Dongles should be fine for now, but I thought some might find this interesting…
I just saw the RTL-SDR Blog post, and was about to post here. I first saw the announcement yesterday on the AirSpy list, and it sounded ‘bad’. With the additional details from the RTL-SDR Blog, not so much.
These dongles are a tremendous value for money. I don’t think ADS-B monitoring would have taken off as it did without them. The RPi is also part of the success, of course.
I have 5 or 6 of the generic dongles, with both the T and the T2 versions of the chip. They are not as good as the Flightaware version, but work. Hopefully Flightaware is already looking for alternatives, if production of the chip ceases completely.
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And of course FlightAware with its Piaware software and pulling it all together.
So FlightAware is a business using the data to make money. But as long as they give me back the data I want, I’m fine with that.
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Regarding the lifecycle of R820T2, We had a formal statement from the Rafael Micro: “Rafael Micro has no plan or intention of discontinuing R820T2. It is fully in mass-production with no end in sight.”
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This is great news. Do you have a link? The official line two years ago was “last orders”.
There are other tuner chips out there, newer and hopefully better. Don’t know if same cost effectiveness…
When I heard the 'T2 was discontinued, I assumed it had been superseded by another Raphael design
The R836, R850 and RT642 all top out at 1002MHz, but unless they are limited like the FC00n, they can probably be pushed to 1090.
The RT7n0 family (0.85 ~2.3GHz) may be a good candidate for ADSB.
There are certainly other options available, but most/all would need a redesign and not all current manufacturers would see enough value in that.
It is through a email statement, when I contacted the representative of Rafael Micro. I am not sure I can share the detail of the Email.
Hi wzq1234568, given this is your first thread, perhaps you could introduce yourself?
I assume the location of your Piaware site being so close to a well known tracking company is not a coincidence?
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I am the new Engineer for FlightAware.
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(Bingo!)
Nice to meet you.
Nice to see you too.