Help - new station only receiving "other"

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Hi,

On Aug-15 2019 I setup an old Raspi Pi model 2 with the standard “Raspbian Buster Lite” Image. I bought a “FlightAware Pro Stick Plus ADS-B USB Receiver with Built-in Filter” with a small 1090 Antenna and installed everythig in a 3" ABS tube on my roof (see ABS structure - Album on Imgur).

Then I followed the procedure at “flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/install” to install the software on top of what was all ready working. I skipped “sudo apt-get install dump978-fa” since I had a 1090 antenna and that part did not seem to be supported by my version, and also the auto updates since I figured I had the latest version.

Unfortunately I’m only getting “other” messages and no ADS-B on my stats page user ldrapeau, but many planes fly over my house before they land at YUL. Any explanations, hints, thaings I should try? Maybe the system does not work with Buster or some other thing I missed. Thanks, Louis

2

if I type “nc localhost 30003” this is what I get after a few minutes (this would be raw data captured I think)
MSG,8,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:26:54.377,2019/08/26,09:26:54.438,0
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:02.584,2019/08/26,09:27:02.633,8675,
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:05.393,2019/08/26,09:27:05.466,8750,
MSG,4,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:05.605,2019/08/26,09:27:05.644,159,267,1472,0
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:06.375,2019/08/26,09:27:06.409,8775,
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:06.586,2019/08/26,09:27:06.626,8775,
MSG,8,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:08.983,2019/08/26,09:27:09.027,0
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:14.358,2019/08/26,09:27:14.424,8975,
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:15.823,2019/08/26,09:27:15.857,9025,
MSG,8,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:15.911,2019/08/26,09:27:15.959,0
MSG,5,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:16.479,2019/08/26,09:27:16.512,9025,0,0,
MSG,8,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:16.858,2019/08/26,09:27:16.895,0
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:21.373,2019/08/26,09:27:21.422,9125,
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:21.376,2019/08/26,09:27:21.423,9125,
MSG,8,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:22.336,2019/08/26,09:27:22.399,0
MSG,8,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:28.848,2019/08/26,09:27:28.902,0
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:37.386,2019/08/26,09:27:37.428,9425,
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:27:44.349,2019/08/26,09:27:44.409,9525,
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:28:02.958,2019/08/26,09:28:03.029,9825,
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:28:04.819,2019/08/26,09:28:04.887,9850,
MSG,7,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:28:44.879,2019/08/26,09:28:44.927,10625,
MSG,8,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:28:51.331,2019/08/26,09:28:51.372,0
MSG,4,1,1,C04E8E,1,2019/08/26,09:29:03.649,2019/08/26,09:29:03.708,166,263,1216,0

MSG,8,1,1,C05B64,1,2019/08/26,09:30:35.163,2019/08/26,09:30:50.435,
MSG,7,1,1,C05B64,1,2019/08/26,09:30:50.377,2019/08/26,09:30:50.435,12700,

MSG,8,1,1,A7950F,1,2019/08/26,09:33:42.645,2019/08/26,09:34:03.661,0
MSG,6,1,1,A7950F,1,2019/08/26,09:34:03.607,2019/08/26,09:34:03.661,6224,0,0,0,

3

Check that you have correctly configured your antenna location (e.g. maybe you got a sign wrong?)
piaware will discard positions that appear to be implausibly far from your configured location.

edit: your location looks OK, you just have a very very low rate of data. I’d say that you have a problem with the receiver / antenna hardware. Is that enclosure radio-transparent? What’s the antenna you used, exactly? Is the antenna itself mounted vertically?

4

Could you specify which exact antenna you are using?

5

The one that sais 1090 on it from the package below

https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/gp/product/B01FS0GI0W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

6

That’s the worst antenna i know of. (I have no idea why they sell it as 1090 MHz)

A simple wire cut to 6.5 cm performs much better.

Try building a spider directly on the dongle:
QUICK SPIDER - No Soldering, No Connector

It shouldn’t be too hard :slight_smile:

What does that other antenna on the roof do?

Could easily interfere with reception.
(Even a receiving antenna with amplifier can be problematic as the some amplifiers produce interference)

2 Likes
7

If you look at the picture you can see the antenna sticking out from the orange cover, it’s a bit hard to see but it’s there.

8

The other antenna is an OTA HD-TV antenna with amplifier, that may be the problem. I will also try to make an antenna as proposed here. Thanks for your observations.

9

Yes that’s somewhere in the frequency ballpark and could be interfering quite severly.

It would help if the ADS-B antenna would be above the other antenna.
For example with the spider, it shouldn’t pick up interference from directly below it nearly as much.

To really eliminate interference you could also use the rtl-sdr LNA which has very good filtering: Useful items for purchase · wiedehopf/adsb-wiki Wiki · GitHub

But trying a quickspider directly above the other antenna is the first thing i would try.
Or maybe just make another stand 5 m removed from the HDTV antenna.
(Distance is king in regards to interference)

10

I have bought two of those black antennas from eBay, one was not working at all, the other was very weak. So I did throw them away.

I would install the electronics the other way around, so the water from rain doesn’t leak inside the box trough the hole on top (antenna).
How do you get the data from the Pi down? WiFi? In apartment complexes, the 2.4GHz WiFi spectrum is very crowded, and the tiny WiFi antenna inside the Pi2 will loose lots of packets.

Nice use of the car discs.
I would also put a sheet of plywood or something similar under the PVC pipe, so the landlord won’t charge you with repairing the roof. I am amazed that they let you put the TV antenna in the first place.

11

Hi, well so much for the antenna, I will try to make one myself. As for the electronics, the other way around is not a good idea I think because I have to be able to remove the 3" tube and also the orange cover. The only “week” spot in the current config is the antenna hole and I made sure that was taken care of correctly.

As for the Pi it’s only a model 2 so no wireless on board, I used a spare POE injector I had hanging around and bought POE splitter (https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/gp/product/B079D5JXNF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) that seperates RJ45 and 5V, works fine.

No issues with the landlord, it’s me. I prefer to have no plywood under the tubes, will just rot with time.

12

That’s cool. However, if you care about the roof’s membrane, you might want to consider something else to spread the pressure.

13

Ok, I see by pressure you would mean were I put the disks? The whole rig it’s self is very light, I didn’t think that would be an issue, but I don’t know that much about roofing. I have some extra gravel I could maybe put some under where the disks are?

14

Might be fine, and me having paranoia. Gravel, when pressed, tends to create punctures, especially when cold outside. It’s up there just because is a good reflector.
https://inspectapedia.com/BestPractices/Walk_on_Roof_Surfaces.php

15

Ok, well thanks for the info, will keep that in mind

1 Like
16

They make roof mats to put antenna structures on top of if you want something that works for sure.
Also, I would put a T on the main pipe instead of the Y and extend out 6" to a ft and then use an elbow, so you can make your ADSB antenna vertical.

|   |
L___|
    |
1 Like
17

Well the antenna sticking out of that Y is already vertical, it’s just very bad.
If he constructs his own antenna, he can make a bend in the coax and contraption to make the antenna vertical.

But probably the HDTV receiver is swamping everything close by with interference, so another approach is needed anyway.

18

I think “wiedehopf” has it right. I’m going to make a quick spider, but have about 3 feet of RG56 coax on it go through a PVC 1/2" tube about 18" long and then try plugging that with this ( https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/gp/product/B072BBVYWT/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A3SP9D0HBLLG4I&psc=1 ) adapter directly to my existing setup. I will find a way to have the antenna on top of the OTA antenna and see how that works. Any opinions on this plan are welcome.