SignalsEverywhere: ADS-B Aircraft Tracking with RTL-SDR, dump1090 and Virtual Radar Server

Over on his YouTube channel Corrosive from the SignalsEverywhere YouTube channel has uploaded a tutorial that shows how to set up ADS-B aircraft tracking with an RTL-SDR, dump1090 and Virtual Radar Server. The decoder software is dump1090 which is a multiplatform command line tool, and Virtual Radar Server is a Windows and Linux compatible program that is used to display the data on Google maps.

ADS-B is used as a more accurate and modern replacement for traditional aircraft radar. Instead of relying on radar reflections, ADS-B simply transmits a radio signal containing plane data such as GPS location, speed, and identification codes. Other aircraft can use this data for collision avoidance, and ground control use it for traffic management. Setting up your own RTL-SDR based ADS-B receiver allows you to see and track on a map almost all the aircraft currently flying in your area.

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Aaron

Does it work with HackRf One?

bmh

RTL1090 beta161 works well on Windows too and has a GUI interface with its own map. Also check out qt-1090 on GitHub. There are claims it’s better than RTL1090 and dump1090. It’s also set up by default to work with SDRplay devices.

Mat

Hello, where are the .ini file in qt-1090?

Anthony

Followed this yesterday. Worked like a charm!

SignalsEverywhere

Glad to hear you got everything working 🙂