Tagged: ads-b

November 5, 2026

ErgissVAG F16: An F-16 Cockpit-Style Android Car Dashboard with RTL-SDR ADS-B and Airband Receivers

Thank you to Gabriel Diaconu from Iasi, Romania, for writing in and sharing ErgissVAG F16, an Android car dashboard app that shows OBD2 data on a head-up display styled like an F-16 cockpit. Its latest release adds two RTL-SDR pages for car head units and phones, which allow it to receive the AM airband and ADS-B.

The AM airband receiver covers 118-137 MHz with 25 and 8.33 kHz channel spacing and includes active/standby frequencies, scanning with squelch, and a live spectrum. The ADS-B page uses a 1090 MHz decoder written from scratch and shows aircraft on a radar-like display. Gabriel saw several airliners near Iasi sending altitude and speed but no position, consistent with the GNSS interference reported in Gabriel's region, and the app flags these as "GNSS-x" (we've previously posted about mapping GNSS interference through ADS-B data).

Rather than relying on a separate driver app, ErgissVAG F16 talks to the dongle directly through Android's USB Host API using a port of librtlsdr, with no root needed, and rtl_tcp is supported as an option. Gabriel tested it with an RTL-SDR Blog V3 on a powered USB hub, as it drops out on bare OTG. The app is available on Google Play with a free 7-day trial, then a one-time €9.99 Pro unlock.

ErgissVAG F16 Airband Tuner & ADS-B TCAS-Style Traffic Display

October 29, 2026

OrcSDR Update: SSTV, ACARS and Offline Maps Come to the Standalone ESP32-P4 RTL-SDR App

Back in September, we posted about OrcSDR, open-source firmware that runs an RTL-SDR directly on the ESP32-P4 microcontroller-based M5Stack Tab5 tablet, with no PC or Raspberry Pi needed. Erik Elfstrom has now written in again to share that OrcSDR v0.5.0-beta.1 (release notes) is out, with several new features and a lot of stability work.

The main additions are SSTV reception and a dedicated ACARS dashboard. SSTV images are drawn directly on the touchscreen and saved to the SD card, and the ACARS dashboard shows live messages and aircraft lists. Erik has tested SSTV with Robot36, PD120, and Scottie S1 on various RTL-SDR models. Offline maps have also been added to the LoRa/Meshtastic, ADS-B, and FT8 dashboards. There is also a new 'Dead Air' dashboard for logging RF and audio activity, and Erik notes that despite the Halloween timing, it is not a ghost detector.

Erik also notes that a lot of work has gone into fixing layout issues, redraw flicker and memory pressure, and there is now a guided first-run setup. The software is still in beta, and Erik says that not every issue is gone yet. The update can be installed with M5Burner or the browser installer, and the code is open source under AGPL-3.0 and available on GitHub.

AI Disclaimer: The OrcSDR README notes that the project was created with "extensive AI assistance".

October 16, 2026

LakeShark Update: Using an LR2021 LoRa Chip as an SDR for Portable P25, POCSAG and FM Reception on the ESP32-P4

Back in September, we posted about LakeShark, Samuel Reynolds’ (aka SAMS0N1TE) T-Display P4 ESP32-P4 firmware that turns a USB-connected RTL-SDR into a handheld P25 Phase 1, POCSAG, and FM receiver.

Samuel has now written in to share news that with the T-Display P4 variant containing a Semtech LR2021 LoRa chip, LakeShark no longer needs an RTL-SDR at all. Instead, it can pull raw I/Q samples directly out of the built-in LR2021 LoRa transceiver chip and demodulate them on the ESP32-P4. Back in May, we posted Zoltán Papp and team's discovery that showed how an LR2021 could receive ADS-B. But this relied on the chip’s built-in OOK mode.

