A bit more follow up after installing the SAW filter. Here is a table of gain vs % strong messages for my setup:
- 49.6 gain had 48% strong messages
- 38.6 gain, 24% strong
- 33.8 gain, 14% strong
- 32.8 gain, 13% strong (almost no change)
- 29.7 gain, 8% strong
Prior to the SAW I ran with a gain of 49.6 and had 4% strong messages.
I always find it very difficult to determine “is it better or worse” since there is no solid reference and every flying day and propagation day is different. Based on the FA data from this month, after the change I have lower message counts in the 200-250 and 250+ mile ranges. Based on my local graphs it seems my peak range is down a bit but the average max range is unchanged. As far as what I like to do, which is monitoring military and interesting flights in the area, I don’t think the changes have helped. Things could be marginally worse but it’s impossible to say so without more than a week of data.
On the other hand my site’s 30-day rank on the FA stats page has increased significantly and pretty steadily. It appears MLAT could be one reason. I’m going to watch my setup for another week or so then figure out how to go about adding UAT.