dump1090: vrs records many short plane detections

[domasofan]

8 October 2025 build:
Many short plane sightings have been added to vrs database when using dump1090 from this repo.
Just 0 milliseconds long sightings and it seems this data seems to have issues as well.
For example altitudes with -9999 feet or 340 feet.
The country column was filled with the value undefined.
With known planes i figured out that some country names and registrations don't fit together.
protocols tested where basestation on port 30003 and raw avr feed on port 30002.
tested with vrs (virtual radar server) 2.4.4 and 2.4.5 preview 7 and the database writer plugin.

Available here:
https://github.com/vradarserver/vrs
and at
https://virtualradarserver.co.uk/Download.aspx

Greetings,
Simon

[gvanem]

I seldom use VRS, but there should be some .log-files where this is shown.
And I'm not sure about you setup; is Dump1090 feeding VRS on port SBS 30003?

[domasofan]

Here i am running win 11 pro, dump1090 15 october 2025 build which uses an rtl-sdr, vrs 2.4.4.
tested also with vrs 2.4.5 preview 7.
vrs gets fed by using the basestation protocol on 33003.
VRS doesn't show any error messages in the logs.
seems to be all ok.
No bad messages while receiving it from dump1090 either.
I'll try an old copy from dump1090 from mutability which generally should work as well to rule out vrs.

[domasofan]

OK I am running this
https://github.com/tpainter/dump1090_win
for a few minutes now and i don't see any wrong data anymore.
This is a direct windows port of mutability's code.
this seems to be a problem of
https://github.com/gvanem/dump1090
mutability's code has been moved to
https://github.com/flightaware/dump1090
and also seems to be developed further.
Currently just available for linux.

[gvanem]

Here i am running win 11 pro, dump1090 15 october 2025 build which uses an rtl-sdr, vrs 2.4.4.
tested also with vrs 2.4.5 preview 7.
vrs gets fed by using the basestation protocol on 33003.

I tried with the same; but basestation protocol on 30003. Here is the VRS Statistics window after 10 min of running:

I.e. no errors AFAICS.

And the same with Raw Beast on port 30002:

Some errors, but no short plane sightings.

I used this run-vrs.bat to test with:

@echo off
setlocal
set USE_START_WINDOW=0
if %_cmdproc. == 4NT. .or. %_cmdproc. == TCC. on break quit

pushd %~dp0
rm -f dump1090-gv.log

set VRS_EXE=f:\gv\dx-radio\Flight-Software\VirtualRadar\VirtualRadar.exe

if %1. == --start-vrs. (
  shift
  start %VRS_EXE%
  rem
  rem delay for 5 sec to let '%VRS_EXE%' start up
  rem
  ping.exe -4 -n 5 localhost
)

if %1. == --window. (
  shift
  set USE_START_WINDOW=1
)

set FULL_CMD=dump1090.exe --config dump1090-gv.cfg --net --debug gn --only-addr

if %USE_START_WINDOW. == 1. (
  start "Dump1090" %FULL_CMD%
) else (
  %FULL_CMD%
)

Explain where you see these short plane sightings. In the VRS web-page?

[gvanem]

Or you could try with this patch:

--- a/src/dump1090.c
+++ b/src/dump1090.c
@@ -3103,10 +3104,10 @@ void modeS_user_message (modeS_message *mm)
     }
   }

-  /* Send data to connected clients.
+  /* Send data to connected RAW clients.
    * In `--net-active` mode we have no clients.
    */
-  if (Modes.net)
+  if (Modes.net && a)
      modeS_send_raw_output (mm);
 }

[domasofan]

Here i am running win 11 pro, dump1090 15 october 2025 build which uses an rtl-sdr, vrs 2.4.4.
tested also with vrs 2.4.5 preview 7.
vrs gets fed by using the basestation protocol on 33003.

I tried with the same; but basestation protocol on 30003. Here is the VRS Statistics window after 10 min of running:

I.e. no errors AFAICS.

My bad. had a typo in the ports.

Explain where you see these short plane sightings. In the VRS web-page?

Yes as a blind person you can optimally just see the reports.
So you need to get the database writer plugin as well and set it up under tools/plugins.

Newer entries are known to be incomplete but some that are a few hours old should be complete.

[domasofan]

Or you could try with this patch:

Unfortunately i have no compiler over here.
But i'll have a look at it tomorrow if the above batch script might fix something.
Though i doupt it.