Club: http://ogdenarc.org 

I know several of the club repeater operators, and they do work several times a year at their repeater sites.

These sites typically have internet services and are at higher peaks with wide coverage. So this would also be very good for OGN receivers.

I haven't talked to these guys for a while, but I was very active and friendly with the club and could make some inquiries.

Would need to have ready to go OGN receivers / Pi's / Antennas available and we could probably get them installed at a few locations.

I'll investigate this option further over the next week.

Mike N.

1M

[Ron Gleason]

Mike, thanks for the offer to assist.  The first phase on the OGN station rollout will concentrate on installation at airfields or peoples homes near airfields.  Yes mountain tops will be a great asset for coverage after we get experience with the hardware and rollouts.  For me, I understand the harshness of Mt Ogden having worked ski patrol at Basin for 12+ years and helping with replacing the anometer at that location many times.  We would have to determine how to make our setup much more weatherproof.

John G, I will follow up with Scott and Seth regarding Nephi.  A key decision will be where to mount the antenna, highest location is best, and still get a internet signal.

Thanks for everyone that is jumping in to assist

Ron

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