Announcing the new 978 MHz antenna!

[mstrawn]

I noticed that the u-bolts were a bit wide too!

[Dxista]

Same issue with the 1090 antenna. The u-bolts are not the problem, but the holes on the aluminum plate/bracket.

@esmathews : Will this antenna be available on Amazon Canada? Currently, 3rd party vendors have it listed for $113 on the canadian site.

[biekerc]

@Dxista

Same issue with the 1090 antenna. The u-bolts are not the problem, but the holes on the aluminum plate/bracket.

Interesting, my 1090 came with a bracket where the holes were not aligned properly, so that if you mount it straight the antenna would not be straight.

[esmathews]

Sorry @Dxista at this time we have no plans to sell the 978 antennas on Amazon Canada.

[cypryfyx]

@Dxista Expat Vancouverite in Minnesota here. I was going to offer to re-ship you an antenna, but my best estimate is that the post office will charge around $40, plus $41 for the antenna itself, US$81 converts to CAD$108 today.

[Dxista]

@cypryfyx

Thank you very much for the thought.

Postage costs are very high these days, not really worth it, specially considering that the 978 traffic in Canada is much less than in the US.

Thanks again for thinking about it, it’s appreciated.

[abcd567]

@Dxista

Will this antenna be available on Amazon Canada?

@esmathews

at this time we have no plans to sell the 978 antennas on Amazon Canada.

In view of above situation, I have decided to go for a temporary solution. I will make a DIY Cantenna OR Quick Spider, but using dimensions 76mm in all places where 69mm is specified.

When FA 978 antenna will be available in Canada, I will purchase it and replace Cantenna / QuickSpider by the FA antenna.

[glennblum]

To a certain extent.

[rsmath]

@Dxista

Postage costs are very high these days, not really worth it, specially considering that the 978 traffic in Canada is much less than in the US.

Thanks again for thinking about it, it’s appreciated.

There are no freight forwarders for situations like this? It’s hard for me to believe a company on the U.S. side of the border can’t acquire something from a U.S. website, truck it across the border and then ship it from the Canada side to a Canadian address and save their customers a boatload of U.S.->Canada ripoff shipping fees while making a good margin themselves.

Also surprising that NAFTA (i’m not going to call it by its lame new name) doesn’t make for reasonable U.S.<->Canada postal rates
but that’s another thread/debate.

[Dxista]

@rsmath

There are no freight forwarders for situations like this?

Yes, there are, but not easily accessible to private/personal shipments.

@rsmath

Also surprising that NAFTA (i’m not going to call it by its lame new name) doesn’t make for reasonable U.S.<->Canada postal rates
but that’s another thread/debate.

I’m with you there. NAFTA, or whatever it’s called these days, benefits mostly corporations, not individuals.

[jasperpants]

Just picked up my 978 antenna from Amazon this morning. Will get it tomorrow. Any update on the new version of PiAware?

[esmathews]

You can find the pre-release version here:
Announcing PiAware 3! (Latest version: 3.8.0) - #944 by esmathews .

[courso]

Will the update of PiAware come out this week? I have my antenna ready.

[esmathews]

Sorry @courso, it’s not coming out this week. Pre-release is still available. We’re looking at more than a week, but hopefully less than a month right now.

[abcd567]

@courso

Will the update of PiAware come out this week?

@esmathews

Pre-release is still available. We’re looking at more than a week, but hopefully less than a month right now

@courso
Best option is to wait for release of the update.

However If you dont want to wait, you can burn the pre-release image on a spare microSD card and test your new 978 Mhz antenna.

Piaware SD card image 3.7.0.1 Quickstart Guide

.

[esmathews]

Yes, what @abcd567 said! Please do not install the pre-release image on an existing PiAware installation.

[abcd567]

@esmathews

Please do not install the pre-release image on an existing PiAware installation.

Yes, this is important not to write the pre-release image on a microSD card currently in use to feed Flightaware.

For testing the 978 mhz antenna a spare microSD card should be used. This will make it very easy to restore to existing system after 978 antenna tests are over: just replace spare microSD card by the regular microSD card.

[Dxista]

@Dxista

Same issue with the 1090 antenna. The u-bolts are not the problem, but the holes on the aluminum plate/bracket.

Received another 1090 antenna from Amazon. The bracket’s holes still do not line up with the u-bolts. No biggie, just an FYI.

[dodgeboy]

I’m only seeing about 15 nautical miles of range with my 978 antenna (I get well over 200 nautical miles with 1090). Is this expected? Or could there be something wrong with my antenna? I am running a new image of 3.7.0.1, using the orange flightaware stick with the newer 1090/978 bandpass filter, and flightaware 978 antenna. The antenna is mounted about 25’ off the ground, 3’ away from my 1090 antenna. The antenna has line of sight to the horizon in almost all directions. I’ve experimented with changing the gain on dump978-fa, but it seems to do best at “max.” I understand that the UAT planes are usually flying at a lower altitude so range won’t be as good as ADS-B, but this seems really poor.

[wiedehopf]

Others had better results at gains 25 or 30.

You can also put the altitude of the targets you see into:
What is the Maximum Range I can Get?

With lower altitude range is lower.