CoolNamesAllTkn

Components are specced on the datasheet according to regulatory requirements (e.g. where the ISM band is). What they can actually receive comes down to the performance of the RF frontend and the firmware :)

Yes, that's also us! The post you shared was from our ADSBee 1090 series of receivers, which are based on RP2040 PIO and a discrete RF frontend. Our new receiver is much smaller and optimized specifically for low power and embedded detect and avoid applications.

Ha, it's very fun to see that people know about the project!

ADSBee 1421's very low power consumption is determined by its architecture. Where ADSBee 1090 has a discrete RF frontend with multiple power hungry LNAs and a power detector chip, plus a dual core RP2040, an ESP32 S3 module, and a CC1312, ADSBee 1421 just has an LR2021 chip and a CC1314. A single LNA on the ADSBee 1090's RF frontend actually draws about as much power as the whole m1421!

The tradeoff is that we have fewer CPU cycles available for crunching packets compared to the ADSBee 1090, and the LR2021 has some quirks that result in it only being able to receive ADS-B packets in its maximum dynamic range configuration (so we support Mode S DF17 only, no squitter packets or altitude / surveillance replies like you get with DF4/5/11). That said, this has been plenty for customers who are looking for an aircraft detect and avoid solution plus UAT traffic / weather.

Based on our testing so far, ADSBee m1421 is well suited to general aviation applications (portable flight bag / cockpit avionics), drone flight controllers (aircraft detect and avoid), and anything that needs to be low cost or easy to run off a solar panel or little battery.

For customers looking to build something like an airport ground station, where they want all squitter and extended squitter packet formats and a higher max packet rate, we still recommend the ADSBee 1090 three-MCU architecture.