Just really got my Piaware fully running about 24 hours ago. I had it set up on Saturday but I was missing an adapter for the antenna that just came in yesterday afternoon.
For the first two hours I had it next to a window. I moved it to my attic above my garage and the numbers skyrocketed. I am really impressed with what I am seeing. I’d like to put it outside the roof but I am in South Florida where the lighting is insane at times. My house has sustained two nears hits in just the last year or two so I want to see how well I can do with attic placement. I have a different spot in a harder to reach attic location which will probably be about 16 ft above the ground. It is about 12 ft up now.
I am running Pi3, Flightaware Pro Plus, sma to f, short coax, n to f, and Flightaware antenna.
I also live in SE FL. You can compare to my feed which is an outdoor antenna at 20’. http://airplanes.ddns.net
There is a common misconception that lightning is somehow magically attracted to an antenna more than it is to any other grounded objects at a similar height. If you have a 30’ tall tree on your property and an antenna at 20’, the tree is going to be a much more likely target for lightning than your antenna. If the electrical feed to your house comes off a utility pole that’s 30’ tall, the pole will me much more likely to be hit than your tiny ADS-B antenna. Most of your neighbors probably have satellite dishes or HDTV antennas mounted around the roofline of their homes. If you don’t go too crazy with the height, you can safely put the antenna a few feet above the roofline of your home without concern.
It’s quite possible that your house will indeed sustain another near hit at some point in the future–but it won’t be because of your ADS-B antenna…
