Exactly same happenned with me, except that corner of my box were not ripped. I have found a use for this box: it is now temporary stand for the FA antenna (see photos in my posts above) .
I can’t test the thing until my connectors come from China via a wind powered raft. Based on acbc’s experience, I’m kinda concerned.
Do not worry about about N-to-F adapter, which later testings proved to be ok.
Do you have any electronics hobby store or RadioShack in your city. Possibly they may have it. I ordered one from Amazon before antenna was delivered, and the delivery was mid Feb to mid March . When FA antenna was delivered, I went to an electronics & hobby store in my city, and found this N-to-F adapter and purchased two pieces @ $3.25 ea. Since the FA antenna’s initial trial gave very poor results, the N-to-F adapter was suspected. Later it was proved that the adaptor is ok, and I am now using it.
If you are going to use RG6 coax, and do not intend to use FA filter, which has SMA connectors, then remember adapter should be N-male to F-female, as the socket on FA antenna is N-female, and pin on RG6 coax is F-male.
I have also found that the electronics store in my city had a pigtail N-male to SMA-male, which I did not need as I dont use FA filter. I needed N-male to MCX male, so that I can connect FA antenna directly to DVB-T using pigtail only, but they did not have it.
In order that the comparison of FA antenna and Cantenna is fair, I relocated Cantenna besides the FA antenna, then following sequence of events took place:
(1) At 13:00 hrs disconnected RG6 feeder coax from FA antenna, and connected to cantenna (see photo below).
(2) At 14:00 hrs disconnected RG6 feeder from Cantenna and connected back to FA antenna.
At each of above two events, I left feed coax unconnected from antennas for about 5 minutes to make graphs drop to zero, acting as marker for antenna swapping points.
(3) At about 16:30, saved performance graphs (6hrs) to cover the entire operation…
The results were … well you see the graphs & decide yourself … I am confused.
PERFORMANCE GRAPHS
–From start of graphs (about 10:30 hrs) up to 13:00 hrs - FA antenna
–From 13:00 hrs to 14:00 hrs - Cantenna
–From 14:00 hrs up to end of graphs (about 16:30) - FA antenna
I had similar issue yesterday.
I tested a longer SMA-N pigtail(3ft versus 6").
I ran the test during the day then put the 6’ back in place(I had been using it for several days).
The readings dropped considerably. I then put back the 3’ pigtail I was testing and the stats went back to the level from the day before when the 6" pigtail was in use.
The Antenna is in the same location for all tests.
No config changes were made to the RPI2 during this time.
I suspect a connection issue somewhere (edit). I may test again Thursday.
for me this looks like something in your cabling is not ok. and this was what i meant when writing ‘would nearly exclude that there is another error in actual cabeling’
edit: btw. i do always a reboot before performing a test run and after changing antenna - to give the whole system the same chance to adapt to new conditions. in addition this gives you a visible marker in stats in less time.
I will repeat swapping test tommorrow to see what happens. Most probably one of the connectors/adapters or the antenna is dodgy i.e has intermittent connection. Repeat swaping coupled with mechanical movement will help in pin pointing the cause.
96 hrs Graphs:
From start of graph to Sunday mid day - Cantenna
From Sunday mid day to Tuesday mid day - Poor performance of FA antenna.
From Tuesday mid day till end of graph (tuesday evening) - Good performance of FA Antenna.
I’ve found that receiver performance can be extremely sensitive to seemingly insignificant things. I swapped an N - F adaptor for a short patch lead made from WF100 with an N plug and F plug to connect the amp to the antenna. There was a big drop in performance as a result. I swapped it for an N plug to F socket adaptor and a short patch lead I had in my box of cable modem bits and performance is back to normal. A resistance check of the N - F plug lead showed very low resistance for both the core and screen, yet something about it is attenuating the signal. I think that at high frequencies everything has to be absolutely right or you get disproportionate losses, whereas at lower frequencies you have a lot more leeway before things cause problems.
@caius:
You are right, but in todays test, performance of FA antenna jumped up without changing any component of the system.
