So Santa was generous are got me the FA Pro Stick Plus, the 26in FA antenna, and a N-Male to SMA-Male to connect it all together - to add to my Pi3. I’ve set this up as high as I can - picture below, which unfortunately is not outside, but in a loft room in the attic against the outside gable wall (you can clearly see from the FA coverage distribution graph the signal being reduced by the attached condos and roof) - the down side of renting. However, I’m still getting over 1400 planes and 400k positions per day (FA stats), which is great, but I want more
I did play with the gain settings, thanks to the easy to use scripts from the gain post. I did three different runs (morning, afternoon, early evening) of 10 loops with each loop covering all settings, and then summed up. I see a 2.1% different in plane count, 3.3% difference in messages, and almost 5% difference in positions. What gets me the best result for plane count 29.7, is different from messages 36.4, and different from positions 20.7, but all agree that 48 is the worst, and that staying under 40 is generally but not always better. For now I’ve left it at the default automatic setting of -10. I’ve post the gain script output below in case anyone want to analyse it.
So, what changes or additions can I make to this environment to increase my stats further? As much as I’d like to get my antenna outside and up on the roof - this is not going to happen in rented housing maybe in the future in a different house. I’ll add the graphs, and some screenshots to this post tonight.
Gain, Messages, Positions, Aircraft
20.7 193269 12087 293
22.9 188503 11613 292
25.4 186469 11207 301
28 187103 11117 294
29.7 194252 11689 293
32.8 190969 11724 286
33.8 192007 11606 289
36.4 195576 11917 281
37.2 192884 11619 285
38.6 190923 11731 287
40.2 191826 11755 288
42.1 191531 11424 282
43.4 191719 11580 288
43.9 186880 11219 289
44.5 190611 11623 291
48 187350 11613 285
49.6 189457 11577 295
Gain, Messages, Positions, Aircraft
20.7 223787 14625 365
22.9 230297 14758 370
25.4 228801 14626 375
28 234638 14875 382
29.7 231547 14724 386
32.8 235959 15121 386
33.8 236515 15413 380
36.4 234710 15049 372
37.2 231571 14580 371
38.6 228923 14249 370
40.2 226741 14643 375
42.1 224785 14672 374
43.4 227079 14635 374
43.9 228321 14807 371
44.5 228799 14878 372
48 224775 14527 370
49.6 227743 14407 373
Gain, Messages, Positions, Aircraft
20.7 294114 19112 435
22.9 290907 18971 436
25.4 293940 19128 437
28 294212 18835 431
29.7 293983 18596 436
32.8 292704 18891 434
33.8 292228 18721 443
36.4 291295 18642 452
37.2 291059 18506 450
38.6 290575 18635 446
40.2 292330 18472 442
42.1 294754 18318 444
43.4 295908 17777 435
43.9 296293 17889 433
44.5 289742 17556 434
48 286140 17508 437
49.6 285977 18195 436