ADS-B On RasPi 4 with Nooelec FlyCatcher

The Nooelec group released a RasPi Hat with two SDR’s where 1 is dedicated to ADS-B (1090Mhz) and another is dedicated to UAT (978Mhz).

It has built in filters for each Frequency section and the RasPi header is pass-through only – the FlyCatcher does not access/use the header for power or data – it still requires the two USB Cables (included) to power and run data through to the RasPi.

The Nooelec FlyCatcher has mechanical switches for engaging the gain for the built in LNA for each side of the ADSB and UAT receivers which is then identified with LEDs for on/off.

The FlyCatcher also came with 2 aluminum heatsink parts to place on the bare side of the PCB to help reduce any thermal issues – none were experienced and I will get thermal photos once everything is in a better position for testing that type of experience.

The test set up is 2 RasPi 4 8GB models in passive fan heatsink with the FlyCatcher installed opposite of expected use. (More on that later) and the second RasPi4/8Gb has the FlightAware ADSB USB Dongle connected to it.

The RasPi devices are running latest Raspian OS (at this time, Bookworm) and the FlightAware Software for feeding ADSB to their system as well as Graph1090 for the stats.

The Setup:

The environment is running in an SDR combiner configuration which is used for all the other SDR devices being used.

Parts List Relevant to environment:

Diamond D3000N Super Discone Antenna
35′ of cable
1 Lotus Systems LNA
1 Nooelec FM Freq Block
1 MiniCircuits 16 port antenna combiner

Environment Diagram:

Conclusion:

After 14 days of testing and a self inflicted hiccup where I had unplugged the Nooelec Device accidentally and restarted it. The results are incredibly comparable.

The brief comparison between the charts show very negligible differences.