Nice build! Is it still in alive and kicking?

Yep! No issues at all.

What if you twisted the wiring. Would that cancel out Rf

The antenna feed lines are shielded from the base of each antenna down, so I don't think anything internal is an issue.

Thanks! I have enjoyed learning more about the air traffic above our house with it.

Nice! Honestly, the most valuable traffic to report is what is near you and lower altitude. The higher altitude traffic is picked up by so many other receivers.

Thanks for watching! Since I spent quite a bit of time trying different antenna & SDR modules at the beginning, having the cables free was advantageous. They are all isolated, so there isn't a problem leaving them free.

Nice! Yes, APRS is on my to do list as well.

Thanks! PVC is so versatile for so many thing other than plumbing!

i wonder what happened to him ? i did like his videos when they came out.

Thanks! I hope it works as well for you.

It has been going over a year without issue. Our temperatures here are reasonably mild, so it might struggle elsewhere.

Thanks! Let me know if you build one. Cost at the time would be hard to say. Much of it was pieces I already had left over from other things. Today, FlightAware sells a single frequency kit for $120. Doing some quick shopping around now, I'd estimate about $137 to reconstruct my build buying everything for both frequencies. Raspberry Pi $35 (mythical pricing here in 2022) MicroSD $5 USB power $7 FlightAware Pro Stick Plus $40 FlightAware Pro Stick $37 PVC parts $5 RG-58/WBC-195R cable, 2 feet $2 2 SMA connectors $1 Plastic box $5 You can save big not getting the FlightAware USB SDR radios, but get the generic ones on eBay for around $15 each. They don't have filters, so the range isn't as good, but they still work pretty well!

I'm sure that will last longer, but electrical tape is what I had on hand at the time. Thanks!

Yes, two SDRs: one for 978 and the other for 1090. The green adapter is the WiFi dongle as this older Raspberry Pi doesn't have built in WiFi.

I've found the SDR runs very hot, and I've had one fail. I put vents in the box and that cured it.

I haven't had any issues and it has been running over a year now.

@@ShumanProjects Thanks for the feedback. Good to know.

978 MHz is a second ADS-B band here in the United States.

Much of it was pieces I already had left over from other things. Today, FlightAware sells a single frequency kit for $120. Doing some quick shopping around now, I'd estimate about $137 to reconstruct my build buying everything for both frequencies. Raspberry Pi $35 (mythical pricing here in 2022) MicroSD $5 USB power $7 FlightAware Pro Stick Plus $40 FlightAware Pro Stick $37 PVC parts $5 RG-58/WBC-195R cable, 2 feet $2 2 SMA connectors $1 Plastic box $5 You can save big not getting the FlightAware USB SDR radios, but get the generic ones on eBay for around $15 each. They don't have filters, so the range isn't as good, but they still work pretty well! I've had zero reliability issues. No license needed. This is listen only. No transmitting.

This is what feeds ADS-B Exchange. From their website: "This wouldn’t be possible without our amazing community of volunteers and feeders hosting airplane tracking equipment all over the globe. And we are always looking for new participants to expand our network. Be sure to check out the “how to feed” page to find out how you can help." In my case, there was missing coverage on 978 MHz in my area, so you can thank me specifically for that data on ADS-B Exchange.

Sometimes. Military aircraft choose when to beacon and when not to. I do see a decent number of military aircraft on my receiver. I think then tend to transmit when traveling between controlled air spaces, in areas shared with non-military aircraft.

It has been running for over a year now without any temperature issues. Our area has mild weather, so I'm sure that helps. My goal was to keep the RF path as short as possible. I don't have any great places to easily route coax from the roof to the interior of the house without long runs. I also liked the idea of everything self contained. Thanks for watching!

Long rf feedlines can be a problem in terms of loss at these frequencies so keeping them short is a good idea.

Max working temp of raspberry pi is around 150F and the SDR may be even lower than that. Spray painting the outside of the box white will help a lot.

Why don’t you just buy a radarbox xrange. It does everything you say and you don’t need any knowledge for it.

1. Looks like that would cost three times what I paid for parts, so your idea is more expensive. 2. The xrange looks to only have one radio for 1090 MHz, so my cheaper solution covers both 1090 MHz and 978 MHz. 3. Some people buy furniture at the store and some people make their own. I like to make stuff more than buy it. 4. "Don't need any knowledge..." ? I love to learn and understand, so building something new is more enjoyable to me than some prepackaged thing. I'm not saying you have to build your own setup, but I'm certainly glad I did.

