"Cantenna" vs. FlightAware's 1090MHz ADSB Antenna

I have two Raspberries, one is connected to a “cantenna” and the other to the originals FlightAware’s 1090MHz ADSB antenna + ADSB 1090MHz Band-pass SMA Filter.

For my surprise, the range of the device connected to the cantenna is far better than the range of device connected to the original 1090MHz ADSB antenna + filter.

Both antennas are in the same location and the receivers are exactly the same hardware and are running the same PiAware versions.

If I invert the antennas among the receives, the one that is connected to the original 1090MHz ADSB antenna always presents the lowest coverage.

Any clue what´s is happening?

It’s normal, Cantenna is directional, hence it has a higher gain, but narrows the field.
The stock antenna is omnidirectional.

There is a confusion due to identical name Cantenna used for two (rather three) very different products.

The Cantenna referred to by atairlines is omnidirectional monopole ADSB Cantenna.

The Cantenna referred to by SoNic67 is uni-directional waveguide WiFi Cantenna.

Please see this post for detailed comparison of the two types:

http://discussions.flightaware.com/post206343.html#p206343

Haha, didn’t know about yours, thanks!

Exactly that! I did an ADSB antenna (type 3).

The average range of my Cantenna today is 200NM, however the average range of the original 1090MHz ADSB antenna is 100NM.

Does the 1090MHz ADSB antenna need to be installed in a grounded metal structure? because mine is fixed in a peace of wood.

I had a more or less similar experience with a self-made spider, which seemed to perform better that the FA antenna next to it in the attic. However, the differences were not that different with regards to distance, but rather overall messages and a/c.

To the North, there is a brick wall, to the East clay tiles and sheetrock, to the West just clay tiles, to the South the wide expanse of the attic :wink:

First, the atennae were side by side, then I put the FA atenna to a less favorable spot, away from the spider, the results were a little bit better, so I put it back and removed the spider, which lead a a further increase. So it maybe that the closenss of the spider or the closeness to another RPi with Wlan and USB cable influenced the reception of the FA antenna.

The FA atenna had the ProStick directly attached to it, after retiring the spider I used a pretty cheap 1m pigtail to connect it, if I remember correctly that lead to the biggest improvement.

I also changed from the Orange dongle to the Blue dongle. I live pretty rural, but there a still a few mobile Phone masts on a building close by, and some people nearby have strange antenna on the roof :smiley:

In my experience, the FA filter had little effect, probably also due to the difference in mobile phone frequency between the US and (Continental?) Europe. I have since added a cavity filter, which did not seem to have an immediate effect, positive or negative. Since then, over time the number of a/c and m per day have increased, but that is probably due to the air traffic picking up or maybe the re-arranging of mlat regions.

Experimenting with gain values has not brought me much success, at leas with the regards to the total number of a/c

Edit: Mine is not grounded either, it is attached to a wooden stand.