Antenna, bigger not better?

[F-EGLF1]

Oh, I did not know that, wrongly assumed that you use RPi/dump1090-mutability, and thought you may be interested.

By the way, I noted that you have a lightning data station "Blitzortung station 878". How is that hobby? Dont have any idea about its details.

The only thing I use a RPi for at the moment is for feeding OGN (gliders) And PilotAware, my PP feed is from a small Intel NUC PC running Win-7.
Blitzortung is probably the thing that got me into the whole tracking thing, it is a worldwide network of lightning detectors designed and built in Germany, it comes as a kit of parts and needs reasonably good soldering skills, it isn’t cheap (around £200 if I recall correctly) and needs a lot of involvement in both antenna design/construction and setting gain/thresholds (quite different antennas to what we use, as it works mostly with the magnetic field rather then the electric field)
I got into glider tracking almost by accident after I got my FR24 box and ended up learning to fly gliders for real, so now I quite often end up tracking myself!

[abcd567]

TBH I don’t normally read posts about dump1090-mutability as I don’t use it, my FR feed is from an official box and my PP feed uses the standard 1090, I gave mutability a go some while back but didn’t think it offered any significant advantage to my setup.

Oh, I did not know that, wrongly assumed that you use RPi/dump1090-mutability, and thought you may be interested.

By the way, I noted that you have a lightning data station "Blitzortung station 878". How is that hobby? Dont have any idea about its details.

[abcd567]

If you have a spare mating connector (either ‘N’ or SMA) then why not knock up one of the simple spider antennas that abcd567 has published designs for, that will confirm that your cable run is good and should give a significant improvement on the little ‘thumb’ antenna you have.

QUICK SPIDER - No Soldering, No Connector

CANTENNA

SPIDER WITH SO239 CONNECTOR

[F-EGLF1]

F-EGLF1
This is off-topic, but did you see my today's post about "Gain Setting" from browser or in dump1090-mutability ver 1.15~dev?

https://forum.flightradar24.com/thre...ll=1#post81873

.

TBH I don’t normally read posts about dump1090-mutability as I don’t use it, my FR feed is from an official box and my PP feed uses the standard 1090, I gave mutability a go some while back but didn’t think it offered any significant advantage to my setup.

[abcd567]

F-EGLF1
This is off-topic, but did you see my today's post about "Gain Setting" from browser OR from map of dump1090-mutability ver 1.15~dev?

https://forum.flightradar24.com/thre...ll=1#post81873

.

[abcd567]

As Amazon Italy and Amazon UK have this item out of stock, I now checked at Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WZL6WPO) and entered UK address of a relative as delivery address, and it showed me following. I dont have an Italian address otherwise I will check cost for delivery to Italy also.

Order Summary
Items: $39.95
Shipping & handling: $6.32
Total before tax: $46.27
Estimated tax to be collected: $0.00
Import Fees Deposit: $9.25
Order total: $55.52

[Cauchee]

The 'thumb' is in the Nooelec Smartsdr bundle and - apparently - is designed for receiving ADS-B!
Would you please check my DUMP1090?
rng.png
The antenna is outside but NOT on the roof! Seems pretty decent to me!
Thanks again!

[F-EGLF1]

Can't dismiss the open/short circuit too...
Tomorrow I'll test cable continuity.
Antenna specs:
https://eu.dlink.com/-/media/Busines...heet_EN_UK.pdf
I'm 15 miles away from FCO airport
Thank you!

If you have a spare mating connector (either ‘N’ or SMA) then why not knock up one of the simple spider antennas that abcd567 has published designs for, that will confirm that your cable run is good and should give a significant improvement on the little ‘thumb’ antenna you have.

[abcd567]

I use Flightaware antenna.
It gives me good performance for the Price. In North America (USA & Canada) Shipping is free, but It may be substantial for Europe.

https://www.amazon.it/dp/B00WZL6WPO

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WZL6WPO

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WZL6WPO

[Cauchee]

Can't dismiss the open/short circuit too...
Tomorrow I'll test cable continuity.
Antenna specs:
https://eu.dlink.com/-/media/Busines...heet_EN_UK.pdf
I'm 15 miles away from FCO airport
Thank you!

[F-EGLF1]

F-EGLF1
You are right, a WiFi 2.4 GHz antenna will be hopeless on 1.090 GHz, but still it will not give ZERO reception.

Cauchee has mentioned in his first post ZERO reception, which gives a doubt about short circuit or open circuit either in cable or antenna.

As we don’t know the specifics of that antenna it is possible it has built in bandpass filters (especially if as he said it came from a high spec setup) if he is in an area with a low number of close aircraft then it is quite possible that he sees nothing, but I agree that he still should see the odd one or 2, however it would perform significantly worse than a random length of wire!

[abcd567]

F-EGLF1
You are right, a WiFi 2.4 GHz antenna will be hopeless on 1.090 GHz, but still it will not give ZERO reception.

Cauchee has mentioned in his first post ZERO reception, which gives a doubt about short circuit or open circuit either in cable or antenna.

Any way it is NOT worth fixing a short/open problem, as the WiFi 2.4 GHz antenna will give a hopeless reception on 1090 MHz even after fixing the defect.

[Cauchee]

Hello EGLF1!
I'm afraid you are right!

This product fueled my enthusiasm:
https://www.wimo.com/gp1090-1090mhz-antenna_e.html

The external similarity made me thought that I'd achieve similar performances!!
Burnt a little money but - as Alanis Morrissette sung - "you learn!"

Cheers,
Francesco

[abcd567]

If you have a multimeter or continuity tester, check cable for

(1) Short between center wire (pin of connector) and shield (nut of connector) - Shoud show open
(2) Continuity of center wire from one connector to the other i.e. between pins of two connectors of the cable - Should show continuity/short.

[F-EGLF1]

If as you say in your first post it is a 2.4Ghz antenna then it isn’t surprising that it doesn’t work, it is tuned to the wrong frequency and will be designed to only work in a narrow band either side of 2.4Ghz, not 1.090Ghz that ADSB uses.
Antennas of this type are very narrow band and would be useless outside their designed range.