New setup (FA New Dongle + FA Antenna) worse than old setup (Old SDR + Stock Antenna)

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Hi,
Having been using an Pi 2 for four years together with the old blue SDR USB receive and stock antenna. I decided to get the new Pi 3 and as well the new USB Orange Dongle from FA and the FA antenna.
The old set up is in the attic (can use the roof) using the stock antenna cut to 67 mm using a metal can as ground-plane connected to the the USB SDR with the stock cable and the USB SDR directly to a USB port on the Pi 2.
When I finally got the new components from the US and UK I got a BIG surprise as the average number of flight went down with more than 60%.
The cable between the FA antenna and the FA USB Dongle is 3 m type LMR-200 (50 ohm).

Any suggestions to why I am getting 60% less with the new setup?

2

The Prostick has integrated amplifier that will amplify nearby signals as well as the plane’s ADSB signals. In some cases the nearby amplified signals will interfere with the ADSB messages and you will see less messages.

The FlightAware ADSB bandpass filter will let through ADSB messages while blocking other frequencies. This can be placed on the input of the prostick and will remove unwanted frequencies before they are amplified.

3

Hi David,
I see…
I should - perhaps - have ordered the Pro Stick Plus instead?
Will it help to play with the gain?
I’ll see if I can get the filter from the UK or perhaps get the Pro Stick Plus from the US, I am located in Ireland where there not really are any sellers/re-sellers…

4

It is worth trying. It may solve your problem. If it does not, then add a Filter
.
.
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If you need a filter with Pro Stick, you will need a filter with Pro Stick PLUS also.
Please see this post:

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/flightaware-pro-stick-plus-refusing-to-outperform-cheap-dtv-dongle/25655/4

5

Thanks, I will try to play a bit with the gain and then if no major improvement I’ll get the plus + the filter. Thanks for the link!