My first setup was RaspbPi 3 with FR24-image and FA added on it later on. SDR used was “RTL2832 SDR USB dongle with R8860 (new version of the R820T2)” and with the basic magnetic antenna just flipped on the corner of my garage roof I got results:
With over 3000 reports per day and 10% of reports from 160-240 km, I thought that my location might have some potential despite a huge cliff north/northeast of my premises.
My current setup is OrangePi Zero H3 with Dump1090 with Tar1090 and FR24 added on it. SDR used is “USB2.0 RTL SDR 0.5 PPM TCXO RTL2832U R860 TV Tuner Stick” with a 10 dBi 1090 MHz antenna connected directly to the dongle, without even using any adapters. The SDR is mounted on a fishing pole and a 5 meter USB cable running to the Pi which is mounted about the same height (or higher) as the antenna was on the test setup but further from the cliff and any trees.
The results are appalling:
I’m getting only 400 hits per day and only 30% is 80-160 km which was the dominating portion on the test setup as very few planes fly close to my station.
Is this a problem with settings or with the setup itself? Can anyone point out any settings I should try out before swapping the SDR to the previous one and building an absurd antenna?
The test location is withing the circle and the fishing pole is the line with an arrow pointing to the SDR+antenna:
Almost everything that could be a variable between the two setups is different!
Any chance you could do things bit by bit? I would start by swapping the old antenna at the test location with the new one, and keep everything else at the test location the same.
Then slowly change the other components whilst monitoring performance.
Or move everything from the test location to the new location, to see whether it’s something unique about the location itself.
I tried installing the graphs1090 earlier and now I had the same error as then:
[ERROR] Error in line 92 when executing: apt-get install --no-install-suggests --no-install-recommends -y ‘libpython3.10’
I had the previous setup with a genuine FR24 antenna at the base of the antenna mast but I don’t seem to have any statistics from that time. I don’t remember the range but the metal post created a huge shadow in same direction as the cliff is.
The direction to Pulkovo in St. Petersburg is not blocked by terrain and I used to see Helsinki-Tallinn -flights so I really hope this is just a configuration error. I have tried reading about auto-gain and gain settings in general but have been unable to change anything. There’s a 5G mast about a km away but that didn’t hurt reception on the previous dongle.
Should the graphs1090 install if I uninstall the tar1090? Would that fix the issue with libpython?
I’m still confused. I edited the config file to set gain to 75 and no auto-gain, no it says that my adapter’s auto-gain is on and using 58.6 dB. The two planes visible above the Gulf of Finland report RSSI of -15 dB.
Thanks, I noticed that just a moment ago and changed the gain to 48 dB, two steps down from maximum.
Wouldn’t it clip the closest/strongest messages if I had the gain set too high? I am starting to question the health of the dongle and/or the antenna. I tested it inside the building and it wasn’t too bad comparing to current situation.
If the gain is set to high you will turn your receiver to be”deaf” for weaker signals so you would lose range. So it’s a kind of experimenting to see where the optimal trade-off between signal strength and range is in your situation
