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: 1748
Unassigned icao range: 0
United States: 1621 92.73%
Mexico: 48 2.75%
Canada: 42 2.4%
United States Luftwaffe: 17 0.97%
Germany: 4 0.23%
Panama: 3 0.17%
United Arab Emirates: 2 0.11%
Taiwan: 2 0.11%
Qatar: 1 0.06%
Colombia: 1 0.06%
France: 1 0.06%
United Kingdom: 1 0.06%
Netherlands: 1 0.06%
Turkey: 1 0.06%
Malta: 1 0.06%
Japan: 1 0.06%
New Zealand: 1 0.06%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 612
B737 : 331
B737-MAX : 171
B767 : 45
B757 : 22
B777 : 18
B787 : 17
B717 : 4
C-17 Globemaster : 3
B747 : 1
Airbus : 285
A321 : 101
A320 : 64
A319 : 49
A321-neo : 36
A320-neo : 29
A300 : 3
A350 : 1
A330 : 1
A380 : 1
unknown : 222
Embraer : 178
ERJ-175 : 101
E-145XR : 36
Phenom : 23
E-190 : 10
E-145 : 4
E-135 : 3
E-170 : 1
Cessna : 116
Citation Encore : 29
Citation Soverign : 29
Citation Longitude : 18
Citation-525 : 15
Skyhawk-172 : 13
Caravan-208 : 4
Skylane-182 : 4
Citation : 1
Citation Bravo : 1
Citation Mustang : 1
Centurion-210 : 1
Bombardier : 95
Challenger : 43
A220 : 17
CRJ900 : 13
CRJ200 : 12
Global Express : 5
CRJ700 : 5
Beechcraft : 36
200 Super King Air : 11
90 King Air : 7
300 Super King Air : 7
Beechcraft : 4
Beechjet : 3
Bonanza : 2
Baron : 2
Gulfstream : 32
Gulfstream V : 15
Gulfstream IV : 14
Gulfstream VI : 2
Galaxy : 1
other : 21
Hawker : 6
HondaJet : 6
MD-8x : 5
deHavillandCanada : 2
Mooney 20 : 1
DC-9 : 1
LearJet : 19
LearJet 45 : 10
LearJet 60 : 4
LearJet 35 : 3
LearJet : 2
Dassault : 18
Falcon : 8
Falcon2000 : 7
Falcon900 : 3
PIC : 15
Skyhawk-172 : 13
Piper Archer : 2
helikopter : 11
EC-145 : 3
H500 : 2
Bell 4xx : 1
R22 : 1
R44 : 1
AS350 : 1
S-76 : 1
S-92 : 1
military : 11
T-38 Talon : 3
C-17 Globemaster : 3
C-130 Hercules : 2
T-45 Goshawk : 1
C-5 Galaxy : 1
TexanII : 1
cargo : 9
A300 : 3
C-17 Globemaster : 3
C-130 Hercules : 2
C-5 Galaxy : 1
Cirrus : 9
SR-22 : 6
Cirrus Vision : 2
SR-22T : 1
Piper : 9
Piper Malibu : 5
Piper Archer : 2
Piper : 1
Piper Seminole : 1

Airline flight summary

Total : 2738
Callsign is tail number: 312
Blockheads: 63
PIA: 0
Spionen: 2
Numerical: 1
Unidentified: 29
290 flights got close to the antenna.
N674TX did this the most, 5 times.
N674TX flew nearby the longest for 22.8 minutes.
SWA2874 was closest to the antenna, 2070 ft away.
Busiest plane: N12136 an E45X flew 6 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 605
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 360
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 238
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 175
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 130
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 123
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 91
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 63
EJA/1I - NetJets : 55
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 51
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 36
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 34
WJA/WS - WestJet : 24
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 23
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 22
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 19
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 18
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 18
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 18
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 16
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 15
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 14
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 13
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 13
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 8
JSX/XE - JSX : 7
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 6
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 6
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 6
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 5
AJT/M6 - Amerijet International : 5
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 5
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 5
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 4
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 4
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 4
RDK/ - Memorial Hermann Hospital System : 4
SCM/ - American Jet International : 3
UAE/EK - Emirates : 3
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 3
RAX/ - Royal Air Freight : 3
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 3
AFR/AF - Air France : 2
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
ANZ/NZ - Air New Zealand : 2
AVA/AV - Avianca - Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia : 2
RCH/MC - Air Mobility Command : 2
BAW/BA - British Airways : 2
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 2
HER/UD - Hex'Air : 2
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 2
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 2
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 2
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 2
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 2
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 2
AJI/ - Ameristar Jet Charter : 1
AMF/A8 - Ameriflight : 1
CYO/ - Air Transport : 1
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 1
TSC/TS - Air Transat : 1
BOE/ - Boeing : 1
CAL/CI - China Airlines : 1
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 1
DCM/ - FLTPLAN : 1
KFS/ - Kalitta Charters : 1
POE/PD - Porter Airlines : 1
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 1
ROU/RV - Air Canada Rouge : 1
BOX/3S - Aerologic : 1
FFL/ - ForeFlight : 1
KAY/ - K5 Aviation GmbH : 1
CNS/ - Cobalt Air : 1
CNV/ - US Navy Air Logistics Office : 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.