Looking to get into this ( already have flight feeder on way as my office is next to an airport )
Im interested in building my own setup from home also. Having some experience of radio i do understand the antenna is the key but also wondered on what my best options are on the SDR side of things?
If its possible i would like to run this on a windows pc also, if not im learning about raspberry pi building.
Thoughts on a top notch setup appreciated.
Thanks
Apologies for the basic questions.
Mark
For a reasonable price and good performance if coax between antenna & SDR is not longer than 10 meters: Flightaware Pro Stick Plus (Blue) and Flightaware Filter
For a reasonable price and good performance if coax between antenna & SDR is longer than 10 meters: RTL-SDR Blog dongle + Tripple Filtered LNA
For high-end performance Air Spy Mini
OPTION-1: The easiest is to use a Raspberry Pi to run Piaware SD Card image, and see the map with aircraft on Windows computer through local network (LAN).
OPTION-2: On Windows Computer install Oracle Virtual Machine, then inside Oracle VM install Linux OS Debian 11. On Debian 11 install dump1090-fa, dump978-fa and piaware data feeder (Click Here)
OPTION-3: You can manage without Raspberry Pi or Oracle VM if you dont want to feed Flightaware from Windows computer. Windows software to decode and display aircraft on map are available like dump1090-win.1.10.3010.14.zip by Malcolm Robb or ModeSDecoder by Sergsero
https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html
Download and install following two packages:
(1) Oracle VM VirtualBox Base Packages
(2) Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
NOTE:
In Settings >> Network, change default " NAT " to " Bridge Adapter "
Give the Raspberry a try. You can either run the Piaware image as a starting point or directly move forward with Raspberry OS and the Piaware package.
It’s really not difficult.
I am working in a small team of eight people in a complete different business and during our last yearly meet&greet we wanted to make something different. So we got a bunch of devices and asked team to build it from scratch.
After half a day all of them received their first aircraft without having any linux skills at the beginning
I run on Raspberry PI. It’s easier to do than you think (very little configuration once you have downloaded and copied the image to micro-sd card), and you avoid the energy use required to run a PC.
You both are right. That is why I kept Raspberry Pi as OPTION-1 in my reply (please see below)
Yes, get a Raspberry Pi 4, Pi 3B+ or Pi Zero 2W starter kit with heatsinks, power supply, SD card and case or an Orange Pi kit, get a USB micro SD card reader if your PC doesn’t already have one built in, download the PiAware image file, unzip it, burn it to the SD card. No fuss, no muss, and you can put the Pi somewhere out of the way leave it running 24x7 for pennies a month. You can watch the planes it spots on your PC in a web browser and also remotely configure the Pi from the PC using SSH in a terminal (or whatever the black window where you enter typed commands is called in Windows.)
I second what abc567 said about the choice of SDR dongle. It depends on how high you have to mount your antenna so it’s higher than nearby obstacles, because that determines how long the coaxial cable needs to be. The FlightAware Pro Plus blue SDR dongle with or without a second filter (if you’re in an urban area an additional filter just below the antenna will help get rid of even more interference from cell phone towers, pager systems and similar than the internal filter alone does) for shorter coax lengths, the RTL-SDR Blog v3 dongle and RTL-SDR Blog 1090 Triple-Filtered LNA (low-noise amplifier) for longer coax runs. Put the LNA just below the antenna inside something that’s waterproof as the LNA itself isn’t.
Use a low-loss coax like one of the LMR series: LMR400 is among the best but it’s big, stiff, unwieldy and difficult to work with. They also make LMR UltraFlex cable that’s supposed to be not as stiff. I personally use 12 meters of LMR240 which is thinner and lighter weight than 400 at the cost of slightly higher signal loss at 1090MHz. I decided to compromise: light weight and ease of installation won over an extra 1.8dB of signal strength. You can get by with RG6 if it’s a short cable run and if you use high-quality RG6 that’s meant for use with satellite receiver systems. Use short RG316 jumpers between your LMR coax and your SDR dongle and between the coax and your filter or LNA as the heavier coax if connected directly to the devices could damage their SMA connectors due to too much strain from the weight of the coax.
Regarding abd567’s option 3 (if you just want to watch planes on your PC and don’t care about feeding any of the flight traffic aggregator sites) there’s also VirtualRadarServer. That’s what got me started and what I did for several months before I decided to buy a Pi and start feeding. VSR just uses the data from dump1090 or similar to present the planes in a nice-looking display:
Everything else would have surprised me 
We are not saying you’re wrong, but confirming your statement. What is wrong with it? I have read your statement regarding Raspberry…
Sorry i just notcied these replies? Thanks to everyone for the input. Lots of great infomation here im sure. PI it is then… now to find supplies.
Thanks again. Mark
I would also recommend an RPi with an FA blue Pro Stick Plus dongle - I’ve done extensive testing on a few, including the RTL-SDR silver dongle, the Nooelec dongle and the Jetvision Air Squitter.
The FA PSP+ wins every time for all stats.
Cheap and has the 1090 filter built in, so you don’t need an external filter
Not true at all locations.
External filter is required at RF noisy locations.
Thanks, the FA blue pro it is.
Another question as i know nothing of the Pi computers, whats the advantages of the 4 over the 3 etc. Also does more ram on the board give an advantage of any type? I know my flight feeder thats on its was is a Pi 3 ( not sure on its ram ) but is the higher model worth it?
Just for info my flight feeder is going to work ( as im next to an airport ) and this build one is going home… Can i have 2 Pi’s on one account?
Thanks in advance.
So in theory being next to an airport is RF noisy? as is a built up new development?
Any way to test this in advance?
Not necessarily, but airport VHF / UHF communication may cause RF noise.
Being close to a cell phone, or TV or FM tower is most likely RF noisy.
Best way is to build your station without filter, then test by following methods. If shown noisy, purchase a filter.
So double filtering would help in such locations? Never knew that 
As long as you’re running the blue FA stick and you are not using for other purposes a Pi3 is still sufficient. There is no advantage getting more ram or CPU speed.
I was running this solution for > 1 year.
However the 4B is currently not more expensive, so you can take the Pi 4 even if there is not (yet) an advantage for you.
Technically yes, but not at the same time.
Absolutely you can.
Many of us (including @foxhunter ) run multiple sites on a single account.
Oh, i misread that.
For sure you can run several feeders via one account. But only one per ID at the same time
Great so i can run my flight feeder at work near the airport and my home brew job at home…
sounds like a plan… Just trying to find a pi 4 now thats in stock in the UK
Thanks again.
I think that’s currently the most challenging part of your project 
Good luck with that 
I couldn’t find them in stock anywhere, so I’ve just bought a used RPi 3B+ from eBay for £40 
