Waiting for the parts to arrive but have a quick question.
On the Spider and Canantenna, the brass wire is to be cut to 69mm in length correct?
I’d assemble it with a longer whip then measure the 68/69 mm on the bit that’s exposed and chop the excess off.
then apply a bead of silicon caulk around the base of the whip to protect the connector from water ingress (if it’s going outside)
Sorry for being a noob on this just got the version one dongle last week and now have the version 2. I typically get 20-60nm inside house with the original short black antenna and the telescopic with version 2 works terrible fully extended by leaving it short i have pushed 100 nm.
My question is what adapters do i need to go from the connection on the dongle this coax antenna…that for some reason I cant figure out. Thanks for helping out much appreciated.
The dongle has an MCX socket.
What you probably want is an “MCX Pigtail”
Now these come in different flavours depending what the other end has to connect to. Most of us use satellite dish cable (dish/sky/astra - depending where you are) - it’s fairly low loss at the frequencies used and doesn’t break the bank. You usually use ‘F’ connectors with this cable. You screw one of those on - the core of the cable sticks out the end making a male plug … so you want an F - female on the end of the pigtail.
so something like this ebay.com/itm/271260863226 (if you get one in sourced from your own country it will cost more but arrive quicker)
I think I wound getting the wrong parts on amazon when I ordered the version two dongle
amazon.com/gp/product/B00CP1 … ge_o01_s00
that has a mini coax…didnt realize that until i got it in the mail.
Not sure what this one is good for
amazon.com/gp/product/B00CP1 … ge_o01_s00
I wasnt paying attention properly.
I just need to get the proper size RF coax connector.
I hope I am right on that thought,
Thanks
For what it’s worth, If you do not want to deal with the funky connectors and adapters, I have been using the ThumbNet dongles that come with an F-Type connector for a while now. They provide identical results to what I get with my NooElec R820T2 dongle.
You can get more information or pick them up from the following links
thumbsat.com/store.html
rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/
Cheers!
LitterBug
are you from columbus if so ditto
Yup. West Side!
Cheers!
LitterBug
Yes, it’s confusing until you get into it.
at this stage id search for “mcx pigtail f-female” on amazon, also get a small bag of twist on F-Connectors.
I use RG6 cable, there’s here say there is better stuff for little more - but I can’t remember the code for it.
Thanks for the input. Ordered the cable adapter. Next to build the Coax antenna.
Must the antenna be mounted away from anything metallic?
The Chrome whip telescoping antenna has a magnetic base so I just stuck it to the backside of my DirectTv dish and got decent coverage and at times 900 planes a day.
I’ve mounted a coaxial style antenna right next to the dish as its an easy place on the roof eves to mount the PVC pipe and was wondering of that metal dish that the antenna is mounted next to has any influence, negatively that is.
You have to distinguish between the different antenna designs. Antennas with a magnetic mount (especially car antennas) are designed to work on a big metallic base as a “counterbalance”, so that actually the antenna and the metallic base together form the antenna.
On the other side, there are antenna designs that does not require metallic “counterbalance” (actually, the ground always represents the counterbalance to any antenna in some way). So, to be more specific to your question, metallic objects should not placed next/near to your coax antenna. You should place it as high and free as possible, which should give you better results, especially in range/direction.
Kabuse
Well I have built:
Coaxial antenna (coaxial dipole) inside a PVC tube
4 Legged Spider, mounted to a piece of PVC tube to support it
Coke Can Antenna, also mounted to a piece of PVC to support it.
I have a meta bracket on the eves of the roof that was an older DirectTv mount that I zip tie the antenna PVC to but it’s metal and it’s less that 12" from the new DirectTv dish
WF100 is the all copper cable. Cheap enough on eBay,
You should try and get the antenna portion above the dish, but IMHO I think its OK to run the feeder portion of the of the cable near the metal dish parts.
…Tom
No, the Coaxial cable is set with alternating polarity in 108mm lengths. Sorry don’t know the correct name for it.
First day, filter hasn’t arrived yet, I’ve gotten 10% better coverage than yesterday with the chrome telescoping whip antenna produced yesterday. Not impressive but I can raise it up a few feet higher tonight so see if that helps and if the filter finally arrives I can have hope for it too.
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The above drawing was made and posted by me last year. Please see:
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My Post # 1199 dated 2014-05-29 in FlightRadar 24 forum “Best Antenna”:
http://forum.flightradar24.com/threads/3831-best-antenna?p=52586&viewfull=1#post52586 -
My Post #264 dated May 31, 2014, in Planefinder forum “ADS-B DIY Antenna”:
http://forum.planefinder.net/threads/ads-b-diy-antenna.23/page-14#post-795
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