Hi, I’ve been feeding since 2015. Interested in improving my 1090 setup.
I’m using a raspberry pi, the blue Flightaware FlightstickPro Plus, and a $10 PCB antenna from Amazon taped into a 2nd floor window. That antenna seems like magic compared to a few DIY antenna’s I built (including a spider.)
Might put an antenna on the roof eventually, but the roof is tough to access. For now I’d love any suggestions for what to swap to improve my setup.
Site is in the mid atlantic with a good view of about 180 degrees of horizon to the NW. Within 2 miles of a municipal airport. Getting 80-100 planes simultaneously during peak times of the day, tens of planes out to the 200-250nm range during a 24 hour period, and 400-500 msgs/s during peak times.
Things I’ve considered:
AirSpy Mini to replace Prostick Plus
Assume AirSpy might then need a good filter (cavity or saw, not sure of specifics)
An LNA / may be unnecessary due to Pi being close to the antenna / little cable loss?
Willing to try a DPD, Diapason, or other antenna in the same location (in/next to a window)
Are these good potential upgrades?
Anything else to consider?
You have poor reception to the south and east suggesting signals are being blocked.
Without a doubt, a better antenna mounted higher will improve your performance and give you the best return on investment.
I’m on the side of a hill so I get a good view to the NW but blocked to the SE.
Guess my question is really about optimizing the range for the view that is good. Will AirSpy Mini make a difference there?
Mounting an antennal on/above the roof might come some day but given the difficulty of the roof it’s not on the near term to do list so I’m looking for what I can do to improve without taking that step.
Depends on the obstacles in the distance.
With an Airspy you still cannot see “through the moutains” but it can receive signals which aren’t taken by the FA stick.
On my location (with mountains in the distance) i have a 10-15% better reception for the number of messages and 1-5% in number of aircraft compared to a FA stick.
Be aware that you need a filter LNA in combination with an Airspy. Otherwise the Airspy is almost blind/deaf because it’s a broadband receiver.
You could also check your max range on Heywhatsthat before buying stuff. Then you can compare your max. range with the current range and make a decision.
If you would use @wiedehopf tar1090 (provided on Github) you could overlay your current range with the max range on Heywhatsthat for easy comparison.
Following the suggestion of wiedehopf regarding the antenna i can recommend the versions from Vinnant. I have one in use since almost three years now and it’s mounted outdoor on my balcony in rough climate environment (Germany)
You are in an absolute target rich environment there with New York, Philly, Baltimore, DC and Richmond on your “blind” side. Regarding you not wanting to get on the roof of the house, do you have a house where you could install a short tower section against the side of the house and push an antenna pole up from there? That would give you some great options for getting a good Vinnant antenna well up into that target rich air space.
Thank you for those ideas. I’d had my eye on that ADSB-Exchange antenna so decided to give it a try. Similarly for the AirSpy and was unsure about LNA so trying that one out as well.
And I will give the attic a try. My home construction has wood sheathing and asphalt shingles so I guessed the window would have less impact on reception but the attic would be up a floor and would be out of the way if it works better. I’ll A/B test it once I get these new parts.
Really appreciate the all tools you create and share!
That’s something I hadn’t considered but now is a good idea to look in to. It may not go over well with my better half, but I’ll search if there is a way of doing it in a back corner that wouldn’t be visible to neighbors (except above the roof).
I wasn’t into HAM or ADSB yet when I bought my house but if I ever move, a must have will be a prime RF location with a hatch accessing the roof so I can build an antenna farm
Sounds like you have the potential to get in the air without having to get on the roof. I do both AM radio and ADS-B and don’t go on the roof for antennas at all. Everything is ground based tower. Your RPi and FlightAware blue pro stick are excellent basics. Those are exactly what I use with a cavity filter and nothing more. If you get a quality Vinnant antenna in the air and feed it to your Prostick with quality kmr400 coax you are not going to be worrying about signal loss from a raised antenna that sees 360 degrees.
Trouble is, if you change to the attic location at the same time you add new receiver parts, you won’t know what has contributed to any change. Antenna height and location are going to be your drivers. You haven’t even come close to the potential of the existing FA blue pro receiver.
Yep. I will try the new Antenna first in the current location, with the ProstickPlus. Then I’ll swap in the AirSpy Mini. And eventually I’ll give them both another go in the attic to figure out which of all those scenarios works best.
You got graphs1090 going.
Useful to have more statistics.
Though the if the only metric you care for is FA stats, that’s also valid.
If you ever want to send data to more sites without the hassle of installing for each site, i’ve helped improve a pre-made image that does that: adsb.im
If you brows the above linked thread, you will see how this introductory technique was further developed into incorporating max range curve into dump1090-mutability map (and later in Skyaware map also) by various contributors, notably @lignumaqua and @obj .
Just came back to say that Tar1090 is really cool! And the integration with HeyWhatsThat is neat.
Here’s mine, with the current PCB antenna in a window. Can see all the way to the theoretical edge in just the pure NW direction. Big room for improvement apparently to the sides. Hoping getting a better antenna up into the attic or ideally on the roof will see better to the sides.
@wiedehopf and others here, thank you so much for the encouragement and suggestions.
Just connected the 5.5dBi antenna you recommended and POW, 50 more planes showed up instantly. Went from 75 to 125 planes and higher message rate. Seems to really be filling in the sides too.
Will update again when I get the AirSpy and LNA+Filter. This is with the FA ProStick Plus.
Quick question: I see fewer airplanes on the Skyaware running on the same pi as the Tar1090, by about 15% actually. For example Skyaware reporting 102 planes with position and Tar1090 reporting 117 with position at the same time. … Should I be feeding FA from Tar1090? Sorry if it’s a silly question, I just thought since they are using the same SDR and Antenna, they would have the same counts.