With raw I/Q available, the chip’s built-in modes no longer limit what it can receive. Both of the LR2021’s RF paths work, providing continuous coverage from 100 MHz to 2.74 GHz, and no upconverters, external tuners, or extra front-end hardware are used. The sample rate is relatively low at 250 Ksps max, meaning only a narrow bandwidth slice is available, but this is more than large enough for narrowband channels like P25. Samuel notes that it’s pretty unreal being able to listen to his local analog NFM fire department channels from such a low-power chip.

Smanuel notes that the LR2021 is still pretty new, and few products use them. However, it is possible to DIY a receiver for about $28 with Waveshare’s Core2021 LR2021 modules and their ESP32-P4-WIFI6 board. Samuel also has an experimental transmit path working, which has sent custom waveforms, temperature packets and P25 test-tone bursts. In one test, an independent receiver decoded 72 P25 voice frames from a single transmission and recovered the expected tone.

The radio access layer has been released as a separate project called LR2021-SDR. It includes a portable C library, capture firmware, waveform tools and measurements, along with graphs from a real received P25 call and a recording of the recovered transmit tone. The updated handheld firmware is available on the LakeShark GitHub.

LakeShark Running on A LilyGO T-Display-P4 next to a HackRF (left) and Flipper Zero (right).

October 15, 2026

SDR– Updated to V2.2: Many New Decoders, Tools and KrakenSDR Direction Finding and Beamforming Support Added

Last month we posted about the release of SDR-- (SDR minus minus), an open-source app that lets you visually wire together a receiver on a canvas. Since that time, Julian, the developer of SDR--, has been busy adding support for many decoders, various tools, and improving performance. Julian has also added KrakenSDR support, with radio direction-finding and beamforming blocks. Julian shares the following update for SDR-- V2.20:

New Decoders

Aviation and satellite: VDL2, HFDL, Inmarsat Aero and STD-C, Iridium, Drone Remote ID, 406 MHz beacons

Voice: TETRA, Tetrapol, GSM downlink, DECT, D-STAR, FreeDV, NXDN, dPMR

Data: LoRa (LoRaWAN, Meshtastic, MeshCore), ISM sensors, End-of-Train, DSC, BLE, Wi-Fi survey

Weather: NOAA APT, Meteor LRPT, WEFAX, radiosondes with landing forecast

Broadcast: DVB-T/T2, DVB-S2X, DAB packet mode, DRM with xHE-AAC

Coherent and mobile

Direction finding, beamforming and passive radar on the KrakenSDR

An iOS app with CarPlay for DF while driving is in TestFlight. Android is coming soon.

Hardware

Native Support: KrakenSDR, RTL-SDR Blog V4 Lite, AntSDR, PlutoSDR, SDRplay, Airspy, bladeRF and ESP-SDR

NanoVNA and antenna rotators

rtl_tcp and ADS-B Beast output for other apps

Tools

A satellite node with Doppler correction, plus a map with footprints and tracks

A spectrum monitor that classifies signals automatically, and a scanner with priorities and lockouts

Antenna calculator, noise figure, PER tester, SID monitor

Audio denoise, call recording, and a decoder log grouped by station

Event outputs: CSV, desktop notifications, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB

App

A redesigned UI with a unified look for every node

Multi-user editing, remote access from a browser, built-in HTTPS

An MCP server, so an AI assistant can build and tune a canvas

Performance

All measured on an M4 Max, full results at https://sdrmm.com/benchmarks:

DSP against GNU Radio:

FIR is 3.5x faster

NCO is 3x faster

FM demod is 4x faster

DDC is 1.6x faster

A 4096-point FFT is 1.6x faster than FFTW

Decoding rate in noise (48 trials per decoder across an SNR range):

ADS-B: 68%, against 56% for readsb and 50% for dump1090-fa

POCSAG: 73%, against 50% for multimon-ng

DMR: 81%, against 60% for dsd-fme

NXDN: 67%, against 23% for dsd-fme

(feel free to verify yourself with cargo xtask compare dsp)

The speed comes from hand-written SIMD kernels (NEON, AVX2, AVX-512), one shared downconversion for all channels on a radio, and a DSP path that never locks or allocates. The noise gains come from decoding IQ directly with
coherent receivers and soft decisions.

