AirNav RadarBox Featured ADS-B Station - Michael Coppock

Michael Coppock and his setup - Photo Courtesy of Michael Coppock

Michael Coppock is a RadarBox ADS-B feeder who lives in the US State of Colorado and has been sharing flight data (PGANRB400640) with AirNav  RadarBox since December 2020. This passionate aviation enthusiast lives about an hour north of Denver International Airport, very close to the shortwave station WWV/WWVB atomic time clock. The terrain provides a great view of the Colorado Front Range and the lower river valleys contained within. 

AirNav RadarBox ADS-B 1090 Mhz Antenna - Photo Courtesy of Michael Coppock

Here's a picture of Michael's XRange receiver that feeds us daily with ADS-B data from Colorado, USA. 

AirNav RadarBox Xrange receiver - Photo Courtesy of Michael Coppock

Michael's station has a range of 267 nautical miles or 494 km and the station is ranked #1 in the State of Colorado and #83 in RadarBox's ranking of ADS-B stations for the US, with more than 3 million ADS-B messages received daily. His station reception is larger than other surrounding stations since his farmhouse is at an elevation of 5,271 feet (1609 meters).

The Image Above: Michael's ADS-B Unit's MyStation Page 

Country View of the Rockets - Photo Courtesy of Michael Coppock

Michael also says: "Yes, at the frequencies that are used, Line-of-Site is very crucial, so the higher you can go with the antenna, the better.  You don’t want to mount it too close to other objects if you can so as to avoid being blocked from that direction. The second bit of advice I would offer is that you need to make sure that the antenna is mounted very solid so as not to be affected by the winds and rain. In my location, we can have hurricane-strength winds that come off the mountains during the winter and spring months. While my setup looks different from some, I was able to take advantage of an old satellite dish mount which provides a solid install.  I had no problem with this, even during a rather large spring storm last March that left 23 inches (58.5 cm) of snow everywhere and winds gusting over 60 mph/96.5 kph.  It never quit doing what it was designed to do."

On how he discovered RadarBox, Michael comments: "I saw an article 2 or 3 years ago that talked about someone was looking for folks to apply for and accept becoming part of this growing ground network to help raise the safety level of air travel. I was not able to take advantage of that at the time. During Christmas shopping, I came across the XRange product on Amazon.  It was a stand-alone unit that came with the antenna that I would need, and it was mostly just plug and play. It was just so easy to get started – I just had to jump at the chance." - Says Michael. 

About being a RadarBox ADS-B feeder, he adds: "My house is located near where 3 or 4 traffic routes split off to the Northwest region, and this allows me to know just who is flying over my house. I can track in more detail several items pertaining to my flight whenever any air travel opportunities arrive."

AirNav RadarBox Global Coverage Map

AirNav RadarBox currently operates a global ADS-B network of over 27,500 receivers in more than 175 countries worldwide. In the last seven days, 259 new ADS-B receivers/stations were added worldwide. 

The top 10 ADS-B stations:

The Image Above: AirNav RadarBox top 10 ADS-B stations

Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

Fort Collins is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 169,810 at the 2020 United States Census, an increase of 17.94% since the 2010 United States Census.

Photo Source: City communications at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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