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: 1524
Unassigned icao range: 0
United States: 1414 92.78%
Mexico: 40 2.62%
Canada: 38 2.49%
Germany: 4 0.26%
Panama: 3 0.2%
Turkey: 3 0.2%
United Kingdom: 2 0.13%
Netherlands: 2 0.13%
Luxembourg: 2 0.13%
Japan: 2 0.13%
Taiwan: 2 0.13%
Qatar: 1 0.07%
Spain: 1 0.07%
France: 1 0.07%
Portugal: 1 0.07%
Malta: 1 0.07%
Ukraine: 1 0.07%
Unassigned (EUR / NAT regions): 1 0.07%
China: 1 0.07%
United Arab Emirates: 1 0.07%
Unassigned (NAM / PAC regions): 1 0.07%
United States Luftwaffe: 1 0.07%
New Zealand: 1 0.07%
Argentina: 1 0.07%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 553
B737 : 316
B737-MAX : 166
B787 : 20
B777 : 19
B757 : 18
B767 : 6
B747 : 5
B717 : 3
Airbus : 263
A321 : 73
A320 : 71
A319 : 54
A321-neo : 38
A320-neo : 23
A350 : 2
A330 : 1
A380 : 1
unknown : 201
Embraer : 143
ERJ-175 : 84
E-145XR : 35
Phenom : 13
E-190 : 5
E-135 : 2
E-170 : 2
E-145 : 2
Cessna : 107
Skylane-182 : 20
Citation Soverign : 20
Citation Encore : 17
Citation Longitude : 15
Skyhawk-172 : 15
Citation-525 : 9
Caravan-208 : 4
Citation Bravo : 3
Chancellor-414 : 2
Stationair-206 : 1
Citation Mustang : 1
Bombardier : 51
Challenger : 16
A220 : 13
CRJ700 : 7
CRJ200 : 6
CRJ900 : 5
Global Express : 4
PIC : 30
Skyhawk-172 : 15
Piper Archer : 12
8KCAB : 1
Piper Arrow : 1
Citabria : 1
Piper : 27
Piper Archer : 12
Piper : 10
Piper Malibu : 4
Piper Arrow : 1
Beechcraft : 26
300 Super King Air : 7
Bonanza : 7
200 Super King Air : 6
Beechcraft : 3
Beechjet : 3
Gulfstream : 19
Gulfstream IV : 9
Gulfstream V : 5
Gulfstream VI : 4
Galaxy : 1
Dassault : 16
Falcon : 6
Falcon2000 : 6
Falcon900 : 4
other : 15
Mooney 20 : 8
HondaJet : 4
Hawker : 2
deHavillandCanada : 1
helikopter : 12
JetRanger : 4
EC-145 : 4
H500 : 2
R44 : 1
Bell 4xx : 1
Cirrus : 7
SR-22 : 3
Cirrus Vision : 2
SR-22T : 1
SR-20 : 1
LearJet : 6
LearJet 45 : 5
LearJet 35 : 1
cargo : 1
Ан-12 Cub : 1
Soviet : 1
Ан-12 Cub : 1
warbird : 1
T-6 Texan : 1

Airline flight summary

Total : 2463
Callsign is tail number: 282
Blockheads: 19
PIA: 0
Spionen: 1
Numerical: 1
Unidentified: 14
206 flights got close to the antenna.
N111LE did this the most, 8 times.
N5284F flew nearby the longest for 31.6 minutes.
N5284F was closest to the antenna, 1021 ft away.
Busiest plane: N11191 an E45X flew 6 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 637
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 357
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 195
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 166
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 135
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 123
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 78
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 46
EJA/1I - NetJets : 40
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 34
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 32
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 31
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 24
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 21
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 18
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 18
WJA/WS - WestJet : 18
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 15
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 15
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 8
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 7
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 7
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 6
TSC/TS - Air Transat : 5
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 4
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 4
LET/ - Aerolineas Ejecutivas : 3
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 3
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 3
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 3
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 3
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 3
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 3
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 3
AAY/G4 - Allegiant Air : 2
AFR/AF - Air France : 2
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
ANZ/NZ - Air New Zealand : 2
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 2
BAW/BA - British Airways : 2
CPA/CX - Cathay Pacific : 2
UAE/EK - Emirates : 2
POE/PD - Porter Airlines : 2
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 2
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 2
JSX/XE - JSX : 2
CYO/ - Air Transport : 1
EMD/ - Eaglemed (Ballard Aviation) : 1
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 1
DCM/ - FLTPLAN : 1
IBE/IB - Iberia Airlines : 1
KFS/ - Kalitta Charters : 1
SCW/ - Malmo Aviation : 1
SCW/TF - Malmö Aviation : 1
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 1
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 1
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 1
NCR/N8 - National Air Cargo : 1
FWK/ - Flightworks : 1
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 1
ASP/SP - Aspen Airways : 1
FFL/ - ForeFlight : 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.