Hi Everyone, during the recent storm in the UK my antenna got damaged and I am going to have to replace it. What is everyone using at the moment as I want to try something different to see if the replacement out does the original Broadsword 1090mhz colineer vertical antenna I have. I don’t mind spending money on a good antenna if the recommendations are there. Thanks
Sorry to hear that, was the aerial itself damaged or the mount it was on that was damaged? Or both?
I use a Jetvision A3 here. Most of the similar sized ADS-B aerials have similar performance, it’ll be difficult to tell one from another.
Easy to say, tricky to make a multiple element collinear yourself that works well. If you can manage it, the next stage is weather proofing it. I suspect that doing that properly is outside the scope of most people.
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Take a look at the Vinnant antennas.
They have individual antennas also for outdoor usage.
I am using the 7.5dB version on a pole on my balcony. Not a single issue at all.
What also works perfectly is the A3 of Jetvision. This is well built and it rather takes the roof off instead of the antenna.
In Germany Flightaware are delivering their kits with the Jetvision
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Hi,
It was the main antenna body that has split and now water has got inside it, it is still up and running but I have lost loads of messages and nautical miles due to the water ingress.
I noticed on the “Pimoroni” site (they do all sorts of Pi and accessories), they have a vertical, 1.2m tall on offer at the moment at just under £40 plus delivery - (https://shop.pimoroni.com/q=ads+b+antenna). As stated above, making one is fun if you have the time, or can you just replace the outer conduit tubing on your Broadsword?
Is the part that split fiberglass or PVC? Either way it should be able to be repaired without a lot of trouble once it’s dried out inside and it’s much more environment-friendly to fix it than to replace it. I think you can get fiberglass repair kits at marine supply stores, and a hardware or plumbing supply store will have PVC cement which you can use to weld the splits closed (then tape over it just to be sure.)
To answer your original question, I’m using a Chinese-made stripline PCB like this:
It works quite well. I have an RTL-SDR Blog filtered LNA below it followed by 12 meters of LMR240 coax. My feeder’s #40 in the Philippines and #1 in my region (though that could be due to the other nearby feeders having suffered damage by the typhoon last December and not due to any merit of my own antenna or system. Or it could be because most of the nearby trees blew down. Or possibly there’s more air traffic now that vaccinated tourists are allowed to come here. Or a combination of them all.)
I’ve got a couple of those. They are ok, but not special, and certainly not an ‘outdoor’ antenna.
The caps are just pushed on (no glue) and SMA connectors are not weather proof.
If you want to mount it outside, you’ll need to build your own radome (not hard, but necessary).
No SMA connectors are weatherproof. Do what I did: seal around the end caps with a bead of silicon sealant, and for the connectors first add a small dab of silicone grease inside the male connectors to keep moisture out of the electrical connection, snug the coax connectors with a wrench but not so hard that you strip them, just so they’re slightly tighter than finger tight, then wrap the connections in overlapping waterproof tape from the bottom up. My antenna’s been outside for months in all weather including a major typhoon and I’ve not seen any performance issues from moisture getting inside either the antenna or the coax. The antenna was undamaged by the typhoon.
Good suggestion.
I am using the 7.5dB version. a little more expensive also due to the material:
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Yep I’d second a recommendation for this. I have the 3 radial version and it’s been flawless over the last 2 years. Good performance and survived all the storms so far.
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They don’t look to be too bad an antenna - the cockatoos here in Australia would have fun with that black end cap though!!! They can be very destructive birds…
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Put a 230V source on it, then they will do it only once…
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Can’t really argue with the Vinnant recommendation either, we have one of those at the MTG site.
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The tip is, if you use other tubing - put a short length of it in a microwave oven alongside a cup of water and zap it … see if the plastic absorbs energy and heats up.
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Why? (20 characters)
If it absorbs microwave energy, it will probably absorb ADSB signal.
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From a quick web search, microwave ovens typically operate at 2.45GHz not 1.09GHz.
https://hypertextbook.com/facts/1998/HowardCheung.shtml
OK, ignore the suggestion - use any old bit of plastic tube.
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