Hak5: Using a Solar Powered Embedded Device with an RTL-SDR to Track Aircraft Remotely

Over on YouTube Hak5, a popular electronics enthusiast channel has uploaded a video showing their project which involves creating a remote solar powered ADS-B receiver with the RTL-SDR. They used a WiFi Pineapple which is a mini Linux based embedded computer as a remote PC and sealed it in a weather tight briefcase with a lead acid battery and solar panel. They also used a high gain directional WiFi antenna on both the transmitting and receiving ends. With this setup the WiFi Pineapple is capable of running indefinitely transmitting ADS-B data using just the solar panel and battery.

They took their setup to the top of a hill near to their office and pointed the transmitting WiFi antenna towards their offices. Then back in the comfort of their offices they were able to remotely connect to the WiFi Pineapple and start a dump1090 webserver and connect to it using Virtual Radar Server.

Solar WiFi Pineapple Briefcase, Aircraft Tracking with High Gain Point-to-Point, Hak5 1614

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