AI Disclaimer: This software is likely to be AI-assisted or vibe-coded.

October 1, 2026

FoxSDR Updates: Node Canvas, Single Map Display, Linux+Android Builds, Locating Air Traffic Radar Positions

Thank you to wonderingStars for writing in and sharing updates to his FoxSDR software program. FoxSDR is a new AI-coded software that supports all common protocols and SDRs.

The first update that wonderingStars notes is the addition of a node canvas where you can wire radios, decoders, speakers, and displays together. It can run up to five SDRs at the same time, each with its own decoders. This is now FoxSDR's main screen.

The second update is a map that can accept multiple inputs from multiple decoders, allowing users to plot various data streams such as ADS-B, AIS, amateur high-altitude balloons, and more on a single map.

The third update is that Linux x64 builds are now published, although they are noted to still be in development. An Android arm64 build has also been released in alpha form. To access this, users will need to sign up to test.

The final update adds a new radar sweep feature, which locates the positions of air-traffic radars around you by listening to 1090 MHz. The author explains:

Secondary surveillance radars rotate and interrogate aircraft transponders as their beam passes. Aircraft that broadcast ADS-B also report their own position, so every reply they give reveals where a radar was pointing at that moment. Radar Sweep collects these replies over hours and works out each radar's location, rotation speed and direction on its own. It then draws bearing lines towards aircraft that answer the radar but broadcast no position, and marks a position where two radars' lines cross.

It is the same idea as PlanePlotter's Beamfinder, except that Radar Sweep finds the radar sites itself instead of being given them. It is not affiliated with PlanePlotter or its authors.

In testing on a 12.8-hour recording, it confirmed two radars, each within about 5 km of a published airfield position. Bearings to held-out aircraft had a median error of 0.3°.

You need a 1090 MHz antenna, an SDR running at 2 MS/s or more, and a few hours of traffic. Radar Sweep remembers the radars it finds and never reveals your location.

It is available free to FoxSDR users in the United States.

The author also wanted to share an upcoming feature, which is the GUI builder, which will allow you to customize your own GUI.

AI Disclaimer: wonderingStars describes their company as a human-gated AI company, and FoxSDR is AI coded.

October 1, 2026

RF-Traffic-Monitor: Track Aircraft, Ships, Drones and Radiosondes in One Program

Thank you to Stefanos (Steeod) for sharing a new program he created, "RF-traffic-monitor." Stefanos created this program because he initially wanted to install adsb.im (an ADS-B feeder image that also tracks ships, radiosondes, and ACARS/VDL2/HFDL) on Windows 10, but was unsuccessful in doing so, as adsb.im is written for Linux machines.

So, to get around this, Stefanos decided to fire up ChatGPT to write his own similar Windows program. The end result was RF-traffic-monitor, which is capable of tracking aircraft, ships, and radiosondes using an RTL-SDR or HackRF. It can also use the SDR to decode ACARS, VDL2, and HFDL. With a compatible WiFi adatper the software is also capable of tracking drones via Wi-Fi Remote ID.

AI Disclaimer: The author notes that this program was written by ChatGPT.

September 17, 2026

LakeShark: P25 Phase 1, FM, POCSAG, ADS-B and Sub-GHz with an RTL-SDR on the LilyGO T-Display P4 (ESP32-P4)

Thank you to Samuel Reynolds (aka SAMS0N1TE on GitHub), for writing in and sharing with us his project called 'LakeShark'. LakeShark is firmware for the LilyGO T-Display P4 (an ESP32-P4-based microcontroller with a 4.1 Inch touchscreen, detachable keyboard, GPS, and nine-axis motion sensor), which allows a USB-connected RTL-SDR Blog V3 or V4 to be used for P25 Phase 1 trunking, FM, POCSAG, ADS-B, and sub-GHz capture. Samuel writes:

LakeShark supports P25 Phase I conventional and trunked voice, analog FM, POCSAG pager decoding and 1090 MHz ADS-B, with a spectrum display and waterfall for tuning around.

