Well… I’ve officially caught the flight tracking bug. I’ve had my indoor setup running for 3 days and now I want to improve it and possibly get something setup outside.
Are there any posts/articles on different ways to make an outdoor setup?
1 Like
There are lots of threads here in forum and many users have their individual solutions.
I have mine also outdoor. Using a small switch cabinet mounted on the balcony wall where the feeder is located in. Then a 10ft cable to the pole where the antenna is mounted, that’s it.
You need to have an outdoor capable antenna and cable for it. But usually the better cables all can used outdoor. The antenna (the connector) should be covered to avoid corrorsion or humidity going into it.
I do not have the switch cabinet specifially sealed as my balcony is roof covered. So it only requires temperature control that it is not getting too hot or too cold outside.
Others like @caius or @keithma are using different solutions with the raspberry moutned directly at the pole. They might give you advice as well.
3 Likes
Hi @AustonnL I too am like you and new to all this and it’s damn addictive! I went from a basic setup with an cheapo indoor aerial loosely plonked atop a shelf (which worked a bit) to an external antenna in the loft. I simply hung this on a string (yes, really!) from a hook in a roof timber and ran the supplied and attached cable to the dongle. This made a big difference to results and spurred me on to further improvements. I’ve now got an externally mounted antenna, same one as I first used inside with the attached cable (no accessible connector) and am experimenting with putting it higher and higher up a pole. I have to say the results rent hugely different from another antenna I bought and remounted in the loft (new string!). Today I plan on trying a shorter cable on the internal antenna to see if it makes any discernible difference. One thing in all this that helps is the wonderful graphs add-on by @wiedehopf
https://github.com/wiedehopf/graphs1090
Sorry, can’t seem to get the quote to show up as others are able to do!
2 Likes
My rasperry pi isn’t mounted on the pole outside. It’s in the loft space. The antenna is mounted on the chimney with the LNA in a waterproof box, then the coax runs down the roof and under the eve to reach the pi.
2 Likes