My first project - Questions

[svojacek]

Hello Guys:

First aff all I want to thank the guys at Flightradar24 for accepting me, I am building my first ADS-B project and want to ask a few things.

This is the USB receiver stick that I will buy:
81hRCeSYLaL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

This is the antenna I plan to buy:
D_NQ_NP_2X_647486-MLA33030155088_112019-F.jpg

I will be using those with a PC with linux Debian, or with an old Raspberry PI 2 board.
My questions are:

1-How much air traffic will be capturing with that antenna? I generally have planes flying over my house between 2500 feet and 10.000 feet, but there is generally a lot of traffic.
2-Is that Stick receiver good and does it perform well? Is there any other recommended to buy from amazon US?
3-Is 5 dBi enough to catch the 10.000 feet traffic or is it impossible?
4-Do I need to buy a signal booster for that stick and antenna? (I am seeing the stick already has a booster)



Thank you in advance!

Steve.

[JoeF]

I have no experience with either of those. I got a Flightaware dongle with a built-in filter to block cellular signals. Depending on where you live in relation to cell towers, that might be significant. The FA dongle was WAY better than a cheaper dongle I had. Whether the filter, better receiver, both: I do not know.

Get your antenna in the clear (outside) if at all possible. Picking up aircraft at 40,000 feet should be easy since it is line-of-sight. Getting the antenna so that it is clear of obstacles is probably the best thing you can do.

Read through the forums here; lot's of advise on things like this.

[JoeF]

Also wanted to mention... antennas do have nulls. I have a co-linear antenna and it has a null straight up. Away from vertical, much better. For reasons I will not go into here, mine is in my attic and my max range is over 220 miles. Do the math, that is way over 10,000 feet.

[svojacek]

...Read through the forums here; lot's of advise on things like this.

Thank you JoeF for the advice about the doungle since I was about to try with a generic one, I am now considering buying the one with a cellular filter, does anyone know if it is available to be purchased from the US? Or any good one available at Amazon instead of the one from AirNav Radarbox?

Antennas is another thing I need to learn more, that one seems to be a good one, but I am seeing lots of different antennas.

About the line-of-sight, I have a very good free air space at home, and will be installing the antenna at about 20 meters high from the floor (it's like a 2nd floor).

[abcd567]

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Do I need a Filter? - Find RF Signals In Area

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[hansp]

For what itīs worth... I have been using that stick for many years now on 2 recievers and it is perfectly fine. It is more important to get the antenna high and with a free line of sight. And to have a quality cable that is not too long (I recently shorted my old cable several meters and the reception went up). Start with a setup that suits your budget, and then fine-tune gain, placement etc. It will be fine!

[svojacek]

For what itīs worth... I have been using that stick for many years now on 2 recievers and it is perfectly fine. It is more important to get the antenna high and with a free line of sight. And to have a quality cable that is not too long (I recently shorted my old cable several meters and the reception went up). Start with a setup that suits your budget, and then fine-tune gain, placement etc. It will be fine!

OK, I will try to install the antenna as high as possible, I have a good clean air space at my home, and there are no high buildings in my neighborhood.

[svojacek]

After reading some posts and manuals here at the forum, I ended up ordering the followings:


The Antenna:

antenna1.jpg

The Dongle:

Dongle1.jpg


The antenna is the 60cm long version, I will play with these as soon as they arrive