That was a good deal!
Glad you added the filter. A setup without one, with full gain, would not have worked well in most locations.
Shouldn’t a spider have eight legs, not four?
Looking forwarding to testing a few out next weekend.
Without a 978mhz filter, I will need to keep the gain a bit lower on that side of things.
Good luck.
Antenna > Outdoor
(Filter + Pro Stick + RPi) > Indoor or inside a weather proof enclosure outdoor.
Note that the Filter stays directly connected to the Pro Stick. No cable between Filter & Pro Stick.
The minimum number of radials required to maintain a symetrical groundplane around 360 degrees is 3. Increasing number of radials improves groundplane, but there is not a very big difference.
dbaker,
Could I get you to do me a huge favour, can you give me a measurement in millimeters, the length of the dongle and filer together, maybe also include an sma and coax on the end curved to 90 degrees as is safe for that size coax…?? Just want to know if I need to go buy a larger outdoor enclosure than what I already have.
Thanks!!
@bhaal
In my opinion, in order to reduce mechanical stress caused by push/pull/weight of heavy feeder coax like RG6 on the Stick & Filter’s delicate SMA connector, it is advisable to use a small 4 inch or 6 inch long pigtail (made of thin cable like RG174 or RG316) between feeder coax and the filter (or the pro stick if no filter is used).
The size is 6.5 inch (165 mm) for the Prostick and filter
If you want to include the space for cabling you should add another 2-3 inches. About 9 inch (228mm)
Thanks David! Much appreciated, now I know it’s not going to be easy to enclose that as a single length, will have to figure something out at least I know the length now 
This is slightly off-topic but my antenna is a diy coco using RG6 … Would a 75ohm → 50ohm impedance converter improve things? Or would the insertion loss be to much?
You have only one transition 75 ohms > 50 ohms. This will cause negligible loss (0.177 dB). Not worth using 75 ohms > 50 ohms convertor.
When 50 ohm is mixed with 75 ohm,
Reflection Coefficient Γ = (75-50)/(75+50) = 0.2
SWR = (1+Γ)/(1-Γ) = (1+0.2)/(1-0.2) = 1.2 / 0.8 = 1.5
Mismatch Loss in dB = -10 log (1 - Γ²) = -10 log (1 - 0.2²) = -10 log 0.96 = 0.177 dB
.
Thanks! I figured as much after doing some searching and not turning up to much, but figured I’d ask as I know there are some very knowledgeable people on here! Now I know the last things I need to order…
Did you hear that? No? You should have, it was my head exploding
Just got my prostick!
I installed it along with the FA 1090 filter.
Previous setup was a HAB Amp, Will post differences from collectd after a while.
This should be a pretty good comparison of the HAB Amp with Amp and SAW filter, vs Prostick and FA filter.
I am also using the FA antenna mounted on my roof.
for anyone curious
162.236.27.45:8080/VirtualRadar/desktop.html
you can see the current setup and the green heatmap shows what my max was with the previous config.
Will the Pro Stick work on other frequencies?
It is SDR, so if I decided to listen to VHF airband (with the appropriate antenna) would that even work?
–Dan
Yes, it’s the same SDR chip as most of the USB dongles.
So, the amp works across a wide range of frequencies then? (or at least doesn’t interfere outside of 978-1090).
The bandwith of DVB-T dongles without amplifier is set by the Tuner chip R820T2, which is 25MHz-1750MHz.
For Pro Stick with RF amplifier at front end, the bandwidth depends on both the RF Amplifier Chip & Tuner Chip R820T2.
What is the frequency range of the RF Amplifier Chip of Pro Stick?
What time/date did you make the change? I see a drop in traffic around just after 10AM local time today.
I did it around 11:20am central time
I have one ordered. Amazon says available on 3/28
The inventory is in flux while they process our shipments, but they began shipping last night.
I think you’ll be very pleased. As long as you didn’t already have an amp, you’ll see a massive improvement. 