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

Check out my Part1 video here:    • Complete FlightRadar24 Build on Raspb...  

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.

Components used:
SDR Blog V3 R860 RTL2832U dongle https://amzn.to/47jvCYa
SDR Blog USB dongle https://amzn.to/3Qw3Cay
FlightAware Pro Plus USB dongle https://thepihut.com/products/flighta...
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/rasp...
Raspberry Pi 4b 2gb https://amzn.to/3rqj6Wz
Raspberry Pi 4b 4gb https://amzn.to/3JVu1h8
Raspberry Pi 4b 8gb https://amzn.to/44j95sL
Raspberry Pi Zero W https://thepihut.com/products/raspber...
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-10...
120cm 8.5db antenna https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/ad...
1m N type male to sma antenna cable https://thepihut.com/products/sma-mal...
5m N type male to sma antenna cable https://thepihut.com/products/sma-mal...
10m N type male to sma antenna cable https://thepihut.com/products/sma-mal...
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

*Full disclosure. Some of the links above may earn a few pennies for the channel at absolutely no cost to yourself. Thanks for watching. *