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: 1946
Unassigned icao range: 0
United States: 1822 93.63%
Mexico: 54 2.77%
Canada: 35 1.8%
United States Luftwaffe: 6 0.31%
Germany: 5 0.26%
United Kingdom: 3 0.15%
Turkey: 3 0.15%
Qatar: 2 0.1%
Panama: 2 0.1%
Netherlands: 2 0.1%
Japan: 2 0.1%
Taiwan: 2 0.1%
Bahamas: 1 0.05%
France: 1 0.05%
Bermuda: 1 0.05%
Bermuda: 1 0.05%
Bermuda: 1 0.05%
Denmark: 1 0.05%
Luxembourg: 1 0.05%
Azerbaijan: 1 0.05%
Unassigned (MID region): 1 0.05%
Australia: 1 0.05%
United Arab Emirates: 1 0.05%
New Zealand: 1 0.05%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 777
B737 : 449
B737-MAX : 205
B767 : 51
B757 : 28
B787 : 17
B777 : 15
B717 : 7
B747 : 4
B727 : 1
Airbus : 394
A321 : 147
A320 : 74
A319 : 70
A321-neo : 59
A320-neo : 36
A300 : 4
A350 : 2
A330 : 1
A380 : 1
Embraer : 147
ERJ-175 : 87
E-145XR : 34
Phenom : 17
E-190 : 5
E-170 : 2
E-145 : 2
unknown : 147
Cessna : 108
Citation Soverign : 27
Citation Encore : 26
Citation-525 : 23
Citation Longitude : 16
Skylane-182 : 6
Citation Bravo : 6
Caravan-208 : 2
Citation Mustang : 1
Skyhawk-172 : 1
Bombardier : 91
Challenger : 35
CRJ700 : 19
A220 : 15
CRJ200 : 10
CRJ900 : 10
Global Express : 2
Gulfstream : 39
Gulfstream IV : 15
Gulfstream V : 13
Galaxy : 7
Gulfstream VI : 4
Beechcraft : 36
300 Super King Air : 11
90 King Air : 10
200 Super King Air : 6
Beechjet : 5
Bonanza : 2
Beechcraft : 2
other : 32
Hawker : 14
MD-8x : 11
HondaJet : 3
Mooney 20 : 2
DC-9 : 1
deHavillandCanada : 1
Dassault : 25
Falcon2000 : 15
Falcon : 7
Falcon900 : 3
LearJet : 21
LearJet 60 : 10
LearJet 45 : 10
LearJet 35 : 1
helikopter : 15
EC-145 : 6
R44 : 3
JetRanger : 2
AS350 : 2
H500 : 2
Piper : 12
Piper Malibu : 6
Piper : 3
Piper Archer : 3
Cirrus : 10
Cirrus Vision : 4
SR-22 : 3
SR-22T : 3
cargo : 7
A300 : 4
MD-11 : 3
PIC : 4
Piper Archer : 3
Skyhawk-172 : 1

Airline flight summary

Total : 2966
Callsign is tail number: 304
Blockheads: 66
PIA: 1
Spionen: 3
Numerical: 2
Unidentified: 23
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: N905EV an CRJ2 flew 8 routes for SKW.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 596
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 424
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 337
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 214
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 162
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 123
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 122
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 66
EJA/1I - NetJets : 47
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 46
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 45
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 41
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 39
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 23
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 22
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 20
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 17
WJA/WS - WestJet : 17
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 15
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 13
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 12
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 10
AAY/G4 - Allegiant Air : 8
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 8
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 8
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 8
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 7
SCM/ - American Jet International : 6
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 6
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 6
JSX/XE - JSX : 6
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 5
BAW/BA - British Airways : 4
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 4
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 4
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 4
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 3
LET/ - Aerolineas Ejecutivas : 3
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 3
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 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
XAA/ - Aeronautical Radio Inc : 2
TSC/TS - Air Transat : 2
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
UAE/EK - Emirates : 2
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 2
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 2
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 2
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 2
RAX/ - Royal Air Freight : 2
SWG/WG - Sunwing Airlines : 2
ROU/RV - Air Canada Rouge : 2
RDK/ - Memorial Hermann Hospital System : 2
FFL/ - ForeFlight : 2
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 2
AJI/ - Ameristar Jet Charter : 1
NGF/ - Angel Flight America : 1
CYO/ - Air Transport : 1
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 1
TAA/ - Aeroservicios de La Costa : 1
BYA/ - Berry Aviation : 1
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 1
DCM/ - FLTPLAN : 1
HER/UD - Hex'Air : 1
QXE/QX - Horizon Air : 1
GEC/LH - Lufthansa Cargo : 1
OAE/OY - Omni Air International : 1
PKW/ - Sierra/Pak West Airlines : 1
QFA/QF - Qantas : 1
NCR/N8 - National Air Cargo : 1
BOX/3S - Aerologic : 1
JAS/ - Jet Aviation Flight Services : 1
KAY/ - K5 Aviation GmbH : 1
CNV/ - US Navy Air Logistics Office : 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.