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UHF TV antenna on ezCAP RTL2832/R820T

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  • UHF TV antenna on ezCAP RTL2832/R820T

    Hello new member here, and while waiting for my ezCAP RTL2832/R820T USB dongle to arrive i was wondering..

    Would my regular wall standard UHF antenna (300 MHz to 3 GHz) work for planespotting if directly attached to the ezCAP with a MCX-to-IEC(TV) adapter?

    Isn't the 1090MHz frequency (ADS-B) successfully received by this UHF antenna that already feeds my digital TV?

    Thank you in advance.

  • #2
    Originally posted by heimdallR View Post
    Hello new member here, and while waiting for my ezCAP RTL2832/R820T USB dongle to arrive i was wondering..

    Would my regular wall standard UHF antenna (300 MHz to 3 GHz) work for planespotting if directly attached to the ezCAP with a MCX-to-IEC(TV) adapter?

    Isn't the 1090MHz frequency (ADS-B) successfully received by this UHF antenna that already feeds my digital TV?

    Thank you in advance.
    I'm not sure which country you're in so hopefully the following may help;




    From my own personal experience, before I was aware of the digital tv frequency spectrum here in Australia just for the heck of it I tried the SBS-1 basestation I use on my (then new) UHF/VHF digital antenna setup. Killed the signal stone motherless dead to my basestation in a few words so I dont hold out a great deal of hope for you unless of course you have a different system than we have here. However with all those frequencies, if correct, that you have there you will probably require some filtering for the 1090MHz frequency to be allowed through uninhibited and even then it may not work too effectively if placed at the wall socket. Try and add an amplifier in there somewhere and goodness knows what you might end up with, you may have to get used to staring at a blank TV set.
    Ideally a separate dedicated, tuned 1090MHz antenna is the most efficient antenna to use with good quality low loss cable kept as short a practicable, again from my experience (I'm by no means an expert as when I did the radio trades course here in oz I was studying valves and others may have more to offer). Also if you have a TV (or more than one) attached to the same outlet with the dongle you may have an impedence miss-match between your TV/TV's and the dongle ( I dont know their respective impedence values off hand) which basically means the TV's may hog all the signal in any case. I've found this to be the case when attempting to run a scanner and the basestation off the same antenna - the scanner hogs all the signal for the reasons above.

    Regards and hope this helps,
    Gregg
    Last edited by fungus; 2013-07-03, 13:43.
    YSSY2/T-YSSY4 [SBS-1 Basestation w/- SSE-1090 SJ Mk2 Antenna (Thanks Delcomp) ] [Uniden UBCD996T w/- 16 element Wideband Discone VHF/UHF Antenna, and tuned 108MHz-137MHz Airband Antenna] [Trialing a home-brew 1090MHz collinear antenna]

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    • #3
      Gregg thanks, the implications you are talking about is something i was afraid off

      ...probably still test the UHF antenna just for the fun of it

      I am in Greece not sure about our spectrum, so the dedicated antenna i'm going after is the PCB-1090-MCX Mode-S/ADS-B.

      Any thought on this antenna? What average distance coverage should i expect with the ezCAP?

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by heimdallR View Post
        Gregg thanks, the implications you are talking about is something i was afraid off

        ...probably still test the UHF antenna just for the fun of it

        I am in Greece not sure about our spectrum, so the dedicated antenna i'm going after is the PCB-1090-MCX Mode-S/ADS-B.

        Any thought on this antenna? What average distance coverage should i expect with the ezCAP?
        Just be careful of static ( the tingle you can get when you disconnect/reconnect anything to a wall socket if you short the outer sheathing and the centre pin with our finger/fingers when an amplifier is present as it can damage some receivers. Sadly I'm not familiar with that antenna but others may be and join in with their expertise. Coverage can depend on many things- position and type of antenna, cable type and length and obstructions. Also the type of receiver can have an impact on that. It's a bit like asking how long is a piece of string. On other posts and threads here there are helpful hints on cable types, locating your antenna etc.

        Good luck
        Gregg
        YSSY2/T-YSSY4 [SBS-1 Basestation w/- SSE-1090 SJ Mk2 Antenna (Thanks Delcomp) ] [Uniden UBCD996T w/- 16 element Wideband Discone VHF/UHF Antenna, and tuned 108MHz-137MHz Airband Antenna] [Trialing a home-brew 1090MHz collinear antenna]

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        • #5
          Originally posted by heimdallR View Post
          Gregg thanks, the implications you are talking about is something i was afraid off

          ...probably still test the UHF antenna just for the fun of it

          I am in Greece not sure about our spectrum, so the dedicated antenna i'm going after is the PCB-1090-MCX Mode-S/ADS-B.

