So I have been using the standard 1090 antenna off of amazon cheap antenna with pretty good sucess but wanted more range. I’m getting just about 100 miles to the wsw direction with ads-b. I have an antennacraft st-2 outside on a mast about 30ft high that I’ve used with my uniden bdc996xt for 5 or 6 years with no issues. I decided to get an adapter from the rb6 cable to the sma connector on the flightaware filter then into the prostick plus. GOt it in the mail today, hooked it up and I’m getting almost no reception. I know the st2 is not a dedicated 1090 antenna but I figured with the extra height I would get better reception.
Any help would be great.
Thanks!
edit :
piaware 3.5.1
ADS-B 1090MHz Band-pass SMA Filter
well damn, your right! lol the pin is flush with the white rubber “isolator”. Crap lol this is the second adapter that was wrong. Is it me, even in the pic is shows the right connector amazon link
would there be a way to make this work or should I return and get another? Its been difficult to find the right adapter.
TEMPORARY WORKAROUND
The SMA-male has center pin. The reverse SMA (RP-SMA) male does not have a center pin, it has a hole. The center wire connection is open because of missing pin. A temporary workaround is to cut a short piece of center wire of coax and insert in hole of RP-SMA male. This piece of wire will act as the missing pin, and connection will be established.
Yes, the amazon picture looks like the correct connector (SMA male, with center pin) and the description says SMA male too - so I think they shipped you the wrong pigtail.
cool thanks for the reply. I think I’m just going to put a piece of wire in there. Want to get the big antenna up for this weekend, lots of skydiving planes overhead and enjoy feeding that info.
Okay so I found that the pin was pushed in but was able to pull it out and recrimp it to stay in the right position. I believe it is the right connector but possibly poor quality control? Issue is as soon as I hook it up to the external antenna almost all reception drops.
I’m very confused as I have used this setup for years with my scanner and no issues. Could there be a grounding issue or something like that?
I would still be pretty suspicious about that connector - if it’s been damaged enough to push the pin in, then there might be an internal short that you can’t see, etc.
thank you again. I think I will return it and get something else. Do you have any reputable companies, this one is made by dht electronics.
Thanks again
edit : I did check continuity on the pigtail and it seems ok. Wondering if I should hook up the pi to the closest connector on the antenna which would be about 20 feet or so down from the actual antenna and see if that works first.
Think I found out what it was lol. Scanner setups are not meant for adsb. I tracked it down to the power injector for the pre-amp into the scanner which is outside in the powerbox. I have it hooked up straight to the antenna now and its working awesome. Almost getting 200 miles now.
