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: 1564
Unassigned icao range: 0
United States: 1441 92.14%
Mexico: 40 2.56%
Canada: 39 2.49%
United States Luftwaffe: 14 0.9%
United Kingdom: 5 0.32%
Qatar: 3 0.19%
Panama: 3 0.19%
Germany: 3 0.19%
Spain: 2 0.13%
Netherlands: 2 0.13%
Turkey: 2 0.13%
Taiwan: 2 0.13%
France: 1 0.06%
Isle of Man: 1 0.06%
Isle of Man: 1 0.06%
Austria: 1 0.06%
Luxembourg: 1 0.06%
Malta: 1 0.06%
Azerbaijan: 1 0.06%
Unassigned (MID region): 1 0.06%
Japan: 1 0.06%
United Arab Emirates: 1 0.06%
Brazil: 1 0.06%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 576
B737 : 304
B737-MAX : 182
B767 : 26
B777 : 22
B757 : 21
B787 : 12
B717 : 6
B747 : 3
Airbus : 262
A321 : 91
A320 : 56
A319 : 49
A321-neo : 37
A320-neo : 21
A350 : 3
A330 : 2
A300 : 2
A380 : 1
unknown : 205
Embraer : 145
ERJ-175 : 88
E-145XR : 34
Phenom : 11
E-190 : 9
E-145 : 2
E-170 : 1
Cessna : 99
Skyhawk-172 : 26
Citation Longitude : 25
Citation Encore : 11
Citation Soverign : 11
Skylane-182 : 9
Citation-525 : 8
Citation Bravo : 5
Caravan-208 : 2
Centurion-210 : 2
Bombardier : 62
Challenger : 25
A220 : 13
CRJ200 : 12
CRJ900 : 10
Global Express : 2
PIC : 46
Skyhawk-172 : 26
Piper Archer : 18
Piper Arrow : 2
Piper : 34
Piper Archer : 18
Piper : 7
Piper Seminole : 4
Piper Malibu : 2
Piper Arrow : 2
Piper Lance : 1
Beechcraft : 32
Bonanza : 11
200 Super King Air : 6
90 King Air : 4
Beechcraft : 4
Beechjet : 3
Travel Air : 2
300 Super King Air : 2
Gulfstream : 21
Gulfstream IV : 9
Gulfstream VI : 5
Gulfstream V : 4
Galaxy : 2
Gulfstream III : 1
other : 15
Hawker : 7
Mooney 20 : 5
MD-8x : 2
HondaJet : 1
Dassault : 13
Falcon2000 : 5
Falcon900 : 5
Falcon : 3
LearJet : 12
LearJet 45 : 7
LearJet 60 : 2
LearJet 31 : 1
LearJet : 1
LearJet 35 : 1
helikopter : 11
EC-145 : 4
R22 : 2
H500 : 2
R66 : 1
R44 : 1
JetRanger : 1
Cirrus : 6
SR-22 : 5
SR-22T : 1
military : 5
TexanII : 5
cargo : 2
A300 : 2

Airline flight summary

Total : 2427
Callsign is tail number: 289
Blockheads: 33
PIA: 0
Spionen: 0
Numerical: 0
Unidentified: 29
164 flights got close to the antenna.
N111LE did this the most, 8 times.
N5278F flew nearby the longest for 26.2 minutes.
N126VA was closest to the antenna, 920 ft away.
Busiest plane: N16147 an E45X flew 6 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 568
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 320
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 209
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 155
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 131
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 110
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 88
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 61
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 31
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 29
EJA/1I - NetJets : 28
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 25
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 20
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 19
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 18
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 17
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 15
WJA/WS - WestJet : 15
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 14
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 12
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 11
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 11
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 10
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 8
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 7
TSC/TS - Air Transat : 5
BAW/BA - British Airways : 5
AJT/M6 - Amerijet International : 4
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 4
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 4
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 4
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 4
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 4
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 3
SCM/ - American Jet International : 3
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 3
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 3
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 3
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 3
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 3
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 3
AFR/AF - Air France : 2
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
UAE/EK - Emirates : 2
IBE/IB - Iberia Airlines : 2
POE/PD - Porter Airlines : 2
BOX/3S - Aerologic : 2
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 2
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 2
CNS/ - Cobalt Air : 2
JSX/XE - JSX : 2
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 1
CAY/KX - Cayman Airways : 1
EMD/ - Eaglemed (Ballard Aviation) : 1
CKS/K4 - Kalitta Air : 1
SCW/ - Malmo Aviation : 1
SCW/TF - Malmö Aviation : 1
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 1
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 1
CAP/ - Civil Air Patrol : 1
CNV/ - US Navy Air Logistics Office : 1
ASN/ - RS SERVICIOS DE TELEDETECCION : 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.