Thanks Paul! You can run one copy of the SDR software (dump1090/dump978) per SDR and have multiple processes reading from it. I have four different sites I'm feeding to from one Raspberry Pi. Be aware each new site does add CPU/memory load. There are many write ups that walk through getting multiple feeds going. Good luck!

I think by default you get ADS-B, Mode S, and MLAT. There is an option to also listen to Mode A & C.

You might be able to save a few bucks piecing a similar kit together from Amazon & eBay, but it actually look like a pretty good deal for what you get. I didn't use the filter, so I can't comment on how that would improve performance. I also don't know if the Zero can handle two receivers on one Pi. Do you only want 978MHz or are adding to an existing install? Most of my traffic is on 1090MHz.

@@ShumanProjects Thanks for the input I will do some amazon and ebay searching. This will be my first build.

There are no US requirements today for drones to broadcast ADS-B telemetry.

Ha! No, that is a new one!

With my current settings, FlightAware reports about half the updates are from 0-50 miles and the other half are from 50-100 miles. It does get a small amount from the 100-150 mile range and a very few 150-200 mile messages. I was getting more range with higher sensitivity/gain, but the local traffic was overwhelming the receiver. Since I was intentionally trying to fill a local gap in coverage, it made sense to bring the sensitivity down to favorite the more local signals.

I'm not sure I follow the question. If you are asking if it is weatherproof, than yes. It has survived outside for over two years. If you are asking about some kind of weather monitoring, that would be interesting, but not something I have experience with.

@@ShumanProjects the ADA-B for the DIY aviation build receiver has a weather AHRS USB option. If you have a USB slot open that is where it would go. Search DIY aviation ADS-B.

Yes, while I don't have hands on experience with it, I do see posts about people using it. One difference with some other SDR adapters is it looks like the RTL-SDR doesn't include a filter to limit to just the ADS-B frequencies and doesn't include an LNA. It will still work, but won't pull in some of the weaker signals. I started with a unbranded SDR module without a filter and LNA. It worked fine to get started.

@@ShumanProjects thanks for these info.

I'm not aware of anyone paying you, but many of these sights like FlightAware and Flightradar24 offer you free account subscriptions that would otherwise cost money in exchange for your data contribution.

they don't you get a free account subscription though

To see all the aircraft from all of the listeners, go to www.flightaware.com/ If you want to directly see the aircraft being received by your setup, point your web browser to the local IP address of your raspberry pi.

Glad you have something working for you. As for noticing my build, you can't see the box from the street at all. The antennas have line of sight to the horizon, so it works out well for my goals here: cheap, elevated, and no drilling holes in the house.

Sorry, I could have called that out in the video. There are already a bunch of people that have done a great job covering that, so I didn't rehash the antenna. This is the page I started from: discussions.flightaware.com/t/three-easy-diy-antennas-for-beginners/16348

No, the Pico doesn't have enough CPU or RAM to run this and is more of a microcontroller than a small computer like the Raspberry Pi 3, 4, or Zero.

Very true! I like the build of my second antenna that didn't use an external connector better. I did tape up the BNC connection, but it is probably time for me to go up and inspect how it is doing.

Yes! I started with the FlightAware image and have added OpenSky, ADS-B Exchange, and Flightradar24 to the same Raspberry Pi. I think I have about maxed the CPU at this point.

@@ShumanProjects awesome!

@@ShumanProjects I have always wondered if it would be possible to feed to more than one sever with the one Pi. I ended making two complete, separate stations, one for FR24 and the other for RadarBox.

Yes! You can certainly feed multiple sites from the same Pi. I guess now with a second one you could set them both up to feed both sites, then move the second one somewhere else for more coverage!

@@ShumanProjects Will look into that!

Without giving too much detail here in public, near the coast and roughly in the middle of the circle 😉

@@ShumanProjects Oh okay. I've got one deployed in Bakersfield, and I'm about to deploy another in Morro Bay

Nice! How are you mounting them?

​@@ShumanProjects the pi's/SDRs are mounted inside in my network racks and I used the dual band 2ft antenna from ADSB exchange mounted to the side of the house at the peak of the roof