Dongle comparison

[Bethsalem]

I thought it would be interesting to do a comparison between my R820T dongle, RadarBox and Beast.

They are using different indoor antennas, but they are at the same location so that hopefully makes things a little fairer.

The dongle is using an Airnav whip antenna. The RadarBox is using a MD-1100SBS. The Beast is using a PCB-antenna.

My results for 10 January are (all three receivers were started and ended at the same time over a period of approx. 15 hours), and they include the subtraction of duplicate contacts are-

R820T dongle - 339 contacts
RadarBox       - 303 contacts
Beast            - 474 contacts

Considering the price of the dongle, in my opinion this is an excellent result.

Stephen

[viking9]

I received mine in this morning's post and connected it to my SSE-1090 SJ Mk2 Antenna which is mounted on the chimney of our bungalow in place of the Beast. I'm very pleased with the results, max range in PP so far is 227 nm - very good considering there is no ducting at all today. All five blue lights are constantly on and the purple one flashes from time to time indicating 120+ valid packets/sec received.

[viking9]

Over a 10 hr period yesterday the R820T logged 455 individual flights (1,569 contacts).  This seems to compare quite favourably with the Beast, though I need to analyse previous logs to confirm this.

I left the dongle running on PP overnight with tracks on and the longest tracks recorded were;

235 nm on a bearing of 129º from my location.
229 nm @ 095º
226 nm @ 063º
205 nm @ 040º

Has anyone else noticed that PP shows a lower off-air message rate from the R820T than RTL1090 shows as sending to PP?

[viking9]

I used a log for the Beast from the same day a week previous (05.01.13) and here are the results compared to the dongle:

Beast: Contacts 1,972 Flights 771

R820T: Contacts 1,569 Flights 455

[Anmer]

Thanks for the updates Tom.

Would you sell the Beast and keep the DVB-T dongle?

[viking9]

Thanks for the updates Tom.

Would you sell the Beast and keep the DVB-T dongle?

No, I would not Mike, but I'll keep the DVB-T dongle as a backup. However, if I were starting out from scratch I might be temped to buy the dongle instead as I'm surprised and impressed at its performance. If my Beast ever dies I will certainly replace it with the dongle if the cost of repair is too much. Due credit to the guys at jetvision.de and others who wrote the software and provided the instructions to make it possible for people to get into radarspotting at such a modest cost.

[Anmer]

Thanks Tom.

[Magic440]

May seem a stupid question,but with the dongle,do you have to have a internet connection? Obviously yes,running it with Plane Plotter,but was
thinking along the lines,like the SBS-1.Where you could run it without.
Sounds like a nifty mobile set up though.May well end up getting one.

[mhm]

You can run your dongle without an internet connection.

i use mine when out and about.

[Magic440]

Is it possible to have planes showing on a screen,like in Basestation,when not connected to the internet?

Regards,
David.

[Anmer]

Is it possible to have planes showing on a screen,like in Basestation,when not connected to the internet?

Yes, as long as the dongle is receiving Mode-S data and you're using suitable software to decode the messages and display the aircraft.

[Bethsalem]

Is it possible to have planes showing on a screen,like in Basestation,when not connected to the internet?

Regards,
David.

Try software such as adsbSCOPE, free and available from www.sprut.de (there is an English section)

An excellent "How to set up a dongle with adsbSCOPE" can be found at http://sonicgoose.com/using-a-rtlsdr-dongle-for-ads-b/

Stephen

[Magic440]

Will have a read, and see if i feel confident enough to download it.
Would like to take the laptop up onto some higher ground,and see what range i get,and where abouts they are! If that make sense? lol.

David.

[Magic440]

Not sure how,but managed to get the Dongle displaying on my Planeplotter charts,
without a internet connection.Now to have go at this Beamfinder jobby!
Any tips guys? Watched Bev's tutorial,and think i get the idea!

David.

[Anmer]

You don't need an internet connection for PlanePlotter itself.  Only to share data and het Mlat plots.