FlightAware Pro Stick® USB ADS-B Receiver

This is a gem if you want to decode ADSB signals. FlightAware has taken a R820T2 and added a LNA (low noise amplifier) in one slim trim USB package. This unit is capable of working with software such as SDR# and can be used to listen to FM radio stations etc. Since many folks will be using this to feed data to FlightAwares website they are selling these near cost and have designed them to work best as an ADSB receiver.You have many options you can use. FlightAware has its own software that you can install on a SDHC memory stick and be up and running within minutes.You can also choose to feed Flightradar24, PlaneFinder or the ADSB Exchange. There are also similar builds you can download and install and be up and running on your Pi in a few minutes.The best solution is likely to run the software for the ADS-B Receiver Project made by jprochazka. This of course takes a little longer to set up and asks more questions but the install script is really polished and runs well. It also uses a more advanced and tweak able demodulator. The easiest way to get going with the ADS-B Receiver Project is to use a freshly formatted SDHC card. Download NOOBS and install a fresh copy of Debian. Update the build using the sudo apt-get update & sudo apt-get upgrade commands. Once you have this you can go ahead and install the ADS-B Receiver Project. If you make a mistake or it doesn't work you can re install NOOBS and start from scratch with not too much of a hassle.The ADS-B Receiver Project will give you more stats on signal strength, CPU usage, memory usage, max distance, etc.Others have mentioned the lack of a temperature controlled crystal. Since ADS-B is a digital form of modulation that uses 2MHZ bandwidth being a little off in either direction wont affect your signal. If you are someone who likes to tweak you can adjust the PPM center it. Once the device warms up it doesnt seem to vary too much and I have mine in a uninsulated garage attic.

I'm using this FlightAware Pro Stick ADS-B receiver (orange) to feed UAT 978 MHz, and also installed the FlightAware Pro Plus Stick ADS-B receiver (blue) 1090 MHz [ASIN:B01M7REJJW] into the same RPi.To connect both dongles to a single dual band antenna (ADS-B 978/1090 MHz antenna [ASIN:B089Q4BVCB]) I'm using a Y splitter SMA Female to 2X SMA Male pigtail cable [ASIN:B0744CQGS5] and a N Male to SMA Male Coax Cable [ASIN:B08TQN8GM7]. The FA ADS-B orange dongle is connected to a band-pass filter [ASIN:B010GBQXK8]. To be able to use two dongles in one RPi, I'm using the 6 inch USB 2.0 extension cable [ASIN:B01IG5XZHK]. For a temporaty antenna mounting solution you can use the Pyle Universal Speaker Tripod Stand Mount [ASIN:B005I2YL7I] or a Mannequin Head Stand, like [ASIN:B08BJLVP67].My setup is a Raspberry Pi 4 2GB with Argon One V2 case [ASIN:B07WP8WC3V], Besgoods 18W USB 2.4A power supply [ASIN:B07QK7PXZK], using PiAware on Raspbian Linux 5.0 disc image and also feeding FlightRadar24, ADSBexchange, RadarBox, OpenSKYNetwork and PlaneFinder.TECH TIP: If you plan to install both FlightAware sticks into the same RPi you will need to change the serial number by rewritting the eeprom. The dongles have the same serial number (00001000) and you will need to change one of them (or even both) to another number, so you can configure the receiver. Search Google for "How to Change Serial Number of Dongle".

The technology to track planes and to show them on a map has always been interesting to me. I've been a Flight Radar 24 and Flight Aware fan for many years, and I'm not an electrical engineer so I wasn't sure how to setup a flight receiver. The technology to track planes and to show them on a map has always been interesting to me. I've also wanted to get a Raspberry Pi to play with, but never found that "killer" app to motivate me to buy one. This new FlightAware Pro stick USB receiver, changed all that. This is really incredible!! I went to the FlightAware Piaware website to get the shopping list of items to buy. Went to Amazon and bought the Raspberry Pi, case, SD card, power supply and Pro stick, followed the detailed instructions and was up and running in a couple of hours, sending my data to the FlightAware site.At first I was only picking up very close signals, so I purchased and added on WiFi and an antenna with an extension cable to install on the roof of my back deck about 15 feet above ground. Even though I don't have full line of sight in all directions, I am picking up signals up to 150 miles away. This is a very cost effective way (less than $150 total) to be a part of the FlightAware network.My biggest problem was convincing my wife to let me install the small antenna on the back of the house.

I installed this ADS-B Receiver USB dongle as part of a PiAware setup I built in 2018. The dongle worked perfectly, but started showing its age after about 5 years of constant use. The Pi originally began to show signs of distress by failing every few months where it would fall completely offline. This started happening more often at the beginning of the year, and I suspected it could have been a faulty USB device. (At the time, the dongle was the only USB device connected to the Pi.) Sure enough, in April 2024, the Pi was dropping off daily and the logs showed frequent I/O errors. It was a 50/50 toss-up as to whether or not the SD card failed, or if the ADS-B dongle failed, but I was correct in assuming it was the dongle because once replaced, the Pi is back online chirping away as it was in 2018.I'd recommend this ADS-B Receiver / dongle to anyone, albeit with a warning: expect no more than 5 years of use out of it.