Hello, I live in an urban environment and recently setup a PiAware receiver consisting of the recommended indoor antenna, blue Pro Stick Plus receiver with built-in filter, and a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. I also ordered the FlightAware 978 - 1090 MHz external in-line filter just in case.
My receiver is running wonderfully, however, I was wondering if it would be beneficial to add the external in-line filter to my setup. I know that the Pro Stick Plus has it’s own filter, but wasn’t sure if there would be a reception related advantage while living in a large metro area to including the external filter as well.
The external filter will add insertion loss, but it is small (< 2.5 dB), and is easily compensated by the 18 dB LNA (low noise amplifier) built into ProStick.
I experience more simultaneous aircraft being tracked with the in-line filter in use!
In my opinion the FlightAware instructions should mention the fact that reception may improve if the in-line filter is used in conjunction with the blue Pro Stick Plus.
Within 10 miles, you are almost the lowest performer.
By the look of your setup, you are only running a mag-base antenna(?), in which case additional filtering is completely unnecessary.
With respect, your site hasn’t been online long enough to know what ‘normal’ is.
If you compare the pattern of the planes that you tracked
with the planes one of your close neighbours tracked over the same period
the change in Aircraft Reported seem to track so it is reasonable to assume that the increase you have noticed is due to increased aircraft rather than an increase in performance of your receiver due to adding the extra filter…
There are very few users on this forum who use multiple filters and those that do are in extremely harsh RF environments. I suspect that if Flightaware started mentioning using more filters it may be seen as a cynical attempt to sell more kit which is NOT their usual MO.
There are a gazillion posts on this forum to help you optimise your station for what you want to receive; ie more range, more aircraft, more position reports, more ground vehicles etc. etc.
If you need assistance, just ask here and many other users will be pleased to assist.
Thanks for the input everyone. To start with, I’m going to upgrade the small magnetic base antenna to the FlightAware indoor/outdoor antenna. Unfortunately in our current condominium, mounting an outdoor antenna is not possible, but hopefully the larger indoor/outdoor unit mounted in a window with a good view of the sky will improve my reception performance.
Even if indoors, the FA antenna will sure considerably improve reception compared to the magmount.
If you have strong mobile/cell phone signal in your area, adding a filter will improve further, but first thing first, get a Flightaware antenna and try it. Later you may consider adding a filter as well. After you install FA Antenna, perform the scan proposed in thread “Do I Need A Filter”.
