Hi Guys,
Does anyone know where I can get hold of a Pro Stick Plus in the UK?
Noticed the Pro Stick Pro, Filter and Antenna are on Amazon UK, but the Pro Stick Plus isn’t there.
Would it be possible for FlightAware to ship some to Amazon UK perhaps ?
Or if not does anyone know where I can get my hands on one, and not have to be stung with the high cost of buying them from the US and potential customs duty on import.
Thanks.
I expect to have an announcement regarding this topic later this week!
This turns out to be remarkably hard.
If you don’t mind paying a premium price (£24-99 + £2-99 p&p) compared to the £16-95 (plus postage unless you add something to take total over £20) I paid on Amazon at the end of December, you can get it here:
modmypi.com/raspberry-pi/br … Gwod7XYGWw
Hopefully the UK price for the next Amazon batch will be the same since the pound/dollar ratio hasn’t changed much recently. 
Looks like you beat me to the announcement. I can now officially announce our new retail partner, ModMyPi.com, which is selling all 4 FlightAware parts to the UK and international markets. In the near future they will also offer complete PiAware kits for those interested in simple purchasing for new PiAware setups.
modmypi.com/raspberry-pi/br … lightaware
Retail pricing is set by the third party retailers. This is our only active distribution outlet for the Pro Stick Plus in Europe at this time. We hope to add more retail partners in the future to continue increasing the availability of parts worldwide.
Looks like I’ll pass on a 2nd Pro Plus stick 
From my central UK location the Pro Plus gives greater range but adds little in overall aircraft seen compared to a cheaper dongle with no amp or filter- I’m just seeing the same for longer! Remember YMMV 
Let’s see if the Trump free trade option with the UK brings any pricing benefits, mostly the VAT which cripples non-EU imports worth more than £15. I would happily buy direct from the US - it’s not the 20% VAT I object to but the extortionate additional cost imposed by the 3rd parties collecting the VAT. So a £16 dongle adds £3-20 VAT plus typical £10 collection charge = £29-20 
A collection charge? I never heard that before? Here on the continent 
I only remember to pay the customs duty, but no additional fee, at least not that high. But I do not buy so many things from outside the EU.
The wonderful Royal Mail monopoly charges you £8 for the privilege of paying a customs fee…
The American euphamism is ‘convenience fee’; connivance fee works too.
Thanks obj - £8 I’ll believe rather than the £10 I quoted. Never paid it since anything more than £15 I will avoid.
And love the "connivance fee "
Thanks for the update, glad to see i can get my hands on one.
Just one last question, what cable should I run from the blue pro stick plus to the flightaware antenna ?
Seen this.
[quote=“david.baker”]For cabling you can choose from:
RG-6 and RG-11 has 75 ohms impedance.
LMR-240 and LMR-400 has 50 ohms impedance.
[/quote]
Which is the most suitable cable as I read that changing back and forth between 75 ohms and 50 ohms introduces some loss everytime they switch.
Will they re-appear in Amazon in Europe?
Unfortunately FlightAware will not be direct retailing parts on Amazon Europe once existing inventory is exhausted. We still have Pro Sticks (original/orange) and external filters available on Amazon Europe. Other retailers may offer our products on Amazon in the future but they will not be direct from FlightAware.
For customers in Germany this means that the blue stick is now ~40 Euro (30.99 Euro + p&p 8.67 Euro) instead of ~20 Euro (December 2016 Amazon price with Prime free shipping)
Ultimately the government regulations in Europe, especially for us as a non-European company, were more than we could take on. This is unfortunate and despite our extensive efforts to find a way to make it work. Going forward we will work through local retailers in markets outside of North America. If you are an electronics retailer (or know one that would be interested), please feel free to send me a direct message.
The antenna is 50 Ohms and the FA stick has a 50 Ohm SMA, I suspect the LNA inside has decent 50 Ohm matching.
So 50 Ohm cable is the best in terms of matching. But, if you have any other 75 Ohm equipment inline, SAT amplifier, biasT, SAT splitter etc, it’s better to use only 75 Ohm and F-connectors.
Basically, pick one and stick with it.
/M
Wow, that’s sounds like a “Royal” rip-off 
modmypi.com is selling flightaware products within EU. The shipping is also cheaper than eBay for worldwide parcels. A FA antenna shipped to Brazil for $59 is a really far price
Interestingly, they show their inventory on the webpage. Assuming they started from 50 each, they sold so far 3 orange, 1 filter, three atennae and 18 blue!
Thie latter rmay reflect that the other products are/were still available on amazon.“your EU country here”, and that it is newer and people buy it to try it out. For me personally, I would have spend 20-25 Euro for a blue stick just to try it out and have in consequence an orange lone ying around in a drawer, but not 40 Euros
Leaving p&p aside, it still is a 55% increase in price from $20,95 to $32,49. The increased price maybe due to additional costs because of the difficulties flightaware cited to market the products in the EU, or due to the fact they are the only supplier here. While you cannot rule out the former, working in retail I tend to assume the latter.
BTW, they still mentioned the “old” price in the product description, very clever