1090 MHz ADS-B Magnetic Antenna, MCX Plug, 2.5 dBi, 1 m RG174 Cable with MCX Female to SMA Male Adapter

Solid antenna. This has been part of my ADS setup running for many months now with zero issues.

Very good antenna for ADS-B got me 125 miles from my window the magnet is ok not the best but it does its job and it’s plug and play with any SDR receiver you have.

Increased the range of my ADS-B receiver and daily contact count by about 25% over a telescopic antenna of about the same length. I used the same mounting point as the antenna it replaced, indoors but close to the outside wall with the longest view to a horizon (West) and used some thin steel sheet to mount it upon to try to give it some pattern elevation via a ground plane. I have a 2500 foot rise to a mountain ridge in the opposite direction (East) and a military restricted training airspace to the North West so basically only have useful North/South/Southwest aspects, local traffic and some limited duration East/West direction high airway contacts to my far South and North. Maximum range increased from a consistent 90 miles to a consistent 113 miles, continuous contact counts are naturally more variable but busy time to the local hubs show continuous contact count increase from 20 or under to regularly just under 30. Peak daily individual aircraft contacts including position increased from consistent mid-800s to consistent mid-1100s, obviously varying based on day-of-week and holiday traffic schedules. Peak position contacts per-hour increased from under 2500 to about 5000, though most are obviously progressing position reports for a limited set of aircraft.The whole deployment is to a USB ADS-B FlightAware Pro Stick Plus passed through from a linux host to a minimal Debian virtual machine running the Flight Radar 24 data gatherer. All functional elements now have UPS power back up that should handle several hours of grid downtime.The other buyer's message reporting the antenna SWR at 1090MHz is interesting and since I also have a nanoVNA I tested my antenna at 978MHz and 1090MHz, it has a SWR of about 2:1 at both frequencies because the antenna has a characteristic impedance of about 25 Ohms and most ADS-B receivers, including mine, have a 50 Ohm characteristic input impedance. My antenna has capacitive reactance at 1090MHz, so I would expect a slightly longer version to be better, I'll look for a lock nut that permits length adjustment. The product page information on the antenna features that says it has a characteristic impedance of 50 Ohms appears untrue to me, though I concede I was testing a 275mm band antenna indoors, so there could be lots of parasitic causes. The unmatched characteristic impediance will result in small power level reflection and re-radiated signal. So some very low signal levels that have incident energy normally capable of activating the receiver will reflect enough energy to leave insufficient input energy to activate the receiver. That's only going to have much effect on the effective range of the antenna, assuming a reference ADS-B transmitter power on aircraft. So, the poor impedance match effectively reduces receiver sensitivity for long distance sources. At flight level 430 such a source probably has a radio horizon of about 300 miles and this antenna improved my range from about 90 to about 115 miles. Unless you want to keep buying replacements it's not worth changing the feed-line length, building a matching network or bending the antenna to improve the characteristic impediance towards 50 Ohms. However, I'm dropping from 5* to 4* based on the poor impedance match and the product page's documented 50 Ohms characteristic impedance not being what I measure from the antenna (25 Ohms). A 50 Ohm input impedance would be expected from ADS-B receivers so I'm leaving it to the manufacturer to fix. It still has the improvements I document above over a telescoping antenna but a more accurate impedance match could make those results better still.

I picked this antenna up to use with the blue ADSBexchange dongle and the performance honestly surprised me. For something so small and inexpensive it pulls in aircraft signals extremely well. I have tested a lot of 1090 MHz antennas over the years and this one hangs right with the more expensive options without any drama.The magnet base is strong and works great on anything metal. Stick it to a window frame or a filing cabinet and the signal jumps up instantly. Even indoors the reception holds steady which is rare at this frequency. If you pair it with a good dongle you will have no problem tracking aircraft far outside your immediate area.The MCX connector fits tight and does not wiggle loose which is important when you are running a receiver for days at a time. Once it is connected you can forget about it.If you want an easy and reliable way to get into ADS-B or you need a backup antenna for your setup this one is absolutely worth it. It punches far above its size and price. When paired with the ADSBexchange blue dongle it becomes a tiny powerhouse that just works.I would buy another one without thinking twice.

1. It works - works well enough; better than most NON-ads-b antennas for showing aircraft (sdr dumps to http://localhost:8080/) onto my Laptop local map via my sdrs (i.e. rtl-sdr-V4 and others).2. SWR 1.915 - hoped for better but it does a pretty good job getting my aircraft to my laptop screen. See NanoVNA Scope Screen Shot of SWR at 1090 MHz I uploaded. I can live with this SWR.3. I do NOT knock seller as they listed antenna cable length - but wish it were longer so I could put this up higher w/o adding another cable (connection decrease sensitivity (distance I can see aircraft)).4. This item is as described and well worth the price.