Appreciate this is not scientific but I compared two PiAware units in different locations within the same house and results surprised me.
Both units Zero Ws, same make of tuner attached to both, antennas are the supplied non optimum aerials with magnetic bases, both sit on an empty standard sized can.
My main unit SITE 84037 is positioned upstairs by a large NW facing window, clear view of sky, residential but houses around 40 meters away.
My second unit SITE 52124 is downstairs, window looks out onto neighbour’s house with just driveway between us, not a clear view of NE sky.
Weirdly my unit downstairs has marginally better aircraft and positions count than the upstairs unit with clearer view. Numbers are close so could vary.
I’m not looking to improve reception and only tried this after conversation with a friend who is looking for a position for his unit, he is reluctant to set it up permanently in a garage as he argues it is downstairs so reception will be poor.
My comparison suggests he should give it a try anyway.
For optimum results the antenna should ideally be positioned clear of any obstructions which might interfere with received signals. Get it up as high and as you can and away from other objects for best results.
Antennas never seem to behave like we think they should. I suspect your neighbors house across the driveway is reflecting the signals from a larger area and your antenna is in a fortunate area to get the better results. High and clear of obstacles is a good rule, but your antenna may have a slightly better overall “view” of the surrounding area. You can always try another spot for the second unit and see what happens there. Just another fun thing to ponder as we all learn and live. My best to you and yours. Stay safe.
Yes, you could be right about reflected signals. Plus I am on a flightpath for Heathrow, Luton and Stanstead so even at the location mentioned I can catch glimpses of aircraft approaching all three. Heathrow traffic tends to be around 8000 feet and the other two around 16000.
My main unit antenna sits by a large NW facing window, the Heathrow traffic tends to disappear below around 2000 which I would expect but I get plenty of aircraft on approach from 20 miles of more. The high stuff I can see over 50 miles away and often up to around 80 miles even with my standard supplied antenna sitting on a can.
Fascinating hobby, combines the computer and aircraft interest so double pleasure
I see your range is considerable so guess an impressive outside antenna…
Pretty simple setup here, Antenna is a Flightaware 66cm stick pushed up into the top of my attic with a RTL-SDR low noise amp (LNA) with 1090 mhz internal filters. 25 ft of coax running to an Airspy R2 receiver connected to a Pi 400 Keyboard/CPU setup. Height is probably 25 ft above ground in a relatively flat area, though surrounded with LOTS of tall trees. Altitude of the ground is about 571 ft asl here in NW Alabama, USA.
For range, a decent antenna at as high as one can get is the trick. The Airspy receivers have better than average internal hardware and much higher bandwidth to dig into the noise and retrieve adsb signals. They definitely need a LNA for best results. Bit higher costs gives about 20 to 30% improvements in planes/positions. Just my observations of late. The upgrades in the software by Obj (developer/designer of Airspy devices) and wiedehopf] (Profile - wiedehopf - FlightAware Discussions) have made significant improvements in how the software processes adsb signals and report results. My hat is off to both.
You’re confusing prog and obj
obj has done a lot of work of dump1090-mutability / dump1090-fa and mlat-server / mlat-client.
prog works on all the airspy stuff and SDR#.
