Overview

The Pro Stick can be installed as a simple replacement to any existing RTL-SDR USB receiver, or as part of a new PiAware.

The Pro Stick's high powered RF amplifier can lead to signal saturation if your receiver is operating in a heavily congested RF area. If the receiver is running in saturation mode, no signal will get through. In that case, it is necessary to install a 1090MHZ band-pass filter or reduce the gain.

Adjusting Gain

If you do not have a 1090MHZ filter and need to set the gain settings, it is necessary to specify the gain setting manually.

PiAware 3

Easy Configuration

If you have a PiAware 3 install, edit the piaware-config.txt file on the SD card image before loading it into your Pi and powering on. See the optional configuration settings instructions for how to edit your piaware-config.txt file.

You may set the gain from 0 to 50 or use -10 for maximum gain (automatic gain). Find the existing line in the configuration file labeled "rtlsdr-gain" or add a line if it does not exist. For example, to set the gain to 50, use:


rtlsdr-gain 50

Advanced configuration

Advanced users may connect directly to the Pi and use the piaware-config command on the commandline:


piaware-config rtlsdr-gain 50

To restart PiAware with the new gain, either reboot the Pi or restart dump1090 with this command:


sudo systemctl restart dump1090-fa

PiAware 2

If you have a PiAware 2 install, edit fadump1090.sh (or dump1090.sh) on your PiAware. This requires connecting directly to the Pi and using the commandline.


sudo nano /etc/init.d/fadump1090.sh

Allowable values are -10 and 0 to 50 (-10 is for a gain of 55). It is recommend the user starts with a gain of about 45 by editing the following line:


PROG_ARGS="--quiet --net --gain 45 --net-fatsv-port 0"

Save the changes and then restart dump1090: