Hello everyone,
Since last night, I’ve noticed a sudden drop in decode rates across multiple bands and systems here—affecting not only ADS-B (TAR1090), but also WSPR and SatNOGS reception.
I was wondering if anyone else is experiencing a similar dip in performance over the past couple of days. Is it just me, or are others seeing unusual propagation conditions as well?
Would love to hear how your stations are doing right now!
If you change the antenna’s position, your statistics will change, and that is natural. Sometimes moving it just one meter to the side, or up or down, makes a difference.
There aren’t many aircraft in my area, but my range is good because my antenna is 23 meters above the ground. I used to use a Pro Stick + RPi 4 (stream1090 demodulator) + dump1090-fa + PiAware. Now, I’ve removed the SDR and installed an Airspy Mini + PGA103.
Thank you for sharing your setup and advice! Your Airspy Mini + PGA103 configuration looks really solid.
My antenna position hasn’t changed, but I was actually wondering if recent space weather—like the geomagnetic activity over the past couple of days—might be affecting propagation across different bands (not just ADS-B, but also WSPR and SatNOGS).
Have you ever noticed temporary dips in performance due to solar or geomagnetic events in your area?
Here you can see the Tropospheric Ducting forecast for the upcoming 6 days. You can select the appropriate region on the left hand side.
This might be useful in predicting your reception possibilities.
Thank you for sharing the dxinfocenter link! That’s a great reference map.
Looking at the Far East map for August 10, the conditions around northern Japan seem quite low (mostly marginal or nil), so tropospheric ducting might not be helping much right now.
Still, it’s a very helpful tool to keep an eye on for VHF/UHF propagation. Thanks again for the helpful advice!
I think that rain, snow, cloud cover, meteor showers, space weather, solar eclipse all play a role.
The impact will be more or less noticeable depending on the frequency.
DXInfocenter is a very valuable and popular resource for FM and TV DXers.
Bill Hepburn, the owner of the site, has been in this field and hobby for decades. He has a privileged location and can receive stations, both FM and TV, that others can only dream about.
As for propagation, old timers in the hobby say that June 8-10 was the best for FM DX in 25+ years. It’s still above average but dying down as expected.
My basic station received over 200 FM stations in 25 american states during that 3 day window.
If you like tracking satellites, since you mentioned SatNOGS, check out TinyGS. There are only 10 active stations in Japan at the moment.
I installed a TinyGS ground station 2 days ago and it’s fun.
I had a SatNOGS station in the past but the RPi was not behaving properly so I “decommissioned” it.
What hardware (other than Pi) do you need for TinyGS ground station?
All you need is a Heltec v3 board for the 433MHz band, around CAD$27 on AliExpress, and an antenna. No RPi needed.
The “hardest” part is to get an invitation to join, unless you use Telegram. My account is too new, I have not been given invitations to distribute yet.
I just contacted members near me and asked for an invitation. I got lucky, the second one had them. But again, if you use Telegram, you can do all the setup without an invitation.
Thank you very much for sharing your insights and such impressive results! Receiving over 200 FM stations across 25 states in just three days is truly amazing. I completely agree that various factors like weather, space weather, and atmospheric conditions all play a role in propagation. I really appreciate your helpful explanations and info!
@Dxista Thank you so much for the great tip about TinyGS! I actually don’t own a Raspberry Pi. I’ve been participating in SatNOGS by installing Debian on an old PC to bring it back to life.
Do you know if I can participate in TinyGS using my old Debian PC setup, or is a board like the Heltec v3 strictly required? Either way, knowing there are only 10 active stations in Japan makes me really want to take on the challenge and add one more to the map!
No need for an RPi or any other computer, except for setting it up.
The only hardware needed is the Heltec v3 board for 433MHz and an antenna.
I searched Aliexpress. There is a huge variety of these available with different specs. Can not decide which one is suitable for TinyGS. Can you please provide link to the one you purchased? Thank you.
Edit:
I just noticed that currently if you buy 2, and apply the coupon, they end up costing less tha CAD $25 each.
For the antenna, your spider will work wonders.
If you want a case, get this one:
Thank you @Dxista for providing the link.
This case seems better.
Unfortunately saw your edit too late. Saw it after ordering one with case by same seller.
Try to cancel the order. It’s possible before it’s shipped.
I ordered 2 more cases yesterday and today they are cheaper, but the order has shipped already.
Thank you for advice. Done.
Please see screenshot below.
They gave me $2.50 discount in yesterday’s order, which I lost when cancelled the order. They did not give me any discount in today’s order 
Cancelled yeterday’s order (3rd from top)
Placed new order today (1st & 2nd from top)
AliExpress has dynamic pricing, meaning, they monitor your actions on the site and set the price based on that. It took me a while to figure it out.
I just checked the same item, the price went up compared to yesterday, but the coupon is still there.
What I do now is to bookmark the items I’m interested in and only order when the price is right, including coupons. The price can change during the same day.
That said, the case you ordered before is useless, the one you ordered now is much better.
