Tagged: ads-b

A Tutorial on Setting up a XHSI Cockpit Display with Live Data from an RTL-SDR Receiving ADS-B

Back in 2017, we first posted about using a program called RTL1090-XHSI which is used to display a simulated aircraft cockpit using live data acquired directly from an RTL-SDR receiving ADS-B flight data from nearby aircraft. The ADS-B signal provides not only position and heading data but also information about altitude and speed, which is then used to simulate the cockpit display.

Recently Al wrote in and wanted to share with us a step-by-step tutorial that he has created that shows how to set this up. The guide shows how to download, install and use all the software programs required.

XHSI Cockpit Display with Live ADS-B Data Received by an RTL-SDR
XHSI Cockpit Display with Live ADS-B Data Received by an RTL-SDR

Setting up the Cheapest FlightAware ADS-B Feeder with RTL-SDR and Raspberry Pi 2W

Over on his YouTube channel, TAKEAPART has recently uploaded a new video showing how to set up a cheap ADS-B FlightAware feeder using an RTL-SDR Blog dongle, and a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W. The Raspberry Pi 2W is a US$15 computer that is capable of running the PiAware ADS-B feeding software which uploads ADS-B data to the FlightAware.com flight tracking service. If you are a contributor to this service, you can get a Premium FlightAware subscription for free.

In the video, TAKEAPART shows how to install the PiAware software on the Pi 2W, and how to configure the PiAware settings. Finally, he shows it in action, receiving flight data with a homemade 1/4 wave ground plane antenna.

Cheapest ADS-B feeder RTL-SDR and Raspberry Pi Zero 2W (PiAware/FlightAware)

Setting up an ADS-B Radar in a Vehicle Android Head Unit

Over on YouTube channel 'TAKEAPART' has uploaded a short video showing how he tracks aircraft via an RTL-SDR Blog V3 dongle and his car's Android head unit. The head unit is capable of running the ADS-B Radar App available on the Google Play store.

Once the app is installed, it's a simple matter of plugging in the RTL-SDR Blog V3 unit and running the app to start tracking aircraft.

How to ADS-B Radar in the CAR - Tracking Planes...

A Video on Radar-TUI: A Terminal User Interface Based ADS-B Display

Back in 2022 we first posted about adsb_deku and radar-tui, a TUI (terminal user interface) for displaying ADS-B aircraft locations with an RTL-SDR receiver. A terminal user interface means that no desktop GUI is required, instead, the map and aircraft are drawn in the terminal window using just text characters.

adsb_deku and radar-tui are based on the open-source ratatui library. Recently, Orhun, one of the maintainers of ratatui wrote in and wanted to share a YouTube video he created demonstrating radar-tui in action. In the video, Orhun explains the RTL-SDR, shows how to set up radar-tui, and shows a demo of it in action.

If you're interested in this type of application, another similar terminal based ADS-B UI is coole-radar which we also posted about previosuly in 2019.

RADAR-TUI: View planes around you from the terminal! (Terminal Tool of the Week #1)

Taylor Swift Threatens Legal Action Against Owner of X Account that Tracks her Private Jet via ADS-B

Jack Sweeney is a student who operates various social media and websites dedicated to tracking the private jets of celebrities and notable persons. In the past he's drawn the ire of Elon Musk who banned his @ElonJet account in 2022 which used to provide live updates on the location of Elon Musk's private jet. These days he operates the @ElonJetNextDay account which tracks Elon's jet with a 24 hour delay on X, but continues to track the jet live on other platforms.

Recently the legal team for global superstar Taylor Swift threatened legal action against Jack Sweeney for running the various social media accounts that track her private jet including @SwiftJetNextDay on X with a 24 hour delay, or live on alternative platforms like Mastodon. Swift's legal team claim Sweeney's live tracking accounts pose an “imminent threat to the safety and wellbeing” of Swift.

Jack notes that he makes use of legal live ADS-B flight data from public data aggregators like Airplanes.live and AirFramesIO. ADS-B data is most commonly provided from contributors with RTL-SDR dongles running on Raspberry Pi single board computers. 

Even without Sweeney's social media accounts anyone can legally look up this live public flight data data, or even receive it themselves directly from the aircraft if they are close enough. Although a point can be argued that the social media accounts run by Sweeney make it significantly easier for this information to be obtained and shared by anyone.

An example notification from @SwiftJetNextDay for Taylor Swift's private jet flight.