There are a few other things that might interest your readers:

Passive sub-GHz pulse recording with export to Flipper .sub files, so captures can be transferred to a Flipper and opened in its Sub-GHz app.'

Offline maps showing aircraft and MeshCore nodes, plus GPS track recording with GPX export.

Mixed P25/FM scan lists and a field journal for saving notes with radio readings, position and sensor data.

MeshCore messaging and LoRa experiments using the onboard SX1262. The optional MIX-RF keyboard adds CC1101, nRF24 and NFC tools.

The T-Display-P4 touchscreen works on its own, but you can also use the keyboard or connect a Flipper Zero over Bluetooth. LakeShark also supports a headless ESP32-P4 Nano receiver controlled from the Flipper. That lets you keep the radio and antenna in a bag while tuning from the Flipper.

Version 2.2.0 is available now. Experimental work includes manually tuned P25 Phase II decoding, HackRF support and GPS-based scan filtering. Those have separate limitations documented in the wiki. Next steps include live-RF validation, Phase II automatic call following and further work on portable power and everyday usability.

There’s also an experimental CELL WATCH app for surveying cellular-band activity and comparing it against a saved baseline. It’s meant for spotting changes worth investigating, rather than identifying a cell site as malicious or claiming to detect an IMSI catcher.

LakeShark builds on xtrsdr, OP25 and other open-source projects. ADS-B Scope also provided a reference for part of the aircraft position decoding. Full credits are in the README.

Showcase, photos and overview:
https://terminalbay.com/?m=lakeshark-showcase

Source and credits:
https://github.com/SAMS0N1TE/LakeShark

Version 2.2.0 downloads:
https://github.com/SAMS0N1TE/LakeShark/releases/tag/v2.2.0

Flipper companion app:
https://github.com/SAMS0N1TE/LakeShark-Flipper

Wiki and guides:
https://terminalbay.com/?m=wiki

LakeShark is part of a growing repertoire of ESP32-P4 microcontroller RTL-SDR applications. Just last week we posted about OrcSDR, a standalone RTL-SDR application built around the M5Stack Tab5. Back in May, we also posted about a portable open-source 1090 MHz ADS-B firmware for the LILYGO T-Display-P4.

Previously, RTL-SDR applications have only run on full general-purpose CPUs running an OS like Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android. But the ESP32-P4 has shown that commodity microcontrollers are now powerful enough to run an RTL-SDR too, via custom bare-metal drivers and software.

September 16, 2026

Frugal Radio: A Six SDR Setup with KrakenSDR and SDRplay for ADSB, ACARS, VDL2, P25

Over on YouTube, Rob from the 'Frugal Radio' channel has uploaded a video showing his multi-SDR monitoring setup that consists of a KrakenSDR, SDRplay RSP1A, and a cheap 12-year-old computer. The KrakenSDR is a 5-channel coherent SDR based on RTL-SDRs, and when connected to a computer, it appears as five independent RTL-SDRs that you can use for any purpose.

Rob currently uses three out of the five channels on the KrakenSDR to monitor three aviation digital signals: ADS-B, ACARS, and VDL2. The SDRplay is used on the same PC to monitor a 700 MHz P25 digital voice system. Rob uses the ADSB.im Docker image, which lets users feed multiple flight aggregation services, such as ADSBExchange, FlightRadar24, FlightAware, etc., all on one device.

In the future, Rob hopes to add Inmarsat L-band reception with the spare channels on the KrakenSDR, which will be received by a Discovery Dish.

6 x SDR, 4 x monitor PC decoding ADSB, ACARS, VDL2, P25

Watch this video on YouTube