ADS-B Flight tracking.

Feeding data to the Flight Radar 24 network.

Using the RTL-SDR usb stick and standard antennae give me a range of around 160 miles.

This is the basic receiver and standard antennae.

With this setup sat in my loftspace i am receiving about 160 miles away.

RTL1090 software converting data.

Building a new antennae should increase the gain so I am going to work on a quarterwave tuned antennae.

I am basing the antennae on the cantenna idea so using and empty bean tin cut down to 69mm in height as the frequency is 1090MHz.

The quarterwave antennae is 69mm of copper from low loss satellite cable soldered to a bulkhead f-connector which is bolted to the tin.

The cable is screwed into the f-connector inside the tin.

As I am building the antennae to be mounted inside the loft space it will be hung from the highest point with a plastic trunking bracket.

Simulated data for this design.