I got the recommended DVB dongle today and it is seeing the occasional ADS-B aircraft, although they don't show for long on the SD display, which is perplexing. The antenna is indoors though, so perhaps signal strength is too low.
My real concern right now is just how hot the dongle runs. After 30 minutes or so the dongle's USB socket on the RPi is very hot and if I unplug the dongle its USB plug is almost too hot to touch! That seems wrong - it must be taking a lot of current to get that hot. Perhaps I have a duff dongle?
Edit: With more traffic today I'm seeing plenty of ADS-B stuff at Flight Level nose bleed, so the dongle is working fine. But it's still getting very hot. Is that normal?
Edit 2: I measured the current draw and it's around 400mA, so the dongle is sinking 2W. No wonder it's getting a bit warm! Some Googling reveals that this is a common problem with this chip set. Not sure how well it will stand up to sitting in the sun on my instrument coaming.
