Yup they are worth some money indeed, but they won’t go for sale 
too many other things to try out or if one fails I’m running around to get a replacement.
We had a network monitoring solution build with them and they were replaced with HP equipment. Left in a closet for 2 years and then i “adopted” them with permission 
Maybe you need to wait until the 2ndary site drops off the stats after a day or two.
Anyhow i don’t even know if the distance thing works in general for skyaware anywhere.
The distance column was working for me prior to adding a second site.
I had found this thread:
where someone else asked basically the same question, and @esmathews referenced this was known behavior and was “being worked on”. Also gave the explanation that multiple sources made distance calcs “interesting”, which makes total sense if the data in question could have come from either site.
I’ll wait a day or two and see if FA gives up listening to/for my second site, but I’d expect as long as it thinks there are two potential feeders, it won’t bother trying to calc the “interesting” distance. I might just turn the second site back on - I don’t expect it’s feeding any data the first site isn’t already getting (given its superior antenna and dongle), but I suppose it can’t hurt.
FWIW, I can confirm that after a week, the distance column still is blank in my SkyAware page. That seems consistent with the notion that as long as FA thinks I have more than one site it will not compute aircraft “distance” - regardless of whether it’s actually getting data from more than one site of not.
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So, the last of the new goodies have arrived from Slovakia today, I ordered 3 addtional antenna’s from Vinnant and the required cabling.
1 Vinnant 1090/7.5-P to replace a Vinnant 1090/5-S outdoor antenna and 2 addtional 1090/5-S antenna’s
The Vinnant 7.5 shows a nice increase in range:
The other antenna’s I’ve replaced were stock antenna’s or adapted antenna’s so I could get the sites up and running while the other antenna’s were on the way.
Flightaware dongle and filter now fitted with a Vinnant 1090/5-S, nice increase in number of aircraft detected and in range. ( 5 meters of H155 low loss cable)
Radarbox dongle ( without filter) with MXC pigtail and Vinnant 1090/5-S antenna (25 cm pigtail and 1 meter H155 low loss cable)
RTL-SDR dongle ( without filter) with Vinnant 1090/5-S antenna and 3 meters of H155 cable)
All in all happy with the results so far, let’s see how it performs over the coming days.
Please keep us updated. I am curious to know whether the 7.5 is really so much better. BTW what is the increase?
Apologies but it’s a pet peeve of mine: no apostrophes needed if using s to indicate a plural, only to indicate the possessive case, like “tomvdhorst’s antennas.” 
(Back to your regularly-scheduled program.)
Thanks, English isn’t my native speech so grammar isn’t always 100 % 
At the moment the increase is around 40 NM in distance.
Since I live in an urban environment i don’t think it will be much more but will keep you updated.
Number of positions in the 160-200 NM and 200NM+ range are increased by 50 % so that is a nice improvement.
I know, but if you’re going to use our heathen tongue you may as well do it properly, right?
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Wauw, that is a a huge increase. Know you live in an urban environment. But 50% OMG
I can tell more after today, then the antenna has been running for 24 hrs straight so then the figures will be more accurate.
do not want to be rude, but why did you chose the 1090/7.5-P in stead of CC1090/9-P?
Questions are not rude
2 reasons, the CC1090/9-P wasn’t in stock when i ordered it and it is a little bit higher (120 cm for the 1090/7.5-P and 133 cm for the CC1090/9-P). That height difference might be a problem when setting it up.In hindsight the CC1090/9-P would have fitted as well but I spotted another difference when comparing them.
The antenna connector in the 1090/7.5-P is in a tube similar to the 1090/5-S ( the 7.5-P replaced a 5-S) and that allowed for a slightly higher mounting. I didn’t see that tube mounting on the CC1090-P so that would have taken additional measures to get the connector protected from water. In the tube of the 1090/5-S and the 1090/7.5-P is is already protect from the elements.
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Well play time is almost over, will have to start working again next monday so it’s time to show some results from the past few weeks.
First the site that started with an RTL SDR dongle and then was switched to a Flightaware dongle and filter on 11th of August.
On the 24th of August is was fitted with a Vinnant COL1090/5-S
Then the Radarbox dongle, it was also fitted with a Vinnant COL1090/5-S on the 24th of August instead of the standard stock antenna.
And finally the RTL-SDR dongle, it was fitted with a cheap PCB antenna (you can get on Aliexpress) when it started and has a Vinnant COL1090/5-S now as well since 24th of August. The performance of the cheap antenna has actually surprised me to be honest
As for the swap between a Vinnant COL1090/5-S and a Vinnant COL1090/7.5-P , they are performing roughly the same in my set-up.
The number of positions further away have increased but the aircraft number stays roughly the same.
Old number of postions
New number of positions in coverage graph
Positions reported
Aircraft reported
Thank you for the update. So in your situation the change from the “old” one to the new Vinnant did bring you some positive changes.
Nice to know, guess will have to give it a thought
But the length of the antenna may be a problem in my situation.
The old antenna was 65 cm high, the new one is 110 cm high so an addition of 45 cm in height. Maybe these figures will help you in deciding if it fits at the location.
Mmm that is almost twice as high. As I mounted my antenna on my balcony, guess mounting could be a problem
Mine is mounted on a balcony as well additionally the antenna is a little bit smaller in the width so it can take higher windloads
Maybe math works different in the metric system, but I keep coming up with a 45cm difference between 65 and 110…?
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