People keep recommending the HABamp but it’s sort of expensive for what it is, and it’s enclosure is not ideal for masthead mounting where it would do most good.
There is an interesting design here fabiobaltieri.com/2014/06/22/lna/ placed in the public domain by Fabio Baltieri - This just needs a protection diode at the input and a SAW filter at the output, then some sort of tube enclosure - then it would be ideal (except it really needs a manufacturer take it on - possibly a small scale fab). Fabio also has a mod for the larger sized RTL 820 dongle for power injection (remove protection diode, wire in re0setable fuse and inductor
Theres LNA4ALL - lna4all.blogspot.com - only half the board is used and if you want to use bias powering for the amp, you have to source and fit surface mount components yourself - there is also a SAW module as a separate item at the same cost as the amp.
There is also this kit ebay.com/itm/-/121641742912? from the USA - no bias power and you have to assemble yourself
If anyone knows of somemone who would make up Fabios design with a SAW … it would be of great interest
I’ve used Chuck’s amps (ebay) and they’re good. I do my own surface-mount work (but haven’t done controlled-impedance RF pc design). I"m using a multi-board design, with one of Chuck’s LNAs followed by a small board with a SAW mounted on it. Love to have a single board. Haven’t found any surface mount high-pass filters that come close to what the Mini Circuits SHP-1000 (or NHP-1000) does, both for low insertion loss and steepness of skirts. Would like to have the whole thing on one board.
Helped set up an ADS-B station for a friend down in LA last week. He has a very large cell tower a few hundred meters away with plenty of energy in the 800 - 900 MHz range. Need good solid hi-pass filters.
I was thinking about installing a inline amp and power inserter for the FlightAware antenna. I’m guessing I would need a DC blocker also. If anyone could point out some pointers of which would be good ones to use.
