After running a small setup for ADSB, I decided that it was time to upgrade my antenna to be able to track more planes. The current setup has been in my office for the last two years with a tiny antenna sitting in a window. This was not an optimal setup, but I had a difficult time trying to find the right time to do it and the right products and place to mount it outside. But the last few weeks I decided to pull the trigger.
First, I bought this indoor/outdoor 66 cm antenna and some cable from Amazon. And then I bought a J pole mount from eBay that was meant for a satellite dish, but seems to do the trick. I had the hardest time trying to figure out how to mount it and this solution was practical and inexpensive. I couldn’t mount it much higher on the house due to lack of convenient power. Also with ADSB you don’t want the cable to be too long because the signal degrades quite quickly.
I got around to mounting it when the weather permitted and I do think it looks nice if I do say so myself.
I hope that it is able to withstand the upcoming winter, however, it does seem secure.
Then I had to move my Raspberry Pi from the warm office in which it has dutifully served for the last two years to the soon to be very cold garage. I hope it doesn’t mind its new home, but the Raspberry Pis seem to be durable based on other projects I have followed.
And the results are in! There is more coverage and more planes within the existing coverage area. I would estimate at least double the amount of planes are being tracked. I will follow up later once I have more data collected from FlightAware and FlightRadar24, but I am happy with this upgrade.
