Hi all
I currently run a DIY built 12 pole Collinear antenna array which works great but it’s currently running indoors, it’s a big beast and I want to move it outside but I wonder if it’s any better than the significantly smaller official antenna, is it? I would rather put that up since it’s so much smaller but if it’s a chunk worse then I’ll just go with the slightly less cosmetic friendly DIY antenna 
Cheers
Since you’re leaning toward the FA antenna, order it and try it indoors in the same spot as your DIY to compare performance. If it’s worse than your DIY, it would probably be worse outside as well so you could then return the FA one. My guess is that it won’t be worse but I don’t have a FA antenna.
I’m sure you’ll get a few comments from other FA antenna owners who might have been down the same DIY vs FA path.
I recently tested my FA antenna against one which was a lot longer and had a quoted better gain; but the FA one beat it hands down (bigger doesn’t always mean better!).
Range and numbers were only 50~60% using the bigger antenna compared to the FA one, so in my case the FA antenna is highly recommended. 
Was the longer antenna a commercial antenna or a home-built antenna? If the former, what was the make of it?
Mike
It was this one:
https://www.moonraker.eu/radar-100-1090-mhz-colinear-base-antenna
Just didn’t pull in as much as the FA antenna 
Thanks. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t referring to the DPD Productions antenna. I’ve been running the DPD Productions 1090 colinear for three years now and love it. I think it performs great. However, I have never had any other antenna around to compare it to so I really don’t know if performs great or not.
Mike
I had one of those. It was complete and utter garbage. My homebrew two element J-Pole works better. When I complained to them about it I was told:
"I have sold many and most folk are happy with them in fact the FAA did extensive tests and use it for portable emergency deployed ADSB monitoring stations.
The thing with ADSB is that it performs very differently to conventional propagation!
Everything you and I understand about antennas goes in the bin with ADSB as all we know is about antennas at Ground level talking to antennas at ground level.
With ADSB we are looking at Air to ground"
I measured the SWR which was below 4:1 from 750MHz to over 1.55GHz and when I mentioned this, I was told “SWR is irrelevant on a receive only antenna and the antenna was designed for performance at 1030-1090”
Which I don’t believe is strictly true. A resonant aerial will perform better than a non resonant aerial, even on receive.
I got no further with the complaint because they simply stopped replying to me.
The FA aerial is very good, I highly recommend it.
Seriously? Not sure what he thinks is special about mounting a transmitter on a plane - most of them appear at or near horizon level anyway.
I own three of the DPD Prod colinears. Have also used a couple of the FA 5dbi jobs and one of the European 5dbi models that shipped with the FR24 Radacapes. The FA and the one from FR24 are both very respectable performers, but the DPD’s easily outperform them in like installations. They are well built too (dropped one 30’ off the tower when my pull rope came apart - no problems afterwards).
Thanks. That eases my mind about never having tested for something better. Of course I think @jonhawkes or @ion or somebody also runs at least one DPD and had told me htey performed significantly better – but I could be wrong and that could be merely a figment of my imagination.
I’ll still with my DPD 1090. I also have a DPD 978 that I’ve yet to stick up. My 978 install is using NO amp and a 770 MHz LTE yagi currently. LOL.
I do agree they are well built. My 1090 ant has been abused a bit.
I have a few DPD antennas as well. 1090, 978, and an airband.
They all work great for me, and hold up well to the elements, which is good since they are much more expensive.
For range they are slightly better, but comparable to the FilghtWare Antenna, in my terrain constrained area.
I had some issues with the FA antenna due to the mast mount epoxy shrinking over time, which is easily avoidable if you use self-sealing tape on top of where the antenna meets the mount, but otherwise great value.
I also have an active diapason 1090 antenna that does very well too for its small size(it is indoors though).
Considering that DPD are 3 times more expensive that FA (that’s sold “at cost”), I personally think that the benefits are outweighed by the cost.
Plus, only if one is truly limited by the signal level, can benefit form it - high mounting point, with no obstructions to horizon.
My tracked planes don’t “stop” because the signal is too weak, they abruptly drop because they get cut off by obstructions at my horizon line.
That’s a totally valid point. However, I think our previous discussion here was focused on physical antenna attributes and not individual use cases. Hopefully those here understand the difference.