Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Unexpected poor reception after house move

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Unexpected poor reception after house move

    I'm new to this forum, so hello to everyone.

    Recently moved home and the coverege using the same hardware set up is inferior at the the new house. The new house is around about the same elevation as the old one and the surrounding buildings, terrain etc are very similar. The antenna at the old house was mounted in the loft. I got 360 degrees coverage, albeit weaker in certain areas of the sky. I was picking aircraft up over 250 miles away iin parts of the sky.

    At the new house I had the antenna in the converted loft initially. I was surprised to find I wasn't getting any contacts from one half of the sky. On the other side I was getting quite good hits, although not getting ones over 200 miles as at the previous house. Because of the definate split of two halves, coverage on one side nothing on the other, I decided it could be the foil insulation used in the loft conversion ceiling.

    I have now mounted the antenna on a chimmney stack above the roof outside and guess what, still the same type of reception. Reasonable in one half of the sky, nothing in the other half.

    Has anyone got any ideas why this might be happening?

    Thanks

  • #2
    First check if at your new home there is some natural limitations on the half side:

    What is the Maximum Range I can Get?

    Comment


    • #3
      And don't forget to update location to prevent data being ignored/blocked

      Sent from my EML-L09 using Tapatalk
      Posts not to be taken as official support representation - Just a helpful uploader who tinkers

      Comment


      • #4
        Overloading by a nearby GSM tower or another radio transmitter ?

        Comment


        • #5
          Thank you very much for your suggestions.

          The strange thing is that the coverage is a definite split of two halves. (see pic) and it follows the line of the house, with the front of the house facing the south west.

          I updated my new coordinates in the feeder and also notified FR24 of these when I first got up and running at the new house. The terrain around my new house is pretty similar to the old one, maybe not quite as built up in fact.

          I tried the “FIND YOUR MAXIMUM POSSIBLE RANGE” link and it was quite close to what I’m getting on the west side of the house. On the east side, it showed what I was sort of expecting to get before I put the antenna up, but in reality my reception is nothing like that - there isn't any.

          There is a GSM mast about half a mile away on the side that is not picking up the aircraft, so maybe that is the culprit? Would there be a way to minimise this interference if that was the cause?

          At the other house we lived 5 miles from an airport and I could pick aircraft up on the ground from there. We are now 1 mile away from the same airport and I don’t get anything until the aircraft have taken off and passed through the line of coverage shown in the polar plot picture. Frustrating!


          Polar.JPG

          Comment


          • #6
            Try to put on a bandpass filter for 1090MHz

            Comment


            • #7
              I'm using a flightaware pro stick plus receiver, which has an internal bandpass filter. It doesn't seem to be having any effect though if it's interference caused by radio transmissions that's causing the issue.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by jojogunne1960 View Post
                The strange thing is that the coverage is a definite split of two halves. (see pic) and it follows the line of the house, with the front of the house facing the south west.
                Could you provide a picture of the installed antenna?

                Signal interference would affect signals from all directions, so that can't be it.

                Such asymmetries are almost always due to obstructions.
                Is the antenna the highest thing on the house?
                Basically the only possible reason if the surrounding buildings/terrain are not in the way is that you either installed the antenna crooked or it is blocked by the chimney itself.
                It needs to be above the chimney.

                Comment


                • #9
                  I can't provide a picture of the antenna unfortunately, as it is dark when I go to and from work. It is mounted on the top of the chimney, so most of the antenna is clear of the brickwork. It's the highest part of the house except for the chimney pots. I appreciate what you are saying though and I think I am going to have to mount it on a pole to gain some more height above the chimney.

                  I just thought that where it is at the moment, I would have at least got some hits behind the house, certainly coming from aircraft flying at higher altitudes. It's no better coverage than when it was mounted internally in the converted loft. The aircraft location positions are nearly identical.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by jojogunne1960 View Post
                    I can't provide a picture of the antenna unfortunately, as it is dark when I go to and from work. It is mounted on the top of the chimney, so most of the antenna is clear of the brickwork. It's the highest part of the house except for the chimney pots. I appreciate what you are saying though and I think I am going to have to mount it on a pole to gain some more height above the chimney.

                    I just thought that where it is at the moment, I would have at least got some hits behind the house, certainly coming from aircraft flying at higher altitudes. It's no better coverage than when it was mounted internally in the converted loft. The aircraft location positions are nearly identical.
                    Yeah i wouldn't expect such a clear cut blocking 180 degrees either.
                    If they are made from metal and close enough to the antenna it is possible that they are the reason.

                    Maybe you accidentally entered a wrong location, go to your flightradar stats page and check your coordinates just to make sure they are correct.
                    Easiest would be to copy them from there and then put them in on google maps

                    Good luck fixing it!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by jojogunne1960 View Post
                      I updated my new coordinates in the feeder and also notified FR24 of these when I first got up and running at the new house.
                      Set your new home's coordinates in FR24's "My Stats" page by clicking the "eye" icon.
                      Please see screenshot below.

                      FR24 My Stats.png
                      Last edited by abcd567; 2019-01-23, 18:25.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        The coordinates are correct for my new location. I changed these when we first moved home. Think I will re-install everything and start from scratch, but I don't think it will help somehow. Thanks for all your suggestions.
                        Last edited by jojogunne1960; 2019-01-23, 21:58.

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X