Hi - new to radio stuff generally, but I’ve a dump1090 pro (I’ve written patches, used it for years, etc). I’ve had a lot of trouble getting improved performance out of my new FlightAware dongle both with or without the 1090mhz filter; with all sorts of different gain settings. In fact, I have trouble reaching parity with my existing setup. What could be going wrong? think I gave the different gain settings enough of an effort and my understanding is the 1090mhz filter makes the gain “just work” at the default settings.
The final piece is my antenna, the only antenna I had handy was the one from this wifi device amazon.com/Alfa-802-11b-Wire … detailpage – I know that antenna is probably better for 2.4ghz reception but I figure something else must be wrong if I only see an occasional message when my other dongle sees nearly constant traffic (I’m located in NYC). Do I need a different antenna?
What is a “dump1090 pro”? what “Cheapo device”?
Are you running an RPI0/1/2/3? some other linux or windows based device?
What gain settings have you tried. 37 seems to work well for me.
I am in NYC and have a setup 3 feet off the ground(next to my house) using a pro stick. It gets 2000-2500 A/C per day.
Another setup in the attic gets 3000 A/C per day but has a better antenna.
What code are you running? Piaware SD card or addon or your own complied version of dump1090-mut?
What have you tried to change.
What cable are you using?
Where is the antenna located?
Wifi gear is generally RP-SMA (reverse polarity), whereas the ProStick is SMA. This means in your connectors you probably have no pin contacting between the two devices, as they’re both female.
A short segment of wire will do it, but as others noted, you really should get an antenna tuned for the correct frequency.
In other words, your antenna is screwed on, but isn’t connected. But, even if you corrected for that - You’re using the wrong equipment and then posting that it doesn’t work. Hmm…
(A) Check connector on your wifi antenna wire. If it has a hole in ceter instead of a pin, then it is RP-SMA. In this case, cut a short piece of core wire of coax, and insert into hole of RP-SMA male, as shown in the diagram below. This piece of wire will act as a pin and convert RP-SMA male to SMA male.
(B) If you have not yet discarded the whip antenna which came with the “cheapo” dvb-t, cut it to 67mm, place it over a metallic can. You will get better results than using wifi antenna. You will need an mcx male to sma male adapter, as the pin on “cheapo” stick’s antenna is mcx, and on pro stick is sma
