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: 1700
Unassigned icao range: 0
United States: 1562 91.88%
Mexico: 58 3.41%
Canada: 32 1.88%
Germany: 6 0.35%
United Kingdom: 6 0.35%
Turkey: 4 0.24%
Luxembourg: 4 0.24%
Spain: 3 0.18%
France: 3 0.18%
Taiwan: 3 0.18%
Panama: 2 0.12%
Netherlands: 2 0.12%
Japan: 2 0.12%
United Arab Emirates: 2 0.12%
United States Luftwaffe: 2 0.12%
Brazil: 2 0.12%
Ethiopia: 1 0.06%
Qatar: 1 0.06%
Colombia: 1 0.06%
Cayman Islands: 1 0.06%
Cayman Islands: 1 0.06%
Cayman Islands: 1 0.06%
Austria: 1 0.06%
China: 1 0.06%
India: 1 0.06%
New Zealand: 1 0.06%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 593
B737 : 351
B737-MAX : 169
B777 : 23
B767 : 19
B787 : 14
B747 : 8
B757 : 8
B727 : 1
Airbus : 251
A321 : 75
A320 : 60
A319 : 59
A321-neo : 29
A320-neo : 18
A350 : 6
A340 : 1
A330 : 1
A380 : 1
A300 : 1
unknown : 239
Embraer : 157
ERJ-175 : 82
E-145XR : 38
Phenom : 24
E-190 : 8
E-145 : 2
E-135 : 2
E-170 : 1
Cessna : 114
Citation-525 : 23
Citation Encore : 22
Citation Longitude : 21
Skyhawk-172 : 17
Citation Soverign : 13
Citation Bravo : 5
Skylane-182 : 5
Caravan-208 : 3
Centurion-210 : 2
Stationair-206 : 1
Citation Mustang : 1
Chancellor-414 : 1
Bombardier : 78
Challenger : 40
A220 : 16
CRJ200 : 13
Global Express : 3
CRJ900 : 3
CRJ700 : 3
Beechcraft : 46
Bonanza : 12
300 Super King Air : 11
200 Super King Air : 8
90 King Air : 5
Baron : 4
Beechcraft : 3
Beechjet : 2
Travel Air : 1
Gulfstream : 33
Gulfstream IV : 14
Gulfstream V : 13
Gulfstream VI : 3
Galaxy : 3
PIC : 28
Skyhawk-172 : 17
Piper Archer : 9
Piper Arrow : 1
8KCAB : 1
Dassault : 23
Falcon : 10
Falcon900 : 9
Falcon2000 : 4
LearJet : 21
LearJet 45 : 10
LearJet 60 : 7
LearJet 35 : 2
LearJet 31 : 2
Piper : 19
Piper Archer : 9
Piper Malibu : 7
Piper Arrow : 1
Piper Seminole : 1
Piper : 1
other : 18
Hawker : 9
MD-8x : 4
Mooney 20 : 3
deHavillandCanada : 1
DC-9 : 1
Cirrus : 17
SR-22 : 8
Cirrus Vision : 5
SR-22T : 2
SR-20 : 2
helikopter : 6
EC-145 : 4
H500 : 2
military : 3
T-38 Talon : 1
C-130J Hercules : 1
TexanII : 1
cargo : 2
A300 : 1
C-130J Hercules : 1

Airline flight summary

Total : 2716
Callsign is tail number: 339
Blockheads: 60
PIA: 2
Spionen: 1
Numerical: 4
Unidentified: 32
185 flights got close to the antenna.
N956TX did this the most, 8 times.
N5278F flew nearby the longest for 18.7 minutes.
MNTNA21 was closest to the antenna, 1795 ft away.
Busiest plane: N11164 an E45X flew 6 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 619
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 430
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 179
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 174
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 149
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 115
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 93
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 67
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 42
EJA/1I - NetJets : 37
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 25
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 24
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 23
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 21
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 16
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 15
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 14
WJA/WS - WestJet : 13
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 12
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 11
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 10
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 7
AAY/G4 - Allegiant Air : 6
BAW/BA - British Airways : 6
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 6
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 6
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 6
JSX/XE - JSX : 6
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 5
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 5
AFR/AF - Air France : 4
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 4
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 4
CYO/ - Air Transport : 3
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 3
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 3
UAE/EK - Emirates : 3
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 3
IBE/IB - Iberia Airlines : 3
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 3
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 3
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 3
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 3
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 3
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 3
CNS/ - Cobalt Air : 3
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
AVA/AV - Avianca - Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia : 2
XAA/ - Aeronautical Radio Inc : 2
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 2
TSC/TS - Air Transat : 2
BYA/ - Berry Aviation : 2
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 2
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 2
DCM/ - FLTPLAN : 2
HER/UD - Hex'Air : 2
KFS/ - Kalitta Charters : 2
GEC/LH - Lufthansa Cargo : 2
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 2
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 2
NCR/N8 - National Air Cargo : 2
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 2
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 1
AJI/ - Ameristar Jet Charter : 1
AJT/M6 - Amerijet International : 1
ANZ/NZ - Air New Zealand : 1
SCM/ - American Jet International : 1
CPA/CX - Cathay Pacific : 1
CAY/KX - Cayman Airways : 1
CAL/CI - China Airlines : 1
ETH/ET - Ethiopian Airlines : 1
FRG/ - Freight Runners Express : 1
POE/PD - Porter Airlines : 1
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 1
ROU/RV - Air Canada Rouge : 1
BOX/3S - Aerologic : 1
JAS/ - Jet Aviation Flight Services : 1
ASP/SP - Aspen Airways : 1
FFL/ - ForeFlight : 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.