Upgrading from RTL-SDR to FA Prostick Plus on PiAware. As easy as swapping them out?

Interestingly enough, it seems that (somehow) placing the PCB in a metal enclosure dropped my message rate. I did reboot the pi after removing and replacing the dongle, however my settings remain the same. I’m using AGC and not a custom gain setting.

https://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/N1AAE shows a drop in flights measured between 8PM and 9PM (EST) so I’m just going to assume that this has nothing to do with the enclosure but instead just a normal drop in data measured about this time of day.

Too tired to switch again. Time for another beer, then bed.

I’ll measure data for a few days and swap them back and see if anything noteworthy is measured. I just installed local graphs earlier today so not much (local) data collected for a good comparison.

not too much difference on my side, so far. The change happened around 16:40 time point.

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As I said on another topic, the metal cases are not that needed.
The impedance on the RF side of the board being 50 ohm, it acts like a literal attenuator to the signals induced by RF noise (higher coupling impedance). Only the signals that come from the antenna (that is matched 50 ohm impedance) are passing unaffected.

A thermal pad on the receiver chip might help more, lowering the temperature it lowers the noise.

Isn’t it normally also wise to ground RF shielding cans?

I agree. While it may benefit in some extreme cases, most appear to be over doing it.

How does it look today?
Your raw stats this morning are better than yesterday, however, that could be weather or traffic related.

AGC is not really recommended. It is meant for TV signals that don’t change very quickly.

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