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: 1464
Unassigned icao range: 1
United States: 1354 92.49%
Mexico: 44 3.01%
Canada: 21 1.43%
United States Luftwaffe: 13 0.89%
United Kingdom: 5 0.34%
Turkey: 4 0.27%
Qatar: 2 0.14%
Panama: 2 0.14%
Germany: 2 0.14%
Netherlands: 2 0.14%
Japan: 2 0.14%
United Arab Emirates: 2 0.14%
Taiwan: 2 0.14%
Tunisia: 1 0.07%
Colombia: 1 0.07%
Unassigned (AFI region): 1 0.07%
France: 1 0.07%
Bermuda: 1 0.07%
Bermuda: 1 0.07%
Bermuda: 1 0.07%
Luxembourg: 1 0.07%
Ukraine: 1 0.07%
Unassigned (EUR / NAT regions): 1 0.07%
Australia: 1 0.07%
New Zealand: 1 0.07%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 577
B737 : 344
B737-MAX : 147
B767 : 33
B787 : 16
B777 : 14
B757 : 10
B747 : 6
B717 : 6
RC-135 : 1
Airbus : 227
A321 : 63
A320 : 57
A319 : 46
A320-neo : 33
A321-neo : 21
A300 : 4
A350 : 1
A330 : 1
A380 : 1
Embraer : 136
ERJ-175 : 77
E-145XR : 37
Phenom : 11
E-190 : 8
E-145 : 2
E-170 : 1
unknown : 125
Cessna : 101
Skyhawk-172 : 31
Citation Encore : 18
Citation Soverign : 15
Skylane-182 : 10
Citation Longitude : 9
Citation Bravo : 8
Citation-525 : 5
Caravan-208 : 3
Centurion-210 : 2
Bombardier : 69
A220 : 21
Challenger : 21
CRJ200 : 9
CRJ900 : 8
CRJ700 : 7
Global Express : 3
PIC : 53
Skyhawk-172 : 31
Piper Archer : 20
Piper Arrow : 2
Piper : 37
Piper Archer : 20
Piper : 8
Piper Seminole : 4
Piper Malibu : 3
Piper Arrow : 2
Beechcraft : 24
200 Super King Air : 9
Beechcraft : 4
Bonanza : 4
300 Super King Air : 3
90 King Air : 2
Baron : 1
Beechjet : 1
Gulfstream : 21
Gulfstream IV : 8
Gulfstream V : 8
Galaxy : 3
Gulfstream VI : 2
other : 20
Hawker : 10
Mooney 20 : 6
MD-8x : 1
DC-9 : 1
deHavillandCanada : 1
HondaJet : 1
LearJet : 15
LearJet 45 : 7
LearJet 60 : 6
LearJet 35 : 2
Dassault : 14
Falcon : 6
Falcon2000 : 5
Falcon900 : 3
helikopter : 10
EC-145 : 5
JetRanger : 2
H500 : 2
R44 : 1
military : 10
T-38 Talon : 4
TexanII : 4
RC-135 : 1
C-130 Hercules : 1
cargo : 6
A300 : 4
Ан-12 Cub : 1
C-130 Hercules : 1
Cirrus : 4
SR-22 : 2
SR-22T : 2
Soviet : 1
Ан-12 Cub : 1

Airline flight summary

Total : 2476
Callsign is tail number: 270
Blockheads: 46
PIA: 1
Spionen: 3
Numerical: 1
Unidentified: 38
0 flights got close to the antenna.
None did this the most, 0 times.
None flew nearby the longest for 0.0 minutes.
None was closest to the antenna, 99999 ft away.
Busiest plane: N16170 an E45X flew 7 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 583
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 411
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 170
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 133
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 132
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 129
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 107
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 81
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 42
EJA/1I - NetJets : 26
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 19
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 18
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 16
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 15
AAY/G4 - Allegiant Air : 14
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 14
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 13
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 11
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 11
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 11
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 10
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 9
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 7
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 7
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 7
BAW/BA - British Airways : 6
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 6
JSX/XE - JSX : 6
SCM/ - American Jet International : 5
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 5
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 5
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 4
LET/ - Aerolineas Ejecutivas : 4
HAL/HA - Hawaiian Airlines : 4
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 4
WJA/WS - WestJet : 4
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 3
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 3
UAE/EK - Emirates : 3
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 3
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 3
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 3
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 3
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
AVA/AV - Avianca - Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 2
PAT/ - Department of the Army, Priority Air Transport : 2
RAX/ - Royal Air Freight : 2
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 2
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 2
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 2
AFR/AF - Air France : 1
AJI/ - Ameristar Jet Charter : 1
ANZ/NZ - Air New Zealand : 1
ARF/GV - Aero Flight : 1
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 1
CYO/ - Air Transport : 1
BYA/ - Berry Aviation : 1
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 1
DCM/ - FLTPLAN : 1
SCW/ - Malmo Aviation : 1
SCW/TF - Malmö Aviation : 1
QFA/QF - Qantas : 1
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 1
SBE/ - World Class Aviation : 1
ASP/SP - Aspen Airways : 1
FWR/ - Flight Aware : 1
CAP/ - Civil Air Patrol : 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.