Initially the FA antenna was connected to receiver using 3 feet rg6 coax and 6 inch pigtail. The rg6 coax was then disconnected from FA antenna and connected to Cantenna located at 1 ft from FA antenna. After an hour the rg6 coax was disconnected from Cantenna and connected back to FA antenna, and FA antenna’s performance almost doubled! There was absolutely no change in any componenet of the system.
This behaviour indicates dodgey (intermittent) connection in one of the components of the system. Let us list:
(1) F to MCX pigtail
(2) RG6 feed coax or it’s two F-pins
(3) N-to-F adaptor
(4) The FA antenna
Item (3) is least suspected as I have tried 2 pieces of it and then removed it altogather, connected RG6 coax directly to antenna’s N terminal (see my earlier post), but there was no improvement.
Tomorrow I will move the whole system (including antenna), so that if there is a loose connection anywhere, the mechanical motion may cause it to open, and performance will drop again. I will then change the components one by one, first the pigtail, then RG6 feed coax, then DVB-T dongle, and see what happens.
I am now waiting for delivery of these two items:
(1) N-male to MCX-male pigtail 8 inch/20 cm RG316 - estimated delivery 1 Mar - 17 Mar
(2) N-male to F-female adapter - estimated delivery 14 Mar
The item 1 (N-to-MCX pigtail) will eliminate the RG6 coax and N-to-F adapter and will connect FA Antenna directly to DVB-T
The item 2 (N-to-F adapter) is of a good make and will help in determining if the cause was the locally purchased un-branded adapter.
Amazon were very prompt, and I received the antenna only 2 days after ordering with free shipping
But the pigtail & connectors have a long delivery time 1 to 1-1/2 months.
I suggest FA ask Amazon to include with antenna sale, the option to purchase various different connectors (to be chosen by the buyer) and ship it along with the antenna in the same box. This will help the buyer a lot and avoid mistakes in ordering connectors / pigtails / patch cables, and will save time in procuring these after the buyer receives the antenna.
The shipping charges for expedited shipping of connectors, adaptors, and pigtails from USA to next door Canada is $25, seems robbery . I think the seller is located in USA but the stuff is not. When seller gets an order, he simply places an order to his supplier located in China to ship it directly to the buyer. That is why “free shipping” items have 1½ month delivery, and expedited shipping from China is $25.
This is why I have suggested FA to expand the Antenna sale by adding various types of connectors & pigtails as optional items, and these items to be shipped in the same box as antenna, so that buyer gets a complete set and starts using the antenna immediately on delivery.
A few example of options are:
For SMA System:
N-to-SMA adapter (for FA Filter or LNA4ALL Amplifier)
N-to-SMA pigtail (for FA Filter or LNA4ALL Amplifier)
SMA-to-MCX pigtail
Additional for F System:
SMA-to-F adapter (for FA Filter or LNA4ALL Amplifier)
N-to-F adapter
N-to-F pigtail
F-to-MCX pigtail
I definitely agree, but I think they’d have to set up the packages separately as amazon would then have to stock three SKUs of the antenna. It would be extremely beneficial to the program if you could effectively do a one stop shop at the Flight Aware store and get everything you need.
I use collectd + rrdtools to plot these graphs. There is an automated script to install dump1090-mutability + collected & rrdtools (also known as Web Portal) + piaware data feeder + planefinder data feeder + adsbexchange data feeder. You can choose what ever from the above list you want to install.
Fantastic, thank you. Due to unavoidable obstacles (trees) I will be adding a third receiver at my QTH and will use this script. I already have one standard piAware pkg install, one SD card image install and would prefer to leave those alone (for now). Not sure how I had missed the forums for the last ~year.
.
. When FA antenna was delivered, I went to an electronics & hobby store in my city, and found this N-to-F adapter and purchased two pieces @ $3.25 ea. Since the FA antenna’s initial trial gave very poor results, the N-to-F adapter was suspected. Later it was proved that the adaptor is ok, and I am now using it.
. I think the seller is located in USA but the stuff is not. When seller gets an order, he simply places an order to his supplier located in China to ship it directly to the buyer. That is why “free shipping” items have 1½ month delivery, and expedited shipping from China is $25.