The FA antenna is the best option I’ve seen.
hmm, not on amazone NL, but amazon DE also available !!!
total package price ,receiver, antenna and filter 82 euro ,ex shipping
not gonna BS on building with it.,
Would connecting two or more of the FlightAware collinear antennas increase gain and coverage? Does anyone know how this might be done? thank you
I use an antenna with 9db gain and I have to turn the gain down on my FA Pro stick to 38.6.
I have a very good, 0.5 db loss, cavity filter. Even with a 3db filter, I would still have to turn the gain down to 41.
I doubt a higher gain antenna would help.
Your best bet is height. I see a huge difference between my basement setup, 2nd floor(US, 1st floor other locations) bedroom and chimney antennas. I think I may be able to get another 2 feet on the chimney setup.
Very difficult to do, even with good equipment. the lengths of the lines connecting the antennas, and the spacing between the antennas, are critical.
You can get more improvement through elevation, increasing what your single antenna can see – increase the elevation, increase the line of sight.
bob k6rtm
Want to increase height of antenna? Tie your antenna to a baloon like this Russian design 
http://russianpatents.com/patent/232/2320058.html
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7101/27153051993_a64f2f5c40_c.jpg
Thank you, all, for your kind responses. :mrgreen:
The FA Antenna+FA Filter+ProStic is the best option I have used up to now.
I have 2 setups. My stats show the FA combo gives much better performance: Message rate 182%, Plane count 114%
Pi-1: Cantenna + 12 ft RG6 Coax + 12 inch RG316 pigtail + Black DVB-T (No Amplifier) >> plugged directly into OPi PC
Pi-2: FA Antenna + 4 ft RG6 Coax + 4 inch RG316 pigtail + FA Filter + ProStick >> plugged directly into RPi Model2
Note:
(1) Both antennas are at same location in same vertical line. Horizontal distance = 0, Vertical distance = 1 m / 3 ft
(2) There is NO AMPLIFIER with Cantenna + Generic DVB-T, while ProStick has a built-in RF amplifier.
Thank you.
I kind of agree. Flight aware is sponsoring them. They want us to purchase their product and then GIVE them the data stream for free. Then they will sell said data to subscribers.
Shouldn’t they be offering to give us the receiving devices to set up at our location to collect that data? They would be getting the real estate, power and wifi for free.
Hmm, doesn’t seem quite right does it.
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Hi Don,
Our goal is to build a worldwide network which is why we release open source software to the community, provide data back to feeders, and design and sell hardware to help improve coverage affordably.
I can assure you that we don’t make a dime on selling hardware. In fact, we lose money on each unit sold. This really shouldn’t be surprising since the antennas are less than half the cost of comparable antennas on the market, the ADS-B centric Pro Stick is less expensive than the high volume RTL-SDR, and the filters are a third of the cost of what the community was buying before we introduced our filters.
As far as shipping feeders, we send over 75/week around the world for free where the parts are not available.
I hope that helps clear up any misconceptions.
Daniel
P.S. the $3 in parts may be correct (I don’t actually know since a third party handles manufacturing), but those parts have to be procured and shipped, each antenna has to be hand-assembled, packaged, shipped to the US, inventoried, hand-tested at our office in Houston on a spectrum analyzer, labeled and bagged, shipped to Amazon, sold in their store (for a fee), and then shipped to the end user. That costs a lot more than $45 and doesn’t count breakage, returns, etc.
Let me see.
- Free receivers to areas that don’t have good coverage.
- $90/month access account to FA services if you provide them data.
- Pretty good fault finding from FA and the community.
- Subsidised/cost price Receiver Dongles for about $US17.
Seems fine to me.
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Free receivers to areas without good coverage doesn’t help me cover my costs of the raspberry pi, the sdr receiver, the solar panel, the battery, the solar charge controller, the antenna, the mounting bracket, the PVC tube to house it all in, the 12v to USB power adaptor, my isp bill and my time in managing it.
90 dollar a month access account. What does that do for me? I don’t think I’ve ever used any of its benefits.
Yes, good tech support.
Subsidized cost for receiver? Mine was all of 19.00 dollars when I bought it for another project.
Raspberry pi with sdram card and case, wifi dongle, 70.00 dollars,. 30 watt solar panel, 55.00 dollars. 5 amp Lipo battery, 35.00, 3amp solar charge controller, 8.00 dollars, sdr rcvr, 19.00 dollars, 12v to USB adaptor 12.00 dollars, USB cable, 4.00 dollars, PVC tube with caps and mounting brackets 15.00 dollars, ISP 45.00 dollars a month. Antenna and antenna cable, 6.00 dollars
My time building and learning, free because it was a fun learning experience.
That comes up to around 224.00 dollars not including my ISP rate.
Not that I’m not in the game here. I’ve been providing free data to FA and only FA for over 6 months now.
I just think it should be recognized that all of us are giving FA free data at our expense and they sell that data.
I understand the antenna has a cost attached to it. But so does everything that we the providers give them.
D.
If there’s another commercially available antenna that performs similarly and is cheaper, why don’t you buy that one instead? (And link it here so others can benefit - I’d buy a few at $6!)
The quid pro quo for providing your data to FA is that FA gives you some data in return - the enterprise account, the mlat data feed. It’s up to you to decide if that’s a deal you want. If you would be running the equipment anyway, the marginal cost is going to be close to zero.
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I’d like to thank the FlightAware folks for going to the trouble to source and bring to market antennas, filters, and SDRs at bargain prices – and to do it in multiple markets around the world. That’s a lot of work, and I thank you for it.
I’ve done commercial RF installations – the starting price on a very simple antenna you want to put on a tower is $150 to $200, and that’s for something simple. Mounting hardware extra.
And dealing with overseas manufacture, importation, even with the force multiplier of Amazon – that is a lot of work.
Thanks, I appreciate your hard work!
bob k6rtm
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I second bob k6rtm. Thank you Flightaware Staff.
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Thirded 
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This is a voluntary hobby. Voluntary.
Everyone knows what it costs and are in direct control of what they spend.
There are no big secrets here as far as I know. I don’t understand the point of your rant.
Try telling Wal Mart how much it costs you to visit their store. See where it gets you.
I enjoy building antennas and experimenting with the equipment. I’m waiting for the newest FA antenna to get back in stock and I’ve been trying to decide how to hook it up and how much to spend. It’s voluntary and I like it.
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If one is concerned with costs, one can peruse the thread ostensibly finding a cheaper platform.
Hobbies by definition are time and resource consumers.
ads-b-flight-tracking-f21/orange-pi-pc-a-15-alternative-to-rpi-2-so-far-so-good-t36356.html
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how it looks from inside this antenna?
a simple wire?