Can 1090 Mhz signals travel through the house?

[wilhelmthieme]

I have a feeder operational for 1 month now.
My setup is PI Zero W2 with a DIY spider indoor antenna.

By experimenting I found out that the reception is at its best when the antenna is right by the window.

The window is facing east.

My coverage graph typically looks something like this.

I was wondering. How is it possible that the best direction I receive data from is West.
Can 1090Mhz signals travel throug the house?
I don’t have any windows facing West. At leas not on the attic where my antenna is right now.
Could it be possible that 1090 Mhz Signals bounce back from a building that is some 100 meter east of my house?

[foxhunter]

It depends on the used material.
Concrete walls are a problem. other things like a roof not that much.

Before we moved i had my antenna in my home office which was in the attic of our house.
The best reception i had having the antenna in the middle of the room. Getting closer to walls or a woden beam brought the reception down.

Friend of mine has a feeder on a church tower. But there is a concrete wall and the feeder only “see” one side of the sky. He fixed it by mounting a second antenna/sitck to the same device where the antenna is behind that wall.

[wilhelmthieme]

Thanks for the answer. In my case antenna in the middle of the attic decreased the reception.
So it seems no problem for the signal to pass through the solar panels, ceramic tiling, insulation and some wood.
it pays to experiment with your antenna placement thats for sure

[jimMerk2]

Here’s a link to a NIST paper on RF signal attenuation through various construction materials.

https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/IR/nistir6055.pdf

[abcd567]

@wilhelmthieme

Can 1090Mhz signals travel throug the house?

My two old posts on the subject. Old, but still relevant

July 2016: RF Signal Loss in Penetrating a Building

 

Dec 2016: Attenuation of RF Signal by Glass, Masonry, Wood & Concrete

 

 

 

[dvsvejk]

Having your antenna indoors does provide endless opportunities to learn about the RF attenuation properties of your house’s building materials. You are right to experiment with locations and see how the surrounding materials impact your reception.

My antenna is in a second floor room under a pitched roof. There is a Velux window installed in the roof. When I first started I thought putting the antenna under the window would be great as it “sees the sky”. Results were not so great. I think the window has coatings and/or gases in between the pane layers which cause problems. Best was simply to place the antenna right up at ceiling height. This is near the roof apex and the wood and roof tiles are pretty good at letting the signal through.