what a setup! lol
Unfortunately I am not so good with my hands so If I mount mine on top of the roof I will have to pay an antenna installer who knows what they are doing to do it 
However I thought having a really long coax from the Antenna to the Dongle was bad and the longer the coax, the more the signal loss?
I was only looking at having a 3m coax because of this and I read anything over 10m would lose too much?
I don’t buy into that short coax deal. Keep your equipment in the house where you can tend to it and buy yourself some quality 400 series coax and you will have plenty of signal to filter and amplify.
The signal loss over 10 meters of LMR400 or similar coax will be about 2dB. Each coax connector will cause further signal loss. I keep cables as short as possible and put the RPi in the attic as close to the antenna as possible. I power the RPi over Ethernet using a POE+ hat. Maximum length for the Ethernet cable is 100 meters…
“…runs out of the house through a window seam…”
I use one of these below, or you could make your own. I have a couple ham radio passthoughs too, so maybe it’s overkill for some. Works well. It’s also not to hard to be hacked to your individual needs.
The longer your antenna run, the higher quality cable you’ll need to avoid signal loss.
For 2-3 meters, 240-series is perfectly usable. Out to 10 meters, 240-series starts to noticeably attenuate at ADS-B frequencies. Anything beyond 10 meters you want to use 400-series, at least for this hobby.
As for mounting it high, you have a couple of options. I currently have a 10-foot (3 meter) mast attached to a pergola on my deck. It doesn’t quite clear my roof, but it works for now. My TV-antenna is co-located (and probably too close).
You can get a J-mount to hook to the side of your house. These are commonly used for small satellite dishes. You can raise it up higher by inserting a mast extension (commonly 3 feet/0.9m or 6 feet/1.9m long) and attaching the antenna to that. There are other options for mounting to the side of your house as well.
My intention is to build a mount on the ground adjacent to my house that’s about 6-feet (1.9m) tall. At roughly 5 feet (1.6m) will be a pivot where I can mount the mast. The pivot will allow me to take the mast down without completely detaching it. I’ll use 20 feet (6.1m) of galvanized steel tube, sacrificing about 2 feet (0.6m) to anchor it to the pivot. This will get my antenna 25 feet off the ground. That height should clear my roof and chimney lines, as well as all of my neighbor’s roof lines, in every direction.
This isn’t quite enough to clear the ridge line to my northeast, but I’d need somewhere between 35 and 50 feet (11m to 15m) to do that. At that height, we’re talking several hundred dollars invested in a radio mast, and probably a stern objection from my wife!
Actually, the whole reason the biast was invented was that you needed to power an LNA that was near the antenna where power might not be conveniently located. What better way to do it than send power over the same coax that comes back from the LNA.
As far as coax is concerned, you can use LMR240 from the LNA output to the dongle input because you have the gain of the LNA to buffer the signal. In this case, the loss in the LMR240 will increase the noise figure by a very small amount. You don’t need LMR400 – it is harder to handle, has a larger minimum bend radius, is more expensive, etc.
I like the looks of that coax pass thru panel. Problem would be that my interior designer does not approve of any such installations. My pass through window is a metal frame slider so I use a short 3 foot coax stub in RG142 mini size with SMA connectors on each end to patch between my 400 coax and the antenna dongle. Works surprisingly well passing through on a vertical slanted approach. All my amateur radio equipment is housed in my backyard radio shack so there is no other coax entry requirements in the house. Happy wife…happy life.
thanks for all the ideas! I will look later at how I will mount the antenna for now on the side of the house will have to do
I do wonder though keeping your LNA close to the antenna how do you protect it from the rain etc? I guess you need to put it in a waterproof box?
@fhmiii I like the idea of a ground mount
One of the great advantages of the antenna mounting base being on the ground and attached to the side of the house, is you can raise and lower the antenna mast from the comfort of a short ladder at the side of the house. No roof climbing and putting holes in the waterproof roof for a mounting tripod or whatever. No electronics outside of my house is the rule. Antenna and coax only.
how does the radarbox or airspy mini compare to the prosticks?
is there a really noticeable difference in the two antennas? I figured if both were made correctly then an antenna is an antenna, since it’s the length that determines what it can pick up . I guess the inside components could make a slight difference…
I don’t have any personal experience with other ADS-B SDR makers, nor with the AirSpy.
Others have posted over the years that I’ve been doing this hobby that RadarBox, et al, are comparable. Meanwhile the AirSpy Mini has a significant performance gain but has to be programmed correctly and I believe needs a LNA to get it.
The Radarbox Green SDR (They also had a black one in the past) has an internal filter and amplifier built in.
I have both the black one ( no filter and no amplifier) and the green one and in my opinion they are ok but not as good as the Piaware Prostick Plus. Comparing them side by side gives me in my location 33% more positions and aircraft on the Prostick plus.
Comparing the black one with the Prostick Plus gives a difference of 50% in favor of the Piaware equipment.
The Airspy mini is better then the Prostick plus but you will need an LNA in order to get it running with good results.
I don’t have one so I will leave the explanation and pro’s and con’s to somebody that can tell you more about that SDR
yes there is a difference indeed.
actually there are 3:
I am using Radarbox Green 1090 stick which I purchased several years ago when it was newly launched. I remember at that time I opened its case to see what is inside. If I recall correctly، I found it has a filter chip as well as an amplifier chip. However this is several years old memory and may not be reliable.
If someone else has opened case of Radarbox Green and seen what is inside, please post your findings. Thank you in advance.
You are correct:
This page refers to a preamplifier, my bad (must have mixed it with the black one that certainly has no amplifier and filter).
I just went on the website to see, and Vinnant shows it has no shipping options for sending these antennas to the US. My guess is because they are 133cm (over 4 feet) long. They’ll ship, for example, the FE1090-PSE, which is only 55cm.
The main difference between Flightaware ProStick Plus and Radarbox24 Flightstic is relative location of Filter and Amplifier.
Flightaware ProStick Plus (Blue):
Antenna connector → LNA (RF Amplifier) → SAW Filter → rest of electronics
Radarbox24 Flightstick (Green):
Antenna connector → SAW Filter → LNA (RF Amplifier) → rest of electronics
The COL1090/8-P is shipped to the USA (102 cm). That antenna is within custom regulations so that one should show shipping costs. Unfortunately it is out of stock at the moment as well as the 9P and the 9PSE versions. I have all of those here at my place but shipping within the EU is less troublesome 
