In one of my previous blog posts I showed how I am receiving ADS-B using SDRplay RSP, dump1090 and Virtual Radar Server.
In this post I compare my different antenna and pre-amplifier configurations so as to obtain the best receive footprint.
Click on the continue button to see more.
Note: This blog post is work in progress so more coming soon.
If you want to see my article that shows how I am receiving ADS-B using SDRplay RSP, dump1090 and Virtual Radar Server please click here.
ADS-B is received on 1090MHz. Wavelength (λ) of this frequency is 300 / 1090 = 27.5cm
DIAMOND V2000 ANTENNA
To get up and running with receiving ADS-B I first used my Diamond V2000 antenna (antenna at top of mast).
This antenna is used for transmit and receive on the amateur radio bands below:
- 50MHz (λ = 6m)
- 145MHz (λ = 2m)
- 433MHz (λ=70cm)
This chart shows the footprint (red) of the aircraft I received over a 24 hour period (midnight to midnight) on 30th October 2020. The antenna is on a mast but was in the lowered position. A 30m length of Ultraflex 10 is connected to the antenna and runs to my radio shack.
The blue dot shows my home location. The radius of each circle is 15 miles.
The furthest distance of a transmission I received from an aircraft was between 96 and 105 miles.
DISCONE ANTENNA
My Discone antenna is a general coverage receive antenna 25MHz to 1.5GHz. It is located on a small alloy pole on the ridge of the house and is slightly lower in height to that of my Diamond tri-band V2000 antenna. Below is an old photo showing the Discone in the background, but does not show the diamond like in the photo above. A 10m length of RG58 coax is connected to the antenna and runs to my radio shack.
This chart shows the footprint (red) of the aircraft I received over the same 24 hour period (midnight to midnight) on 30th October 2020.
The furthest distance of a transmission I received from an aircraft was between 45 and 60 miles.
ADS-B ANTENNA
For this next test I am using a home made ADB-S antenna resonant on 1090MHz.
Coming soon…
Why not take a look at my YouTube channel here or Twitter posts here.
You can also register for my website here.
Thanks
73 de M0NWK
2 comments
Hi there,
I have been a marine ais / aircraft adsb enthusiast since before I was a ham.
I’ve bought, stripped down and posted the schematics of many antennas for other enthusiasts online. For years I built my own wire type antenna for marine, pmr etcetera
I recently bought a Vinnant colinear (Slovakia) Adsb antenna that has beaten every other antenna hands down. I am only 127m ASL and pretty terrain limited here in Greenock Scotland UK
I was looking through some other Hams experiments and found this page which is great to see others with a similar mindset to myself.
I am using a Diamond x50n for VHF/UHF on the uniden sds200e scanner and am happy with the results.
I read with interest the diamond v2000, obviously being a 23cm antenna I wondered if it would produce good results on adsb.
I note where you are located and at the time of testing your mast wasnt at ‘full tilt’. This seems to be a reasonable performance for an antenna not dedicated (resonant) to 1090mhz taking into account terrain and atmospheric conditions.
It would be great to know what you ended up with in the “to be continued”
Hi, thanks for commenting. I’ll have to leave the update until winter now. I’ve been really busy on lots of other projects (not radio) so hoping to pick this back up soon. Keep your eyes out for an update. Thanks & 73 Ade