# How to maximize rewards

Wingbits rewards are based on the quality, uniqueness, and consistency of the aircraft data your station contributes to the network. To earn more WINGS tokens, your goal should be to **optimize signal reception**, **cover valuable areas**, and **stay online consistently**.

This page outlines best practices to help you get the most out of your setup.

## Overall optimizations

### 📡 1. Optimize Station Placement

The most important thing you can do is **maximize the antenna's line of sight to the horizon**. ADS-B signals from aircraft travel in straight lines, and obstacles like trees, buildings, and even certain windows can significantly degrade signal quality.

**Ideal placement:**

* Outdoors, as high as possible
* On the roof of a building or a pole mount
* Away from nearby obstructions (trees, walls, chimneys)

**Acceptable alternatives (with reduced performance):**

* Attic installations (only if the roof is non-metal and line of sight is good)
* Balcony setups (best when facing open sky, not walled-in)

**Avoid:**

* Window setups (modern windows can block RF)
* Basement or ground-level indoor installs
* Any installation under concrete, stucco, or metal

{% hint style="info" %}
Poor station placement doesn’t just reduce the number of aircraft you receive — it can also impact GPS lock and reduce the number of **valid positional messages**, which directly affects your rewards.
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### ✈️ 2. Capture Unique Data Points

Wingbits rewards **stations that contribute unique, high-value coverage** — not just volume.

#### What counts as unique?

* Aircraft seen **at low altitudes**, especially close to the ground
* Data from aircraft while they are taxiing, taking off, or landing
* Planes on final approach or lining up on the runway
* Traffic that is **not picked up by other nearby stations**

**Best ways to achieve this:**

* Deploy near airports — both major and regional
* Have line of sight to the **runway**, not just the sky
* Cover gaps in existing network coverage (rural, mountainous, coastal)

This kind of data boosts your station’s **PageRank score**, which increases your share of the daily base rewards pool.  It can also open up other reward pools for your stations to share from (upcoming low altitude rewards).

### 🔁 3. Stay Online and Stable

The reward system heavily favors stations that are **reliable over time**.

**Why it matters:**

* Stations must meet minimum message thresholds of 100 messages per hex per day to qualify for base rewards and also above the bottom 10th percentile (network-wide) to qualify for early participant rewards
* **PageRank is recalculated daily** based on 24-hour contribution windows
* Uptime can influence whether your contributions are factored into reward calculations

**Tips:**

* Use a battery backup (UPS) if your power is unreliable
* Ensure your internet connection doesn’t drop frequently
* Periodically check that your station is online and reporting positional data

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A station online 24/7 consistently earns more than one that drops offline frequently, even if they’re in the same location.
{% endhint %}

### 🔍 4. Target Underserved Hexes

Each day, 24 WINGS tokens are added to the base rewards pool **for each coverage hex with at least 100 messages** from a station.

But:

* **Adding more stations to already-covered hexes just dilutes the reward pool**
* **Being the sole contributor to a hex increases your value (pagerank) to the network**

### 📅 5. Plan for the Long Term

You can earn **Early Participant Rewards (EPR)** during the first years of the network — but to qualify, you need:

* 100+ messages to a hex per day
* To beat the global 10th percentile of message contribution for that hex

This means staying above the “low effort” line matters.

Also, keep an eye out for future reward types such as **Low Altitude Rewards**, which will further benefit stations positioned near runways and airports.

### 🧠 Summary Checklist

✅ Install station/antenna high, clear, and outdoors\
✅ Avoid windows, metal roofs, and dense obstacles\
✅ Find locations with low existing coverage\
✅ Cover low-altitude or on-ground aircraft near airports\
✅ Keep your station online 24/7\
✅ Monitor your data contribution through the Wingbits dashboard

## BYOD related optmizations

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This section currently applies to grandfathered BYOD stations
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### **Optimizing Gain**

Whether you have a usb ADS-B station with an onboard LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) or an external pre-amp, using the proper gain setting can help your message/craft rates increase dramatically.  The max gain setting is typically more detrimental than helpful.  We also do not recommend using an auto-gain script if you are interested in achieving your best stats possible, but it will get you about 75+% of the way there.  Spend the time required to set your gain manually and properly.

A video is available on our YouTube channel to assist you in getting your gain set properly:&#x20;

{% embed url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNxDYCMjaYM" %}

### Cables

Most of the time you can get by with lower quality cables if your run from the antenna to the base station is short (under a couple meters).  As the cable length requirement increases, so should your cable quality choice as you will increase signal loss over long runs using cheaper cables.&#x20;

You can google for 'cable signal loss calculator' but one example from a well known manufacturer can be found here: [https://timesmicrowave.com/calculator/](https://timesmicrowave.com/calculator/)