          Any thought on this antenna? What average distance coverage should i expect with the ezCAP?
          I have used the PCB antenna from F5ANN and can say it is an antenna that works well given it's size (exceeded my expectation). Quoted range is 150nm if you have unobstructed surroudings. In my experience the antenna normally exceeds 150nm, I normally get about 170+nm regularly and just under 200nm the odd few times. It was used along with a 10m H155 cable. It is a cheap-ish antenna to get and good to show you initially what kind of reception/air traffic you will get. With the findings that helped me to consider whether it is worth getting a higher gain antenna. Then again, you can make a DIY ads-b antenna if you wish. YMMV.
          Last edited by North Borneo Radar; 2013-07-03, 14:02.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by heimdallR View Post
            Gregg thanks, the implications you are talking about is something i was afraid off

            ...probably still test the UHF antenna just for the fun of it

            I am in Greece not sure about our spectrum, so the dedicated antenna i'm going after is the PCB-1090-MCX Mode-S/ADS-B.

            Any thought on this antenna? What average distance coverage should i expect with the ezCAP?
            I have a friend who uses it on HAM and other similar frequencies via his home TV installation. Seems to be performing nice, not sure about ADS-B since we have directional antennas in Greece you might have poor performance.
            About the protection usually sticks have TVS diodes and if not you can add them if you have some electronics soldering skills.
            F-LGTS1

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            • #7
              Originally posted by leosedf View Post
              I have a friend who uses it on HAM and other similar frequencies via his home TV installation. Seems to be performing nice, not sure about ADS-B since we have directional antennas in Greece you might have poor performance.
              About the protection usually sticks have TVS diodes and if not you can add them if you have some electronics soldering skills.
              Thanks for jogging my memory about the most fundamental aspect of TV antennas that I'd neglected- they are by their nature directional (pointing to the signal source) and yes I've used them at times in the past for my scanner and found with the older analogue antennas at least that they werent too bad for reception depending on the location of the aircraft, broadcast and/or repeater stations (and all the other considerations to do with antenna location, cable etc). For ADS-B reception though you want something that is omni-directional. That is, if possible, a full 360 degrees or as close to it as you can possibly manage.
              From memory (and I'll stand corrected on this one) the majority of TV antenna cables are 75 ohm (here in Australia) and the best cable for our ADS-B signal is 50 ohm so you've also got that consideration. (Just looked those up and the figures quoted should be correct- allowing for the cobwebs).

              Regards,
              Gregg
              Last edited by fungus; 2013-07-05, 03:33.
              YSSY2/T-YSSY4 [SBS-1 Basestation w/- SSE-1090 SJ Mk2 Antenna (Thanks Delcomp) ] [Uniden UBCD996T w/- 16 element Wideband Discone VHF/UHF Antenna, and tuned 108MHz-137MHz Airband Antenna] [Trialing a home-brew 1090MHz collinear antenna]

              Comment


              • #8
                Well.
                Normal TV yagi's are 300Ω and you need a balun to use a 75Ω cable on your amplifier and installation at home. Most receivers only use 75Ω and transmitters use 50Ω. We just use 50Ω doesn't have much difference.
                I have no idea however how the FR24 is tuned, i would guess 75 since it's only a receiver and using a 50Ω cable seems to introduce loss on the system (same goes for the antenna too). Losses most probably are small due to small cable lengths.
                Anyway TV antennas seem to work better on other frequencies.
                F-LGTS1

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                • #9
                  Last week as I was at a friends repair shop who was helping me assemble some new yagis in lack of anything better connected his TV antenna coax to a dongle and the notebook. His shop antenna was on a piece of bamboo so it could be turned easily from the ground.

                  It tracked nearby planes and was directional as I fiddled in the direction of know aircraft routes. Outdoor TV antennas are horizontally polarized, not verticalized like ADS-b. Indoor Bowtie antennas are the same horizontal configuration but perform like a poorly designed yagi. If you want to try to get better results turn you outdoor antenna boom 90 degrees so that the elements are up and down rather than horizontal.

                  Yagis are generally pretty poor unless you are at the end of a known vector because of their narrow beam width. If you are looking across a flyway, you will only see the aircraft a brief moment and will in all practically not see them.

                  John

                  T-RPVD1

                  The world’s most popular flight tracker. Track planes in real-time on our flight tracker map and get up-to-date flight status & airport information.

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