One of the Activities When I am Bored

As white, what is your move?

Aircraft Tracking in Malaysian Airspace - Avoid Another MH370

The whole country was in shocked when MH370 was missing from Malaysian airspace to the unknown destination on 8 March 2014. In fact, some of us are still grieving. It is the unknown destination which make it harder for the related families to accept the fate. A few of them are still pursuing the matter.

A few months before the airplane was missing, my friends and I were planning a new project to keep track any aircraft in Malaysian airspace. One of the reasons to track the aircrafts is the information is not shared by DCA Malaysia nor military of Malaysia. Although aircraft traffic information is available to anybody (from FAA perspective), in Malaysia, there is no well known hobbyist group which accurately keep tracking the aircraft traffic for the public.

There are a few advantages to keep track the aircraft of our interest. For example in case of MH370, the above diagram shows that if I am the relative of one of the passengers, I will question Malaysian authority, why the aircraft is diverting from its flight path. The alert from the public will ensure the authorities are always at their toes. Although the transponder was terminated, the flight diversion already appear in the screen. And the future flight path can be projected where MH370 should reenter Malaysian FIR (Flight Information Region). Once the authorities are being alerted, Malaysian Military have no choice but should have sent a fighter jet to investigate.

Currently, my research team is lacking of any research grant to develop a complete nation wide monitoring station for the public. Luckily, being an electronic engineer, we still able to continue our research and development at minimum cost. We are able to develop relevant electronic equipment from scratch to minimize the cost.  And we are also working together with a local company who are interested to commercialize the system. The company is responsible to develop the GUI, database, server and security of the system. While my R&D team should focus on the hardware. We are looking forward for any party or individual who want to donate or invest in this project.

Due to limited budget, we tested the system at the roof top of my house instead of at a permanent station.

I want to check the signal strength from my house.

My children were also interested. But I did not allow any of them to climb for safety reason.

From Skudai, Johor Bahru, Johor, the system can detect aircrafts up to Negeri Sembilan and Kuantan, Pahang.

This is what we have tested at the northern region. The GUI shows that it is possible to monitor aircrafts up to gulf of Thailand. And we already formulated several ways to monitor aircrafts up to Andaman sea.

I hope my team's work can prevent any future MH370 incident. Any donation or investment can help our research group to commercialize the services and prevent future incident.

For more information, you can visit my university blog from time to time at http://zulfakar.fke.utm.my or specifically for the time being at http://zulfakar.fke.utm.my/in-the-news/aircrafttrackinginmalaysianairspace-avoidanothermh370

Mydin Mall at Taman Mutiara Rini, Johor Bahru, Johor

Mydin just launch its sixth shopping complex in Johor. It is located at Taman Mutiara Rini. It is a strategic place to be since it is next to Taman Universiti, and Taman Tun Aminah. In the future, there will be highway exit from Taman Mutiara Rini to the 2nd link highway. The GPS coordinate is @1.5155876,103.6349022.

The entrance:

There are three levels.
The main hall with stage performance:

The second floor where the Mydin store is located.

There are many small shops in this level.

 The third floor where the clothes sales are. I didn't spend my time on the 3rd floor.

The best of Mydin Mall is the food court. There are plenty of choices of foods to choose.

The best thing about the food court is the sittings are located to an open space. We can see Mutiara Mas houses from the open space. The wind blowing is comfortable. There are also plenty of tables and chairs.

Now it is more affordable to go to Mars

Congratulation to SpaceX for the successful of the Falcon Heavy test flight on 6 February 2018. Below are some of the interesting pictures. The first picture is a few second after the launch. There are boosters on the left and right of the falcon 9 rocket.

1st stages booster separation. There are three booster including the one attach to Falcon 9.

Each booster will be landed at the lunch site. However, the 3rd booster which is attached to Falcon 9 will be landed on a drone barrage on the sea a few minutes later.

These pictures are real. They are no longer hollywood fantasy. Then, the payload which is the Elon Musk Tesla roadster  will be lunched to Mars.

By the way, the driver on the car is just a dummy. While the spacesuit is an actual spacesuit from SpaceX. 

There are many technologies from multi-disciplines such as electronic, electric, mechanical, chemical, software design etc. are involved in this magnificent rocket.

Congratulation!!

Thank you also SpaceX for the amazing video which can be viewed at www.spacex.com.