Complete FlightRadar24 Build on Raspberry Pi and SDR Dongles. ADS-B AIRCRAFT RADAR System Part 2

OK, I’ve experimented with a 60cm & 120cm antenna’s, SDR Blog USB & FlightAware USB dongles, LNA and plain aerial cable Vs active USB cables and the results are in.

I have been using FlightRadar24 Pi24 image on Raspberry Pi models 3 and 4. Also I have used the software “as is” and not tweaked any settings. This can be done but I’ve run all the software and hardware “straight out of the box”. Lots of tweaking can and will be done in the future.

A note on the SDR Blog LNA. This needs to be powered either from the SDR Blog USB dongle itself by software enabling the bias tee option or using a hardware DC bias tee board, details below. I used the hardware option on these tests. If I had used the software option, I would have gained an extra 2.5db in gain. Inserting the hardware DC option lost about 2.5db!

The data has been captured over 2-day blocks; longer would have been better as it would have ironed out the blips but the results from the data is below:

Difference between 60cm and 120cm antenna with a 10meter cable: 6.33% more flights seen. 2.67% increase on distance. 13.76% increase on position reports. 13.06% increase on hits reported. Conclusion: The bigger the antenna, the better the signal you pull in.

Difference between SDR Blog dongle with and without active 10meter USB cable using 60cm antenna in a lower garden position: 5.71% more flights seen. 3.055% increase on distance. 8.05% increase on position reports. 7.84% increase on reported hits. Conclusion: The shorter the antenna cable the better however using an active USB cable can help out if you need a long cable run from the antenna to the Pi. This is where you would mount the dongle very near the antenna and feed the data from it to the Pi via the active USB cable.

Difference between FlightAware Pro Plus USB dongle with and without active 10meter USB Cable and antenna setup as above: -3.68% less flights seen (Data blip?). 3.16% increase on distance. 8.93% increase on position hits. 1.07% increase on hits reported.
Conclusion: Very similar to above.

Difference between SDR Blog USB dongle, active 10meter USB cable and 60cm antenna with & without SDR Blog LNA: 5.16% more flights seen. 4.84% increase on distance. 17.74% increase on positions reported. 15.1% increase on hits reported. Conclusion: Better with SDR Blog LNA than without.

Difference between FlightAware (No LNA) and SDR Blog dongle with LNA fitted using active USB cable and 60cm antenna (LNA not immediately compatible with FlightAware dongle, more experimenting required!) 3.53% more flights seen. 0.2% increase on distance. -6.26% decrease on positions (Data blip?). 2.93% increase on reported hits. Conclusion: Very close results, a longer data capture time would be required for a more accurate result.

I'm going to take what I learnt forward and build this into my main radar feeder upgrade. This will be in Part3.

Components used:

SDR Blog USB dongle https://amzn.to/3Qw3Cay FlightAware Plus USB dongle https://thepihut.com/products/flightaware-pro-stick-plus-usb-sdr-ads-b-receiver SDR Blog LNA https://amzn.to/3BRVI7B DC bias tee https://amzn.to/3QP3zHA Electrical water proof box (black) https://amzn.to/3JGta2G Electrical water proof box (orange) https://amzn.to/3A8puDE Saxon saw blade 100tooth https://amzn.to/3QqLgbH Raspberry Pi 3b+ https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-b-plus Raspberry Pi 4b https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b?variant=20064052740158 Raspberry Pi Zero W https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero-wh-with-pre-soldered-header Raspberry Pi PSU for Pi 4 https://amzn.to/3PasdRd Raspberry Pi PSU for Pi 3 https://amzn.to/3d4HTrR 60cm 5.5db antenna https://thepihut.com/products/60cm-1090mhz-antenna-for-ads-b 120cm 8.5db antenna https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/ads-b-1090-mhz-antenna-1-2m-8-5dbi?variant=31058778325075 1m N type male to sma antenna cable https://thepihut.com/products/sma-male-to-n-type-male-antenna-cable-5m?variant=37546657579203 5m N type male to sma antenna cable https://thepihut.com/products/sma-male-to-n-type-male-antenna-cable-5m?variant=37546385572035 10m N type male to sma antenna cable https://thepihut.com/products/sma-male-to-n-type-male-antenna-cable-5m?variant=37546385604803 MK metal double socket https://amzn.to/3SDwwrm HDMI 5” touch screen display https://amzn.to/3zHb0cC 3mm plastic pillars https://amzn.to/3djxCs9 32gig Micro SD card https://amzn.to/3SOolsr Aerial mast (look around for cheaper) https://amzn.to/3A9Lmic Right angle short USB cables https://amzn.to/3JDHU2h Active USB 2 10m cable https://amzn.to/3JGsYAu Active USB 2 20m cable https://amzn.to/3A8oQ9m Self-amalgamating tape https://amzn.to/3P9Vxrb Ferrite Ring RFI EMI Noise Suppressors https://amzn.to/3JGnupt

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