What a difference an decent antenna can make

[tomvdhorst]

3 weeks ago I setup another feeder site using some 2nd hand sourced equipment.
I had bought a FA Prostick plus and it came with a Bingfu antenna claiming to be 7 dB, it had a 2 meter thin coax connected to it with an SMA connector.
I’m always looking to improve things (aren’t we all) and watched how the antenna performed in the last 2 weeks.
It averaged around 140K postitions and 1400 aircraft a day.
I decided to get a Vinnant COL1090/5-SU antenna with 2 meter H155 Coax (N-male to SMA male) for this setup and the results of that antenna is really a lot better then the Bingfu antenna

The light blue line was the old average, middle blue line the moment the antenna was swapped and the dark blue line is the actual count of positions.

The positions count went quite a bit higher

As a result the postions went up to 385K doubling the older antenna.

The aircraft count also doubled from around 1400 to 2800 yesterday

The difference is also clearly visible in Graphs1090. Don’t mind the gap in the graphs, I had to remove power so the first portion of that day was lost.

So a decent antenna is almost always worth the money. Not that this is a very expensive antenne, the antenna was 35 Euros and the cable was 12 Euros.
Very pleased with the results of this antenna change, so if you might wonder what a decent antenna can do for your setup this is an example of it.

[foxhunter]

Yes, the Vinnant antennas are really good and compare to the Flightaware or Jetvision antennas, but for a better price. My Vinnant is operational since two years now without any issues on my Airsquitter. I only needed to get an antenna splitter with a seperate GPS receiver as the Vinnant doesn’t deliver the GPS signal required for the device.

But a good antenna is almost nothing without a good cabling. It even makes a difference if you are using 2 Meters or 5 Meters

[victorbravo77]

@tomvdhorst

I had bought a FA Prostick plus and it came with a Bingfu antenna claiming to be 7 dB, it had a 2 meter thin coax connected to it with an SMA connector.

Hi Tom!

Anything printed on the original cable that’s readable? My money is on the cable. Is H155 a uhf cable?

[tomvdhorst]

Hey, the original cable is nowhere near a H155 cable. H155 is a LMR200 equivalent.
It’s a very thin cable on the Bingfu antenna and I think it has a big impact on the performance indeed.
It is fitted to the magnetic base and can’t be detached.
It is replaced by a H155 cable now that I also got from Vinnant.