ADS-B Mode-S

My tracking of nearby ADSB-out aircraft using my local AWACS server.

1090-at-work

Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast - Mode-S

On January 1, 2020, Federal Regulation 14 CFR § 91.225 requiring ADSB-out to transmit their position information to ATC and other aircraft takes effect. This applies to all aircraft above 10,000 MSL, inside Class A, B, and C airspace, and within 30 NM of a Mode-C airport to the surface. Since the transmission happens at 1090MHz, is vertically polarized, and is receivable within a line of sight, ground stations can pick up signals from aircraft hundreds of nautical miles away flying at high altitude!

Unscientific deployment observation

Being within the KIAH Mode-C ring, all planes are required to have a squawkable transponder for the primary ATC radar. Unfortunately, most of these planes are invisible without the 1090MHz transponder which allows for a MLAT(multi-lateration) calculation with multiple base stations. Sometimes an ADSB-IN aircraft is flying nearby which will activate a ADSB-R (rebroadcast). The traffic within several miles and within 5000' of the aircraft will be rebroadcast meaning that my AWACS system can now see the ground traffic at major airports as well as random signatures for the remainder of the transponder only flights.

Yesterday's Stats

Yesterday's Flights last 24h range Flight and plane information

Country summary

Total airframes: 1641
Unassigned icao range: 0
United States: 1511 92.08%
Mexico: 56 3.41%
Canada: 32 1.95%
United States Luftwaffe: 12 0.73%
Germany: 5 0.3%
Panama: 3 0.18%
Spain: 3 0.18%
France: 3 0.18%
United Kingdom: 2 0.12%
Netherlands: 2 0.12%
Japan: 2 0.12%
United Arab Emirates: 2 0.12%
Taiwan: 2 0.12%
Qatar: 1 0.06%
Tanzania: 1 0.06%
Unassigned (AFI region): 1 0.06%
Poland: 1 0.06%
Turkey: 1 0.06%
Malta: 1 0.06%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 568
B737 : 313
B737-MAX : 170
B767 : 34
B757 : 20
B777 : 18
B787 : 10
B747 : 2
B727 : 1
unknown : 235
Airbus : 216
A321 : 68
A320 : 53
A319 : 43
A321-neo : 24
A320-neo : 12
A300 : 8
A350 : 4
A330 : 3
A380 : 1
Embraer : 149
ERJ-175 : 79
E-145XR : 35
Phenom : 25
E-190 : 6
E-145 : 2
E-135 : 1
E-170 : 1
Cessna : 125
Skyhawk-172 : 31
Citation Encore : 28
Citation Soverign : 23
Citation-525 : 14
Skylane-182 : 12
Citation Longitude : 11
Citation Bravo : 3
Caravan-208 : 2
Centurion-210 : 1
Bombardier : 70
Challenger : 28
A220 : 16
CRJ200 : 12
CRJ900 : 7
CRJ700 : 4
Global Express : 3
PIC : 51
Skyhawk-172 : 31
Piper Archer : 19
8KCAB : 1
Beechcraft : 36
200 Super King Air : 11
300 Super King Air : 9
Bonanza : 6
Beechcraft : 5
90 King Air : 3
Baron : 1
Beechjet : 1
Piper : 31
Piper Archer : 19
Piper : 6
Piper Malibu : 6
Gulfstream : 25
Gulfstream V : 12
Gulfstream VI : 5
Gulfstream IV : 5
Galaxy : 3
other : 24
Hawker : 7
MD-8x : 7
Mooney 20 : 4
deHavillandCanada : 3
HondaJet : 2
DC-9 : 1
LearJet : 21
LearJet 45 : 10
LearJet 35 : 6
LearJet : 2
LearJet 60 : 2
LearJet 31 : 1
Dassault : 20
Falcon : 8
Falcon2000 : 8
Falcon900 : 4
helikopter : 10
H500 : 4
EC-145 : 3
R66 : 1
R22 : 1
Blackhawk : 1
cargo : 8
A300 : 8
Cirrus : 8
SR-22 : 4
SR-22T : 3
Cirrus Vision : 1
military : 7
T-38 Talon : 3
TexanII : 3
Blackhawk : 1

Airline flight summary

Total : 2476
Callsign is tail number: 375
Blockheads: 65
PIA: 0
Spionen: 5
Numerical: 3
Unidentified: 32
187 flights got close to the antenna.
IDAHO23 did this the most, 19 times.
N674TX flew nearby the longest for 42.0 minutes.
N5279F was closest to the antenna, 833 ft away.
Busiest plane: N962JX an E145 flew 8 routes for JSX.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 549
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 363
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 149
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 145
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 125
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 110
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 83
EJA/1I - NetJets : 45
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 41
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 30
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 28
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 26
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 20
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 17
WJA/WS - WestJet : 17
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 16
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 14
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 13
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 13
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 12
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 11
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 11
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 9
JSX/XE - JSX : 9
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 8
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 8
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 7
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 7
LET/ - Aerolineas Ejecutivas : 6
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 6
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 5
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 5
AFR/AF - Air France : 4
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 4
AAY/G4 - Allegiant Air : 3
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 3
UAE/EK - Emirates : 3
IBE/IB - Iberia Airlines : 3
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 3
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 3
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 2
AJT/M6 - Amerijet International : 2
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
CYO/ - Air Transport : 2
BAW/BA - British Airways : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 2
HER/UD - Hex'Air : 2
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 2
RAX/ - Royal Air Freight : 2
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 2
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 2
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 2
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 2
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 2
RDK/ - Memorial Hermann Hospital System : 2
ACW/ - SERVICIOS AEREOS ACROSS, S.A. DE C.V. : 2
SCM/ - American Jet International : 1
TAA/ - Aeroservicios de La Costa : 1
EMD/ - Eaglemed (Ballard Aviation) : 1
KFS/ - Kalitta Charters : 1
GEC/LH - Lufthansa Cargo : 1
PAT/ - Department of the Army, Priority Air Transport : 1
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 1
USC/ - US Check Airlines : 1
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 1
FWK/ - Flightworks : 1
SBE/ - World Class Aviation : 1
JAS/ - Jet Aviation Flight Services : 1
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 1
FFL/ - ForeFlight : 1
KAY/ - K5 Aviation GmbH : 1
CNS/ - Cobalt Air : 1

You only need a few things to get started:

My long range setup is using a Raspberry Pi Zero and a ProStickPlus. PiZero + ProStickPlus

To improve the setup:

ADSB-in

Since it's more expensive to add ADSB-in capability and not required by the FAA many planes don't have this. Fortunately, using almost the same setup as my home AWACS system Stratux can supplement your electronic flight bag. I'm currently using Avare with the external i/o plugin to connect to the homebuilt stratux.

References and Software

gr-air-modes - ADS-B receiving software.
wikipedia ADS-B
rtl-sdr ads-b article
antirez dump1090
satsignal pi-1090
asd-b.ca
mutability mlat-server
alkissack dump1090
British Airways used this in a pretty neat marketing campaign #lookup.