Commissario
You're welcome. I won't feed to them, I found the attitude of some of their administrators to be quite arrogant so I decided to stop uploading. I'm in a very well covered area anyway so I'm sure they won't miss it.
Plane Spotters / Flight Radar Thread
- Thread starter leaskovski
- Start date
Soldato
I've just had a tinker with my system. Changed from Blue FA Dongle to RTL-SDR v3 & LNA Filter. Also ditched my 10m run of coax (it was WF103, so only about 1.8db of loss, but every little counts eh?) and now have the dongle and filter hanging directly off the bottom of the antenna. Had to drop my gain to 28 but so far I think I can see an improvement.
Commissario
You should notice an improvement, especially as you've removed the coax. You say LNA filter - Are you using a filtered LNA or an LNA and an external filter?
Soldato
It's the ADS-B Triple Filtered LNA from the RTL-SDR store.
Commissario
Good choice - It's worth setting up the gain automation script I linked to earlier because it takes the guesswork out of it. Although in the area you're in, you can probably have a decent amount of gain to pick up the aircraft further away without risking overload from close traffic.
Soldato
I'll set it running right now. My initial setting of 28 was just based on the graphs 
My set up in the loft is Pi 3B + dump1090 + FA Blue + Uputronics Filtered Preamp + FA 26 Inch Antenna.
I now have Ethernet, POE and Mains Electric in my garden shed so I'm thinking about how a set up there would compare. Obviously the antenna mounted on the shed would be significantly lower than the loft but would be outside. Whereas the loft is higher but surrounded by wood, slate and a party brick wall on one side.
Any thoughts on how this might compare? Is it worth a try?
I've just had surgery so can't go on the loft to retrieve the old setup for a while so might set up another and see how it compares. Then the winner would stay here and looser might go to my parents house 30 miles away for a second site.
On another note I was getting 100-130 aircraft at peak currently getting 40-50 so wondering if something has moved up there or if the antenna has fallen. As I say though no question of me getting up there for what I guess will be a couple of months at least.
P.S. North Wales approx 240m / 790 feet. Loft is a standard 1930s style semi detached. Shed is nothing special set back about 20m from the house. Antenna would be mounted on the roof but not on a high pole or anything.
I now have Ethernet, POE and Mains Electric in my garden shed so I'm thinking about how a set up there would compare. Obviously the antenna mounted on the shed would be significantly lower than the loft but would be outside. Whereas the loft is higher but surrounded by wood, slate and a party brick wall on one side.
Any thoughts on how this might compare? Is it worth a try?
I've just had surgery so can't go on the loft to retrieve the old setup for a while so might set up another and see how it compares. Then the winner would stay here and looser might go to my parents house 30 miles away for a second site.
On another note I was getting 100-130 aircraft at peak currently getting 40-50 so wondering if something has moved up there or if the antenna has fallen. As I say though no question of me getting up there for what I guess will be a couple of months at least.
P.S. North Wales approx 240m / 790 feet. Loft is a standard 1930s style semi detached. Shed is nothing special set back about 20m from the house. Antenna would be mounted on the roof but not on a high pole or anything.
Just spotted this thread, not sure if its of any interest but I have a 24/7 live feed to Blackpool airport as my works building is next door. If someone wants to give me a clue on how to connect the DVR to our website your free to have a nosey when ever
crap that's a big image, apologies
crap that's a big image, apologies
@Feek RTL SDR V3 says it invludes a bias tee module which can be turned on in software without soldering. is it doing something different? Is an external one required? What is its actual purpose? Looks like it just injects power to the antenna?
Assume it goes RLSDRV3 > LNA > Bias Tee > Antenna
Soldato
A Bias Tee provides the power to the LNA. The RTL-SDR v3 has one built in so an external one is not required.
So it would go... RTLSDRV3 > LNA > Antenna.
This was my exact setup up until last week when my 1 week old RTL-SDR v3 bit the dust. Back on the FA Prostick Plus while awaiting a replacement
So it would go... RTLSDRV3 > LNA > Antenna.
This was my exact setup up until last week when my 1 week old RTL-SDR v3 bit the dust. Back on the FA Prostick Plus while awaiting a replacement
Associate
A Bias Tee provides the power to the LNA. The RTL-SDR v3 has one built in so an external one is not required.
So it would go... RTLSDRV3 > LNA > Antenna.
This was my exact setup up until last week when my 1 week old RTL-SDR v3 bit the dust. Back on the FA Prostick Plus while awaiting a replacement
To be more precise: Bias-Tee provides the power via the coax to the LNA. So it could look like this:
USB-dongle > Coax > LNA > Adapter/Pig tail > Antenna
That was my exact setup, too, but Bias-T was not reliable with the RTL-SDR V3, causing performance to drop significantly. While testing the Triple Filter LNA went to heaven, now I'm waiting for a replacement.
When the RTL-SDR V3 dongle loses its power, Bias-Tee is turned off. Just to be sure, I also bought a NooElec NESDR SMArtee, which has Bias-Tee always on (hardware).
Modified it slightly by sticking a few heat sinks on the casing to keep it cooler. In the meantime, the FA Prostick Plus is also back on duty.
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Soldato
Not more precise in my case, I don't have any coax 
Got my blue FA stick back to it's previous levels tracking around 90 aircraft in average at around 750 messages per second.
Antenna had come down in the loft so that was easy enough.
Hoping RTL-SDRV3 might arrive towards the end of this week.
Sounds like I should consider an external bias tee then rather than relying on the inbuilt one?
Antenna had come down in the loft so that was easy enough.
Hoping RTL-SDRV3 might arrive towards the end of this week.
Sounds like I should consider an external bias tee then rather than relying on the inbuilt one?
Commissario
I would. I don’t think it’s very reliable.
Can you recommend one? A few different ones come up on the eBay search link on your blog
Soldato
That's Dahua so it'll just be a case of RTSP
Commissario