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: 1702
Unassigned icao range: 0
United States: 1589 93.36%
Mexico: 56 3.29%
Canada: 17 1.0%
United States Luftwaffe: 13 0.76%
Luxembourg: 5 0.29%
Taiwan: 3 0.18%
Spain: 2 0.12%
France: 2 0.12%
Germany: 2 0.12%
United Arab Emirates: 2 0.12%
Brazil: 2 0.12%
Qatar: 1 0.06%
Colombia: 1 0.06%
United Kingdom: 1 0.06%
Netherlands: 1 0.06%
Turkey: 1 0.06%
Australia: 1 0.06%
Japan: 1 0.06%
New Zealand: 1 0.06%
Paraguay: 1 0.06%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 592
B737 : 358
B737-MAX : 168
B767 : 20
B787 : 14
B777 : 14
B747 : 9
B717 : 5
B757 : 3
B727 : 1
Airbus : 274
A321 : 79
A320 : 75
A319 : 58
A321-neo : 29
A320-neo : 28
A350 : 2
A330 : 2
A380 : 1
Embraer : 172
ERJ-175 : 107
E-145XR : 32
Phenom : 17
E-190 : 11
E-145 : 3
E-135 : 1
E-170 : 1
unknown : 163
Cessna : 133
Skyhawk-172 : 30
Citation Encore : 28
Citation Soverign : 21
Citation-525 : 15
Skylane-182 : 12
Citation Longitude : 11
Citation Bravo : 9
Citation : 2
Chancellor-414 : 1
Caravan-208 : 1
Cardinal-177 : 1
Stationair-206 : 1
Centurion-210 : 1
Bombardier : 68
Challenger : 21
A220 : 17
CRJ200 : 10
CRJ900 : 9
CRJ700 : 9
Global Express : 2
PIC : 62
Skyhawk-172 : 30
Piper Archer : 29
Piper Arrow : 2
8KCAB : 1
Piper : 46
Piper Archer : 29
Piper : 12
Piper Arrow : 2
Piper Malibu : 2
Piper Seminole : 1
Beechcraft : 41
Bonanza : 13
300 Super King Air : 7
Beechjet : 6
Beechcraft : 5
90 King Air : 4
200 Super King Air : 3
Baron : 2
Travel Air : 1
other : 31
Hawker : 13
MD-8x : 7
Mooney 20 : 7
deHavillandCanada : 2
Glider : 1
DC-9 : 1
Gulfstream : 24
Gulfstream V : 10
Gulfstream IV : 9
Galaxy : 2
Gulfstream VI : 2
Gulfstream III : 1
LearJet : 21
LearJet 45 : 9
LearJet 60 : 8
LearJet 31 : 2
LearJet 35 : 2
Dassault : 17
Falcon : 7
Falcon2000 : 5
Falcon900 : 5
helikopter : 10
EC-145 : 3
R44 : 2
R22 : 2
H500 : 2
R66 : 1
Cirrus : 9
SR-22T : 4
SR-22 : 3
Cirrus Vision : 1
SR-20 : 1
military : 8
TexanII : 7
T-38 Talon : 1
cargo : 2
MD-11 : 2

Airline flight summary

Total : 2716
Callsign is tail number: 364
Blockheads: 38
PIA: 2
Spionen: 0
Numerical: 2
Unidentified: 41
124 flights got close to the antenna.
N512LE did this the most, 6 times.
N512LE flew nearby the longest for 22.5 minutes.
LIFE4 was closest to the antenna, 1524 ft away.
Busiest plane: N11184 an E45X flew 6 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 600
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 447
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 194
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 168
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 115
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 115
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 102
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 73
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 53
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 41
EJA/1I - NetJets : 40
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 23
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 22
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 21
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 18
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 18
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 15
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 15
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 13
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 11
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 11
AAY/G4 - Allegiant Air : 9
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 8
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 7
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 6
JSX/XE - JSX : 6
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 5
CYO/ - Air Transport : 4
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 4
HAL/HA - Hawaiian Airlines : 4
CKS/K4 - Kalitta Air : 4
WJA/WS - WestJet : 4
AFR/AF - Air France : 3
SCM/ - American Jet International : 3
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 3
UAE/EK - Emirates : 3
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 3
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 3
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 3
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 3
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
ANZ/NZ - Air New Zealand : 2
BAW/BA - British Airways : 2
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
DCM/ - FLTPLAN : 2
IBE/IB - Iberia Airlines : 2
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 2
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 2
PAT/ - Department of the Army, Priority Air Transport : 2
QFA/QF - Qantas : 2
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 2
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 2
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 2
ACW/ - SERVICIOS AEREOS ACROSS, S.A. DE C.V. : 2
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 1
ASZ/OB - Astrakhan Airlines : 1
AVA/AV - Avianca - Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia : 1
NGF/ - Angel Flight America : 1
XAA/ - Aeronautical Radio Inc : 1
CAL/CI - China Airlines : 1
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 1
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 1
FRG/ - Freight Runners Express : 1
HER/UD - Hex'Air : 1
SCW/ - Malmo Aviation : 1
SCW/TF - Malmö Aviation : 1
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 1
NCR/N8 - National Air Cargo : 1
BOX/3S - Aerologic : 1
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 1
ASP/SP - Aspen Airways : 1
CNS/ - Cobalt Air : 1
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 1
STV/ - Saturn Aviation : 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.