I’d say the graphs indicate the flightaware antenna has a higher gain and your stick is overloading at the gain setting being used . It is probably reporting more positions at the outer edge of reception range .
I adjust gain for a particular site depending on what I want; more positions reported closer to the site (typically close to an airport) or more positions at the outer edge of reception, or a compromise somewhere in between.
I’ve tried various gain settings from max to the teens and I have yet to find any gain setting that matches the performance of setting gain to 44.5 and using an external FA filter. Those were the same settings I used with the Pro Stick.
Is there some other way to verify if my Pro Stick Plus built in filter is defective?
I got this on my initial test. Will watch, my Friday traffic is very consistent and is the heaviest of the week! Adjusting gain appears to have made a difference!
Did you try Blue ProStick Plus WITHOUT external filter? I tried it and results were poor. Gain optimization did not improve it much.
I then tried WITH external filter and results were much better, but I did not run gain optimization.
This weekend I plan to again try the Blue ProStick Plus WITH external filter, and this time run gain optimization. I will post results when test is completed.
No, I did not even try. Read enough to decide that is kind of a non starter. My plan is to give it a try mid-week, next to see what happens, and unless the bottom drops out, I will look at gain as well. I will certainly file a report.
I remain frustrated I can’t get out to 200 miles on a routine basis. It seems that every time I do something I seem to get better within 150 miles, but not much happening outside that range.
Started using the new pro-stick plus - position reports dropped 10-20% range has also dropped ;-(
I was going to replace my orange Pro Stick and external filter in the attic with a Plus but now I’m not so sure. The performance we’re seeing from a few dedicated users seems to indicate that the internal filter of the Plus is not as effective as the external FA filter. I thought that the whole point of the Plus was for the internal filter, so I’m wondering if this is due to the design, or if there’s a production/quality problem and some customers are getting units with underperforming filters.
Chiming in here with my results comparing the new Pro stick vs. the NooElec NESDR Mini 2+.
Was going to post the actual performance graphs from the local client but can’t see a way to attach images. Can’t believe this forum doesnt support image attachments or inline.
Here is my url: flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/yarink cut over late on November 9th.
Total reports of 260,000 before vs 480,000 now. Terrific gains!!
I am amazed at the pro stick plus which beats out my RTL-SDR.com V2 stick. I am seeing aircraft out over 150 miles when my V2 stick only seen aircraft out to 60-80 miles.
My simple system is a home brewed antenna built from the old radio shack scanner antenna with the vertical elements cut to 1090, 40 feet of RG-6 cable with the pro sick plus feeding RTL1090 and Plane Plotter feeding the data. I may eventually work towards the PI set up.
I must say my maximum range since adding the Pro stick 2 has increased to 460km. A slight increase from the pro stick, but increase indeed. 
jlb,
If you don’t mind me asking, what is your antenna’s elevation above mean sea level?
Chris
@jlb
Are you using it with the FA filter and did you optimize the gain vs the gain with orange prostick?
Thanks
415m
No FA filter, just the pro stick +. I have optimized gain v gain with both the orange and the blue. The last one done with the blue, shortly after installing it on both units. My average gain results haven’t changed markedly, only with minor changes. My main unit, operating into a DPD outdoor base antenna, gain wise has only altered from 14.4 with the orange to 12.5 with the blue.
Wow some will say low gain settings but great range. When I finalised by 2 antennas, the DPD main and a little 7db metal whip on my test/secondary unit. I decided to leave and add an inline amp on both feeds. This amp is a very basic satellite in line amp you can add to any satellite antenna system, covers the freq 1090 and works well. Coax military grade so not much loss but leaving those 2 inline amps in seems to have stabilized my settings with no major difference between the orange and blue. I have not seen any swings and changes that others have experienced. Not sure exactly what is the reason, but what I have set up is working. If it isn’t broken, don’t touch it… philosophy.
You will note some of the spikes to the north west are over 500 to 550 k’s in distance from my set up.
In choosing which gain data area to adjust on, adsb messages, positions or aircraft I am tending to use positions or aircraft as the determinate and then which of those 2 might have the less noise. Since my last change on the main dropping from 14.4 to 12.5, is where I have seen the increase in average distance plotted.
Nice.
Thanks!
hmm why didn’t that image load???
I have a question to ask, Are the Pro Stick Plus individually serialized?
Right now I have been using the Pro Stick plus running through RTL1090 and also have a RTL-SDR Version 2 running on a different program and the serial numbers are different. So I wonder if each Pro Stick has a different serial number?
Good question, prompted me to check serial numbers of my 2 Orange ProSticks. I ran rtl_test on both, and both gave same serial number 00001000
ProStick #1
pi@piaware:~$ rtl_test
Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2832UFA, SN: 00001000
Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U
usb_claim_interface error -6
Failed to open rtlsdr device #0.
pi@piaware:~$
ProStick #2
pi@orangepipc:~$
pi@orangepipc:~$ rtl_test
Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2832UFA, SN: 00001000
Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U
usb_claim_interface error -6
Failed to open rtlsdr device #0.
pi@orangepipc:~$
@abcd567,
You can change the serial number.
pi@odroidxu4:~$ rtl_test
Found 2 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: stratux:1090
1: Realtek, RTL2838UFA, SN: 00000060
Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
usb_claim_interface error -6
Failed to open rtlsdr device #0.
pi@odroidxu4:~$
This setting was leftover from when I used the device in a stratux setup.
pi@odroidxu4:~$ rtl_eeprom -help
rtl_eeprom, an EEPROM programming tool for RTL2832 based DVB-T receivers
Usage:
-d device_index (default: 0)]
-m set manufacturer string]
-p set product string]
** -s set serial number string]**
-i <0,1> disable/enable IR-endpoint]
-g generate default config and write to device]
can be one of:]
realtek Realtek default (as without EEPROM)]
realtek_oem Realtek default OEM with EEPROM]
noxon Terratec NOXON DAB Stick]
terratec_black Terratec T Stick Black]
terratec_plus Terratec T Stick+ (DVB-T/DAB)]
-w write dumped file to device]
-r dump EEPROM to file]
-h display this help text]
Use on your own risk, especially -w!
pi@odroidxu4:~$
@JLB
Thanks, great write up. I have never even checked for gain levels that low, normally cutting off at about 20. I have, I think, the hardware for an in line amp, which I suspect is required at that level of gain.