I have just set up a raspberry pi 3 with piaware. I purchased a basic rtl2832u usb tuner that came with a small antenna. At first i just want to get it working and I understand i need an outdoor aerial. I successfuly have it working and can access the skyview on my local ip address. Now i see no aircraft at all and it says it can see the receiver but not receiving data. It says about 0.2 messages a second obviously not working properly. And its only finding “other” not adsb or mlat readings. I even took my pi 3 outside and had the aerial on my roof but still the same terrible readings. Now would this be my antenna or my pi 3 not working properly? Just want to see what the cause is. Thanks for the help, be nice im new ! Lol!
Daniel
I was hoping to see feedback on this user’s question. I recently decided to make use of an old Raspberry Pi 3B+. I live less than 5 miles from one airport, and less than 10 from another. I bought the legit RTL-SDR v4 dongle, and a small antenna. I didn’t get any tracks. I then bought a Flightaware Band Pass filter for 978/1090. Still no tracks. I am now waiting on a LNA to arrive. Im concerned this may not help as Ive probably misunderstood something.
FWIW, I have 2 of these RTL-SDR v4 dongles. I have another one on another PI for receiving AIS tracks. I swapped them out, and the PI for AIS still receivies tracks. So that eliminates the dongle in my opinion. I have the antenna in the attic of a 2 story home. Ive not tried taking the setup outside yet.
Are there any troubleshooting techniques or things I should be aware that would help me identify the issue?
Which image you wrote to microSD card of the old Raspberry Pi 3B+ ?
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Probably an issue of not having v4 drivers. (no reception is the typical issue when having old drivers with those)
If you want an all in one image, you could give this a try: https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/a-simple-way-to-feed-ads-b-data/90183
It brings the v4 drivers.
Or you just install them on your current setup:
RTL-SDR Blog V4 Users Guide → Alternative Debian Package Installation Method
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- that post was 6 years ago
- your problems are unrelated.
at 5 / 10 statute miles from two airports, an LNA is not your highest priority.
A V4 was not your best choice for a receiver. It is a good general purpose receiver, but for ADS-B, the V3 is superior.
Trying to run the V4 without drivers is the same as running anything else without divers - it doesn’t.
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I downloaded the v8.2 image from the flightaware page. Then updated to 9.0.1.
I have tried with just a regular Raspbian Image with the v4 Drivers install per RTL-STL.com Quick Start Instructions. I even tried running the driver install inside the FlightAware image. No change.
I havent tried that adsb.im image yet. I will give that a go later this evening.
I’m aware the post was 6 years ago, but as a novice I had expected to see if someone had similar issues as I. RE the drivers, Im aware. FWIW, Im a Computer Engineer of 25yrs. Im aware how drivers work. Thanks for your feedback about the V3 being better than the V4.
Not trying to teach you how to suck eggs, but the first post could not be related to your problem as the V4 was released just over a year ago.
Also the OP had his system working, but then it failed - commonly an antenna / connector failure.
The first post was probably ignored as the subject was being discussed elsewhere.
Apparently the OP solved his problems and the site is running well
Back to your problems - nothing wrong with a 3B+ (a Pi2 or better should work if you don’t load it up with other things).
Did your “small antenna” come with the V4 or somewhere else?
The V4 has an SMA female connector. You need to check the antenna connector has an SMA Male and not an RP-SMA Male as used on many wifi devices.
(post a pic if you are unsure)
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My antenna I am using is the small one from Flightaware.
I also tried making a DIY dipole antenna based on the calculator here. But no difference between antennas.
Once you run adsb.im i know the software is out of the picture, then it would be interesting to look at the gain + signal graph.
You can try moving the setup to another spot just in case there is heavy local interference.
(So moving the setup will possibly show a change in the graphs)
A wire sticking 6.8 cm out of the SDR with the SDR pointing to the sky also works surprisingly well. 1090 loses quite a bit of signal on coax that’s why having the antenna directly on the SDR is pretty good.
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I loaded up adsb.im and I now see tracks. Finally. Not sure what was wrong with my configuration on the FlightAware image. Thanks for the feedback everyone and the suggestion to use adsb.im.
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I have a Pi 3B+ plus that’s been chugging along for five years. I never used a separate filter with the FA blue dongle, outside FA antenna @ 35 feet and good coax feedline. The big difference is having an antenna outside and as high as possile (without getting hurt!), good power supply, a short run of coax and a pretty simple setup.
I use one of these (for my hf and vhf ham antennas too):
…still wish I had that 100+ foot tower though 
.
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