Plane Spotters / Flight Radar Thread

That's interesting. I like that it doesn't censor police or military aircraft.

I'd also like to have a look at their API which is free to feeders and see if I can get a few custom things set up.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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

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If you want more performance then you’re starting to get a bit more expensive and the law of diminishing returns comes into effect. The next step up is to buy a separate receiver and amplifier. If you want to do this then my recommendation is the RTL-SDR V3 dongle and the RTL-SDR 1090MHz LNA at $21.95 and $26.95 respectively and available from the RTL-SDR shop. These will take a couple of weeks to be delivered to the UK and you’ll also need to buy a bias-tee module as well which will add another tenner or so to the cost and further complicate the build.
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@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
 
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 :(
 
Thanks. Didn't really understand because my FA Pro Stick is connected to an LNA which uses mini USB as an external power source. Assumed that was typical but actually seems to be the exception to the rule. Makes sense now.
 
neodude said:
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 :(
Click to expand...

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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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?
 
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