If you mean better answers than you can provide, then sure.Or even on a ham forum. Or do hams no longer need to have any technical knowledge about RF and cables?You may get better answers on the flightaware forums ? https://discussions.flightaware.com/
To answer OP's question, the signal loss with decent cable over such a short distance is negligible, however if you're concerned you have two options. First would be to relocate the Pi closer to the antenna. You could even put the Pi outside, right next to the antenna. Alternatively you could use a USB extension cable from the Pi to the SDR dongle to keep the Pi "inside" but reduce the length of antenna cable to the outside. All you need is to be able to get power and network (wired or WiFi) to the Pi.
I'd try it with the 5m antenna cable first and see if it works.
If you're putting the Pi outside you could use a smaller Pi such as a Pi Zero W dedicated to the SDR work. Then all you need is power. The link back to the house can be via WiFi.
Statistics: Posted by ame — Fri Jan 26, 2024 9:18 pm