I’m on a 14th floor balcony with direct line of sight to Dulles international. Great Wingbits performance, until the LNA faulted and now waiting for the replacement that has a 4-8 week lead time. However, the GEODNET was barely making 80% due to the East blockage as mounted on my balcony, even though there is only one more floor above my balcony. So if you have a balcony and can’t reach above or very close to the top of one your building just get a WB200. GEODNET which I don’t recommend in a balcony situation especially with their latest litepapers and the particular situation of not having at minimum 10 degrees full scan (obviously depends on particular location) as they advertise, GEODNET you almost have to have a complete clear 360 to get all the satellites you can. Wingbits is more frequency related and also location to busy airports. But as far as mounting, here is how I mounted my MGW310 and also have a WB200 in a different hex, and wish I just bought another WB200. Specifically for the balcony situation and not being able to clear the top of the building. You can buy a wood board to gain height, and a longer mounting rod, I thing it was 11/16ths it don’t quote me on that, easy to get from Home Depot or wherever. I ended up buying heavier duty clamps to drill the the boards just because. But whatever you do, don’t bang, touch, or handle the unit by the antenna…at all. It will be unrepairable. If you hear the antenna rattling inside the fiberglass housing you might as well start at ticket. They are not durable to impact whether it’s shipping or your own handling.

attaching to the top of the pole is ok if you can keep it stable and make the mount solid. I used a round open pole and wrapped thick tape around the mounting rod stuck in to hold it in place. firm and won’t fly out. zip ties to strap the cable to the pole. sandbags is good as long as the pole doesn’t wiggle too much(geodnet). Wiggle can affect the accuracy in the 1-3% range. I haven’t seen wind wiggle affect my geod earnings. The number of satellites have a bigger impact on geodnet earnings. And in the USA there seems to be dropouts of satellites at certain times of the day that affects all geod receivers nearby. Doesn’t affect wingbits. have a drip loop at the plug so any water doesn't drip into the socket. it stops at a wire U below the plug. Same for your cables.

I hope your balcony is open to the sky. tar1090 wiil be the true tell of your range and obstacles. for 360 degrees. With just a little pole to the north and above my mgw310 I lose 100 nm range in a small 20 degree radius. But my south/east/west open sky gives me 200 to 250nm flight tracking range and more. this could also affect GEODNET earnings if it can’t see enough satellites

Isn't it possible to install it outside the balcony? You'll lose at least 50% of your coverage/reward.

Hi Petah, Id be happy to offer some recommendations but could you possibly provide some example pictures of your balcony? Everyone’s setup is a bit different and unique so it’s hard to give ideas without knowing your exact setup.