Is this antenna part of the recent Flightfeeder kits shipped out ? Any gains over the older one.
@fatherdoctor you may need a filter.
Look at the stats for BellCountyTX flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/BellCountyTX
He has the same antenna with a filter on a 40ft tower in a what I believe is a rural area in Texas (85% of his reports are greater then 60 miles away).
Pics are in this port ads-b-flight-tracking-f21/pre-amps-vs-low-loss-t36637.html
He had to add a filter due to nearby pagers (and maybe cell towers)
Note that he has a old Raspberry Pi 1B. The model with 2USB ports and 256MB ram. He said it runs at 100% CPU as soon as he puts it up on his tower.
I suspect he would be more hits with an RPI2 (4 times more memory and 2+ times better CPU).
Your coax should only add about 1-1.5db loss (around 10db per 100ft for lmr240)
Hey guys…
Just got into tracking planes with this setup. I got me a R820T2 and I’m getting some stuff (looks like 20-30 nm of me) with the supplied antenna inside my window about 20 feet up. I’d like to get this antenna and mount it outside my window but I’m not sure on what cabling I would need. Any help?
I’m sure the answer is in here and I’ll look for it tomorrow when I get up, but I’m hoping someone can at least point me in the right direction. Also gotta figure out how to get the cable out without drilling a hole through my walls. Would be nice to slip it through the window or something lol…
I’m sure you will get a ton of very helpful and very qualified answers and some answers in your search, but as for the window option I’ve found these to be helpful http://www.amazon.com/Flat-Coaxial-Coax-Cable-Window/dp/B001WAPIRW.
Do you have access to your roof? All you need up there is a power outlet and you’re good to go.
I’ll definitely give that a shot. I’ve actually got a filter (adsbfilter.blogspot.com/), but it’s not the nice weatherproofed one that you can buy now so I haven’t kept it in-line. Last time I installed it I lost some hits, but with the higher gain antenna I could probably get good results. I’ll post back soon. I think we’ve got good weather for the next week so my rudimentary water proofing will be enough.
I do have access (own home) but no power outlets up there. What would the power outlet be for? I could run a cable from my room to the ceiling and out the side, but we’re gonna need ALOT of cabling. couple hundred feet. wouldn’t that bring in a ton of loss?
That’s not a bad idea. what connectors would I need to make this work?
I also need a suggestion for a low loss coax cable. what is everyone using?
I use LMR-240, but in the not completely insane range, you can buy LMR-400 and get half again as much loss at three times the price. My setup is 50+ft PoE over Cat5e up into the roof, followed by 15ft USB to the SDR dongle getting it under the eave (inside of an exterior outlet cover), followed by 15ft of coax to the antenna on the peak. You can save a lot of time and headache if you can get PoE into a protected area somewhat close to your roof penetration. LAN cable is a lot cheaper and easier to run.
For 2 years (before I purchased RPi), my DVB-T was plugged into my windows desktop with RTL1090 decoder + adsbSope + VRS to plot the planes and maximum range curve on a map.
My indoor antenna was near a large window at one side of my apartment, and my DVB-T+desktop were in another room on the other side of apartment. The cable run between antenna & DVB-T was 50 ft / 15 meters. I connected the antenna to DVB-T using very cheap RG6 coax (50 ft roll for $8, purchased from Dollar Shop), and added a low cost satellite in line amplifier 18 dB gain, and was able to reach 250nm range with simple home made antennas like 1/4 wave dipole, spider, cantenna, and franklin.
By the way, today I ordered Flightaware antenna from Amazon, to use it as benchmark antenna for evaluating my diy antenna designs. Expeted delivery next week.
I already have PoE at the house (inside security cameras) and have Cat5e cables running through roof to the outside cameras. that sounds like alot of work. what happens if the SDR dongle goes bad? lol
it sounds easier just to run coax (lmr-240?) to the roof and let it out from there.
out of my mancave/office window, I would put it here. But HOA doesn’t allow antennae to be visible from the street, so I have a feeling they’ll give me hard time for it.
http://s13.postimg.org/govjvlynb/ISxz9zc1be38ex1000000000.jpg
The length of coax between my antenna & DVB-T (inserted in desktop) was 50 ft. I used low cost RG6 coax ($8 for a 50 ft coil from dollarama) + Satellite in-line amplifier ($4 from an electronics & hobby shop in my area, RCA D903, 18 dB) + AC/DC adapter $5 + home made power inserter. My maximum range was 250nm+ with simple DIY 1/4 wavelength groundplane antennas (Spider & Cantenna), installed indoor near a large window.
My conclusion based on my experience:
if (your cable run > 20 ft && you don't want to use amplifier){use low loss, high cost coax LMR400}
else {use satellite amplifier + medium loss, low cost coax RG6}
MY FIRST “NOT-A-DIY” ANTENNA
Waiting for the Flightaware Antenna delivery.
Plan to use it as benchmark antenna to evaluate DIY Antenna Designs
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1716/24278307289_2cee008a69_o.png
That was kind of my plan as well. I’ve got a second idle Pi, so all I need to do is build a second mast collocated with the first one and I can get to tinkering. Like I said, the flight aware antenna seemed to lose some sensitivity below the at/horizon relative to my quarter wave home build, so there is definitely some tweaking room.
Random thought… We’ve got virtual radar server for nice horizontal reception patterns. I wonder if there is a simple tool (otherwise its just a lot of manipulation of data logs) to create a vertical reception pattern.
…
On the coax, yeah you can definitely go the RG6 route, but then you’ve increased the complexity of your system, adding two more absolutely necessary components. In the aviation world I live in that’s a no no… and I can always add an amplifier and knock your socks off 
Wow, that is a big step for you!
Let us know how it compares to all your DIY work!
Obj has a tool that does something similar in his dump1090-tools repo. I have got it it work in the past, but I can’t make it run at the moment as it keeps giving errors.
There is a gap in the available software at the moment for a decent analysis tool - it could take a raw data feed and produce all sorts of information from it. Most existing software is concerned with the information output about the aircraft themselves, with not much concentration on receiver performance.
I’d love to produce something myself, but my programming knowledge is rudimentary at best and I wouldn’t know where to start.
Sorry for the noob question.
I want to make sure that I’m buying the right connectors for a flightaware antenna and filter, to be used indoors.
I plan on hanging the filter directly off the bottom of the antenna with an N male to SMA male connector, link here
amazon.ca/gp/product/B007Q8J … L39QUE9EAD
Then connect the filter to the dongle with an SMA female to MCX male pigtail, link here
amazon.ca/gp/product/B00K85H … L39QUE9EAD
The dongle would connect to the Raspberry Pi with a 15 ft USB cable.
If the filter tests as not helping, I would remove it and connect the dongle pigtail directly to the connector on the antenna.
Is this a sound plan?
Thanks in advance.
Looks good to me.
I have a similar setup (X2) with just a 6" USB cable.
Ok, thanks for the input!