Hi – set up my Piaware using my little Ubuntu Linux NUC box that could (Celeron processor, cheapie NUC that also runs a Plex Server and a Pi-Hole), along with a Flight Aware Pro stick and the cheapy pigtail antenna that FlightAware sells on the website.
I get some flights, but I could do better.
Some impediments – I live in Pittsburgh, and there are hills, lots of them, and lots of trees around where I live.
The house I live in is old, very old, and the basement, where I had the antenna, is surrounded by brick. The attic, where I have it now, is surrounded by wood/aluminum siding (walls) and wood/slate (roof).
I know a place that I can run an antenna outside (through a crawl space and out the vent) and I can mount an outside antenna, but I won’t be able to get it above the roofline and it would be under the roof overhang.
Would this placement using a pole and an outside antenna give me better pickup than my regular pigtail inside? I’m assuming it would, but do you think it would be substantially better?
I can only get about 50 nm west, maybe about 30 nm the other directions when in the attic.
I actually had better coverage in the basement – no idea why, except that the antenna was closer to a window, so maybe if it’s inside being near a window is better? I was getting closer to 75 nm south (it was closer to the south window) and about 30 nm the other directions…
Given your options, you’ve pretty well answered your own question - “put the antenna where it works best”.
Outside, in the clear, above local obstructions is always desirable, but not always achievable.
You are going to be restricted by your geography, but this shows what to aim for:
A good commercial antenna (like Flightaware 26 inch 1090 Mhz antenna, or jetvision antenna) will perform much better than pigtail antenna even if it is placed indoors.
Of course the best location for any antenna is outdoor, high enough to have clear view of horizon in most directions.
I saw that antenna. The pigtail has a gain of about 3. That antenna a gain of about 5. Will the higher gain change the area covered? I thought the lower the gain the more even the coverage area?
5 db gain 26 inch antenna gives better perforformance than 3 db gain pigtail (magnetic base whip) antenna. Yo will get more aircraft and higher range.
However the higher gain antenna picks more RF noise, if your location has strong Cell phone and other RF signals. With a higher gain antenna, you may need to install a 1090 MHz filter, if your envirnoment is RF noisy.
Just try the 26 inch 5 db gain antenna, and if you notice there is no improvement, or even decrease in performance, then buy a 1090 mhz filter.
I also have Flightaware pro with filter builrin, but still had to add an external 1090 filter with FA26 inch antenna to get good performance.
Reason was that I live in an urban environment in high rise building, with lot of Cell phone antennas on roof of my own building as well as other nearby buildings. The RF noise in my case is very high. In your case it may not be so high and the builtin filter of pro may be sufficient.
You wont see noise directly, but if there is lot of RF noise, you will notice that the performance did not improve by changing pigtail (magnetic base) antenna by 26 inch antenna.
In my case, the RF noise was so severe, that it caused performance to drop severely when I swapped small antenna by 26 inch antenna, although both were at exactly the same location (indoor near a large window). The performance jumped up when I purchased and added an external filter (Flightaware 1090 mhz Blue filter). However this will not happen with you if RF noise at your location is not severe like it is at my location.
I was first using my antenna in the attic getting good results about 120 miles out. Putting it out side at about 20 feet has improved my stats and coverage by about double. Elevation, and no obstruction is best…more horizon you can actually see, the better
thanks., I got the antenna and plugged it in. I think I’ve gotten something like 20 nm more in every direction, which is pretty good for it still being inside. One of these days I’m going to place it outside, even if it’s not in the best location, and see how much difference inside vs. outside makes.
No noise by the way. It was a pretty instantaneous increase in range. I also use Ads-b exchange and I gave it 12 hours to redraw the boundaries on the web map and it looks a bit better.
I think i’m solidly in between the yellow and blue areas on the map provided by @geckoVN
