Update:
After unsuccessful attempt at Sun with just antenna and SDR (and spectrum analyser), I purchased LNA from
Mini Kits, 20dB gain.
Also,I made interdigital hairpin filter some time ago, the PCB arrived yesterday.
After some adjustment, I obtained 8Mz BW (3dB), 1dB ripple... pretty good.
However, the insertion loss is quite high, 10dB.. so this filter can be used, but after LNA. And there will have to be another line amplifier.. 16dB or so.
In the meantime, I started building the "proper" interdigital filter, I expect much lower losses with this version (<0.5dB? hopefully..)
Anyway.. getting there, but somewhat slowly..
The saga continues..