Tech Minds: Make your own Aircraft Tracking Antenna with RTL-SDR

Over on the Tech Minds YouTube channel Matt has posted a video tutorial that shows how to build a cheap quarter wave ground plane antenna tuned for 1090 MHz. This is the frequency of ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast), which is a signal broadcast by aircraft that can be used to track their GPS location.

The antenna is created from an SMA chassis mount socket, one copper wire for the receiving element, and four copper wires for the ground plane. They are soldered directly onto the socket. An LNA is added to improve reception.

Make Your Own Aircraft Tracking Antenna With RTL SDR

DragonOS: Tracking ADS-B, UAT, ACARS, VDL2 with TAR1090 and a KrakenSDR

Aaron who created and maintains the DragonOS SDR Linux distribution has recently uploaded a new video where he uses a KrakenSDR to simultaneously receive and decode multiple aircraft tracking, telemetry/messaging signals including ADS-B, UAT, ACARS and VDL2.

In the video Aaron uses his WarDragon which is a Mini PC that comes preinstalled with DragonOS. It is currently available on his website for $220, or $550 including a carry case, and Airspy R2.

The video shows how to setup all the software including FlightView GUI which is a graphical user interface that allows users to manage and configure various Docker based aircraft-related services including tar1090, readsb and acarshub.

WarDragon ADS-B, UAT, ACARS, and VDL2 w/ TAR1090 + ACARS Hub (KrakenSDR, Defli optional)

DeFli: A Decentralized Network of RTL-SDRs on the Blockchain for UAV and Satellite Operators

Recently we came across a new project called DeFli and DeSky, which appears to be plans for a decentralized network of RTL-SDRs. The goal of the project is to provide decentralized access to ADS-B and satellite data through the use of RTL-SDR ground stations. The RTL-SDR ground stations upload their data to the DeFli servers and in return ground station hosts receive compensation in DEFLI tokens via the DeFli blockchain.

From the website it appears they are focusing on selling the data to UAV and satellite operators, but there seems to be no reason why it couldn't be used for other purposes too.

The use of crowd sourced RTL-SDR data is nothing new, with successful ADS-B aggregators like FlightRadar24.com and adsbexchange.com already in operation. Projects like SatNOGs also exist which crowd source satellite data. Not to mention other RTL-SDR and radio data aggregators like marinetraffic.com for Marine AIS, amateur.sondehub.org for Amateur Radio Balloons, aprs.fi for APRS, and airframes.io for ACARS, VDL, HDFL and SATCOM data. However, this is probably the first radio data aggregator to incorporate blockchain concepts for host rewards.

In a Reddit Post (now removed but cached on Google), the creators wrote:

There is clearly an appetite from a large number of Helium Hotspot owners to utilize their hotspots for other projects with a view to getting a better ROI on their investment. That being said, I believe it is absolutely just and fair for Nova & the Foundation to take steps to prohibit the LoRa specific hardware from being used by competing projects both from a commercial perspective and also regulatory. Our personal belief is that Nova/Foundation should operate Helium Network as a NaaS and allow these newer "players" to piggyback on the equipment without compromising the regulatory side of things.

From an industry perspective there is of course a frustration at an awful lot of under-used/under-utilized hardware, specifically the CPU modules that remain in short supply, thus limiting the expansion capabilities of a hardware based network.

Likewise whilst Helium IoT paved the way for decentralized networks to become a "thing" there is also the counter-argument now that actually it is incredibly difficult to build a hardware based network because of the growing disdain. Now obviously part of that is linked to failed projects like MXC, Planetwatch and WeatherXM as well as dubious projects like RevoFi.

That brings me on to our project- DeFli (defli.org). I am not going to extol the virtues of the project, all I am going to give is a very brief "blurb". We are building a decentralized network of ground stations for unmanned aircraft to communicate with (to satisfy new legislation) and which will form the basis of an advanced traffic management system.

A "ground station" can be built from any Helium Hotspot without affecting the performance, nor do we utilize the LoRa Concentrator (ADS-B is broadcast over the 1090MHz frequency). To achieve dual "mining" it is simply a case of running DeFli in a Docker Container (can be viewed on our Github) and adding a USB RTL-SDR receiver.

WARNING: As with anything cryptocurrency related, do your own research first before putting any of your own money in. This project could very well be a scam, or it could just be a project in the early stages of getting started.

DeFli Network Homepage