Hello everyone! I just finished the bot’s newcomer tutorial, and I wanted to say hi with my current setup.
I built a quick ADS-B antenna using an empty coffee can, and to my surprise, it’s consistently picking up aircraft from over 100 NM (~185 km) away!
I’d love to hear what kind of DIY or custom antennas you guys are using. Happy tracking!
Here is a closer look at the setup! The coffee can antenna is hanging by the south-facing window of the second-floor indoor balcony.
The SDR dongle is attached directly to the antenna, and it’s connected to an older computer via a 2-meter USB cable. JP7DVX
Hello from Japan!
My callsign / display name “SHIRAKAMI” comes from the phrase “Shirakami Approach” used by pilots calling in for landing at Aomori Airport, overlooking the beautiful Shirakami mountains.
I’m active in receiving and tracking, and I set up a DIY coffee can ADS-B antenna hanging by my second-floor indoor balcony window. The SDR dongle is attached directly to the antenna to minimize loss, and connected to an older computer via a 2-meter USB cable. It’s consistently pulling in aircraft over 100 NM away!
Happy tracking and 73! JP7DVX
To process the signal, it’s connected to an older desktop PC running LMDE 6 (Linux Mint Debian Edition) (Fujitsu ESPRIMO with an Intel i3-4170 and 8GB RAM).
I run this station completely headless via SSH, and it handles daily flight data archiving and logging seamlessly in the background. Lightweight Debian-based Linux makes for a rock-solid receiver server! YUKIO
How I Archive My Flight Data Automatically
Following up on my previous setup with the DIY coffee can antenna and the headless Fujitsu ESPRIMO running LMDE, I wanted to share a simple way I keep track of daily flight coverage.
To save the daily summary, I use a lightweight Bash script that runs automatically every day. It grabs the real-time outline data from readsb and archives it with the corresponding date.
Here is the exact script I use (save_outline.sh):
Bash
#!/bin/bash
# Archive directory
ARCHIVE_DIR="/home/yukio/tar1090_archive"
mkdir -p "$ARCHIVE_DIR"
# Get yesterday's date (e.g., 2026-07-28)
YESTERDAY=$(date -d "yesterday" "+%Y-%m-%d")
# Copy readsb outline.json to the archive with the date attached
cp /run/readsb/outline.json "$ARCHIVE_DIR/outline_$YESTERDAY.json"
Combined with a simple cron job, this tiny script quietly builds a neat history of daily JSON files in tar1090_archive without any hassle. A robust, lightweight Debian-based setup makes 24/7 background tracking an absolute breeze!
Happy tracking and 73! YUKIO (JP7DVX)
Update on my little coffee can antenna setup! 
Reading about the high-speed traffic and heavy setups in NYC feels a bit like watching an F1 race from the driver’s seat of a humble little Kei-truck! But even so, my modest “Kei-truck” setup managed to pull in a peak range of over 110 NM recently.
By the way, I cut the coffee can in half, and surprisingly, the range improved! It makes me tempted to cut it down a bit more, but if I cut off too much, I’d be in trouble… so I think I’ll leave it as it is for now. 
Happy tracking everyone! 
Zooming photo of your coffee can antenna shows that there is an embedded wire mesh in your window glass. If this wire mesh is metallic, it will severely affect reception through the glass.
You need to lower the SDR gain a bit. The graph shows 11.5% of messages being clipped, as well as many tracks containing only a single message—likely due to the antenna being positioned indoors or excessive gain as the system tries to capture more messages. Why not try stream1090? I think it will reduce the number of those single-message tracks. If you’re using an RPi4, it will run smoothly. I’m not sure about older RPi models, though (others might be able to weigh in on that).
Good eye! But no worries—that mesh in the photo is actually just a plastic insect screen on the screen door, which I keep closed during the summer to keep the bugs out (and the glass behind it is normal wire-free glass).
That said, your comment gave me a good laugh thinking about how much trouble a real metal wire mesh would cause. Thanks for looking out for my reception! 
Thanks for the great advice! To give you an idea of my setup, I’m actually running this on a modest desktop PC rather than a Raspberry Pi:
OS: LMDE 6 (Debian-based Linux)
Hardware: Fujitsu ESPRIMO (Intel Core i3-4170 @ 3.70GHz, 8GB RAM)
As for the receiver options, my current readsb config is set to --gain 38:
Plaintext
RECEIVER_OPTIONS="--device-type rtlsdr --device 1000 --gain 38 --ppm 0 --net-ro-port 30002 --net-sbs-port 30003 --net-bi-port 30004,30014 --net-bo-port 30005"
Given the clipping and single-message tracks you pointed out, I’m thinking about lowering the gain a bit next. Thanks again for all the technical insights!
Thanks again for the great suggestions! I’ve just lowered the gain from 38 to 33.8 dB to see how it handles the clipping.
Here is a look at the 2-hour performance graphs right after the adjustment.
I’ll let it run for a while and keep an eye on how the message quality and tracks evolve. Cheers! 
Please also consider a proper antenna. This is really done with very few money: Reddit
Edit: Make it four legs instead of six
Edit2: getting the copper cable is easy. It is the stuff electricians use. It is insulated but that is not a problem. Roll it like pasta dough on a table, you can than easily pull off the insulation.
Edit3: Soldering can be a challenge. These wires have quite some heat capacity and conductivity. It is copper in the end.
Edit4: What the heck edit4? Nevermind, take the reddit post with a grain of salt. The design is good. But i was young (no actually not) and stupid at that time.
This one is easier, No soldering at all. Also it is cheaper, as it does not require an SO239 or N bulk-head connector. No copper wire needed either. Just use core wire of Coax (after removing it’s insulation), to create radials and whip
Thanks for sharing these amazing antenna ideas!
@mgrone: Haha, I appreciate the heads-up on the wire and the soldering tips—good to know I’m not the only one who learns by trial and error!
@abcd567: That “Quick Spider” design looks brilliantly simple. Seeing that incredible coverage from an indoor setup near a large window is seriously inspiring—it really fuels the DIY spirit!
I’m currently having a lot of fun experimenting with different builds. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful suggestions and making this thread so much fun! 
Another “fuel” for DIY sprit! 
@abcd567: Oh wow, another brilliant and ultra-compact build! A tiny pigtail antenna plugged right in like that is pure genius—definitely adding some serious “high-octane fuel” to my DIY spirit!
Thanks again for all these fantastic ideas. This thread has become an absolute treasure trove of inspiration!
Quick update on my setup!
After lowering the gain to 33.8 dB, the performance graphs have stabilized beautifully. The excessive clipping (-3dBFS) dropped significantly while maintaining a solid range of over 100 NM.
As for the antenna, I actually had a breakthrough: I was planning to trim down the coffee can further, but I discovered that simply removing the can body and using just the screw-cap as the base performed even better! It’s now a very compact “cap-only” setup, placed right by the window screen with my LNA/filter dongle.
Thank you all again for the fantastic advice and inspiration. This experiment has been a blast! Happy tracking, everyone!
