Poor ADS-B receiver range
Improve antenna height, coax loss, gain and line of sight.
Check in this order
- Establish a baseline. Compare a full day of range and aircraft counts before changing hardware.
- Improve line of sight. Antenna height and an unobstructed horizon usually matter more than advertised antenna gain.
- Inspect coax and connectors. Long or thin cable can erase antenna gain at 1090 MHz. Remove unnecessary adapters and check for water ingress.
- Check overload. More SDR gain is not always better. Strong nearby transmitters can reduce usable range.
- Change one variable. Re-measure over the same hours and retain the change only if the distribution improves.