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: 1899
Unassigned icao range: 3
United States: 1778 93.63%
Mexico: 47 2.47%
Canada: 22 1.16%
United States Luftwaffe: 15 0.79%
Germany: 5 0.26%
Turkey: 5 0.26%
Panama: 4 0.21%
United Kingdom: 4 0.21%
Luxembourg: 3 0.16%
Qatar: 2 0.11%
Taiwan: 2 0.11%
Argentina: 2 0.11%
Venezuela: 1 0.05%
France: 1 0.05%
Netherlands: 1 0.05%
China: 1 0.05%
Japan: 1 0.05%
United Arab Emirates: 1 0.05%
New Zealand: 1 0.05%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 577
B737 : 329
B737-MAX : 160
B767 : 39
B787 : 15
B757 : 13
B777 : 12
B747 : 8
B727 : 1
Airbus : 260
A321 : 85
A319 : 56
A320 : 52
A321-neo : 32
A320-neo : 27
A300 : 5
A350 : 1
A330 : 1
A380 : 1
unknown : 245
Cessna : 172
Skyhawk-172 : 36
Citation Encore : 36
Citation Soverign : 23
Citation-525 : 22
Citation Longitude : 21
Skylane-182 : 17
Citation Bravo : 7
Caravan-208 : 3
Stationair-206 : 3
Cardinal-177 : 1
Centurion-210 : 1
Cessna-150 : 1
Cessna-152 : 1
Embraer : 156
ERJ-175 : 92
E-145XR : 35
Phenom : 19
E-190 : 6
E-135 : 2
E-145 : 2
Bombardier : 83
Challenger : 38
A220 : 15
CRJ700 : 10
CRJ200 : 8
CRJ900 : 7
Global Express : 5
PIC : 74
Skyhawk-172 : 36
Piper Archer : 34
Piper Arrow : 2
8KCAB : 1
Cessna-152 : 1
Beechcraft : 65
Bonanza : 18
200 Super King Air : 15
300 Super King Air : 11
Beechcraft : 7
Beechjet : 7
90 King Air : 4
Baron : 3
Piper : 61
Piper Archer : 34
Piper Malibu : 9
Piper : 7
Piper Seminole : 6
Piper Arrow : 2
Piper Lance : 2
Cub : 1
Gulfstream : 29
Gulfstream V : 15
Gulfstream IV : 9
Gulfstream VI : 3
Galaxy : 2
other : 27
Hawker : 12
Mooney 20 : 5
MD-8x : 4
deHavillandCanada : 2
HondaJet : 2
Glider : 1
P.68 Observer : 1
LearJet : 26
LearJet 45 : 11
LearJet 60 : 8
LearJet 35 : 6
LearJet 31 : 1
Dassault : 24
Falcon2000 : 9
Falcon : 8
Falcon900 : 7
helikopter : 22
JetRanger : 4
R44 : 4
EC-145 : 3
R22 : 2
AS350 : 2
H500 : 2
R66 : 1
S-76 : 1
EC-135 : 1
Bell 50x : 1
Blackhawk : 1
Cirrus : 10
SR-22 : 5
SR-22T : 3
Cirrus Vision : 1
SR-20 : 1
military : 8
T-38 Talon : 5
TexanII : 2
Blackhawk : 1
cargo : 7
A300 : 5
MD-11 : 2

Airline flight summary

Total : 2937
Callsign is tail number: 532
Blockheads: 61
PIA: 1
Spionen: 5
Numerical: 2
Unidentified: 41
223 flights got close to the antenna.
IDAHO23 did this the most, 9 times.
N5279F flew nearby the longest for 46.9 minutes.
N5284F was closest to the antenna, 1320 ft away.
Busiest plane: N11199 an E45X flew 6 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 576
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 426
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 188
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 187
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 135
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 123
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 87
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 71
EJA/1I - NetJets : 56
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 43
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 27
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 26
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 26
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 19
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 19
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 17
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 14
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 14
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 14
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 13
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 12
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 11
WJA/WS - WestJet : 10
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 9
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 8
JSX/XE - JSX : 8
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 7
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 6
BAW/BA - British Airways : 6
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 6
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 6
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 5
SCM/ - American Jet International : 5
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 5
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 5
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 5
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 4
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 4
AAY/G4 - Allegiant Air : 3
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 3
JNY/ - Jenney Beechcraft : 3
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 3
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 3
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 3
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 3
CNS/ - Cobalt Air : 3
AFR/AF - Air France : 2
AMF/A8 - Ameriflight : 2
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
ANZ/NZ - Air New Zealand : 2
CYO/ - Air Transport : 2
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 2
BYA/ - Berry Aviation : 2
CPA/CX - Cathay Pacific : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
UAE/EK - Emirates : 2
HAL/HA - Hawaiian Airlines : 2
GEC/LH - Lufthansa Cargo : 2
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 2
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 2
RAX/ - Royal Air Freight : 2
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 2
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 2
FFL/ - ForeFlight : 2
ARF/GV - Aero Flight : 1
XAA/ - Aeronautical Radio Inc : 1
DCM/ - FLTPLAN : 1
FRG/ - Freight Runners Express : 1
HER/UD - Hex'Air : 1
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 1
NTW/CE - Nationwide Airlines : 1
NCR/N8 - National Air Cargo : 1
SBE/ - World Class Aviation : 1
JAS/ - Jet Aviation Flight Services : 1
EDG/ - Jet Edge : 1
ACW/ - SERVICIOS AEREOS ACROSS, S.A. DE C.V. : 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.