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 have owned the standard RTL-SDR and used it for a Pi-Aware station prior to purchasing this. Without digging into stats for proof, my subjective look at the live data says that they are about the same, although the preamp built into this one might give it a slight edge. I rate the FlightAware Pro Stick a 5 star SDR, because it has an SMA connector, and is about $5 cheaper than the RTL-SDR which makes it a no-brainer purchase. Combine it with a Raspberri Pi, a 1090MHz band-pass filter, and an antenna and you have a ridiculously easy to make ADS-B receiving station.Band Pass Filter: ADS-B 1090MHz Band-pass SMA FilterAntenna: Build one or buy one: 1090MHz ADS-B Antenna - 66cm / 26inOptionally you might consider a lightning arrestor if mounting outdoors, antenna fee line, and a USB extension cable.-----------Pros:*Cheap*Works Great*SMA portCons:*NoneBottom Line: Buy this unless you want to spring for an Airspy or something in that higher-priced category.

It may not have a TXCO (Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillator), but out of the box this is hands down the best USB dongle for ADS-B I've tried, which include the RTL-SDR.com model, and the NooElec model. I was running unamplified prior to installation, so I suspect that's where the biggest gains are, but instead of worrying about how to power an amplifier, you get one built in here. Truly a fantastic and cheap(!) piece of hardware for any aviation transponder enthusiast.For my personal experience, messages from 200NM+ increased by 15-20x, 160-200NM increased by 5x, and 120-160NM increased by 2.5x. My maximum range also increased from 240NM to 270NM.Small edit... not enough to drop a star, but definitely worth noting. The oscillator appears to be less stable than the NooElec model. We experienced lower than usual overnight lows last night, and the offset shifted approximately 5PPM, whereas the NooElec dongle would fluctuate <2PPM overnight, and the RTL-SDR.com dongle would fluctuate <0.5PPM no matter what temperature it was operating in.

Slightly better performance than the standard RTL units. I think I got about a 10% gain in range and that actually equates to a better than 20% gain in reported positions, with no other changes. Same antenna, same location. You MUST use their filter for 1090mhz. I would give it 5 stars if it had the filter integrated into the device. Their 1090 bandpass filter is massive and overbuilt for a simple receiver filter. :/

I purchased this to upgrade my ADS-B station from the NooElec R820T2 NESDR Mini 2 and what a difference! This thing is amplified and it makes a difference. I was lucky if I got 150 mile readings with the NooElec, but now, this receiver along with a 1090 filter is letting me consistently pick up signals in the 250+ mile range. My old set up had my antenna (FlightAware external 1090 antenna) on my tower at 60 feet above ground and running about 120 feet of LMR-400 coax to my shack. Now, I am still at 60 feet above ground level with the antenna, but only running about 3 feet of LMR-400 into a NEMA4 waterproof box mounted to the tower just below the antenna. The PI, filter, PoE splitter, and this receiver are all inside the box, and I am running back to the shack with shielded Cat5e to the PoE injector and then directly to my router. Using this pro stick, a very short run of coax (to keep db loss to a minimum) and the Cat5e with PoE is about the perfect set up for me, and I can watch my rank climb steadily on the FlightAware site.