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: 1715
Unassigned icao range: 0
United States: 1622 94.58%
Mexico: 40 2.33%
Canada: 18 1.05%
United States Luftwaffe: 12 0.7%
United Kingdom: 4 0.23%
Germany: 3 0.17%
France: 2 0.12%
Bermuda: 2 0.12%
Bermuda: 2 0.12%
Bermuda: 2 0.12%
Netherlands: 2 0.12%
Taiwan: 2 0.12%
Qatar: 1 0.06%
Panama: 1 0.06%
Italy: 1 0.06%
Isle of Man: 1 0.06%
Isle of Man: 1 0.06%
Portugal: 1 0.06%
Turkey: 1 0.06%
Ireland: 1 0.06%
Australia: 1 0.06%
Japan: 1 0.06%
United Arab Emirates: 1 0.06%
New Zealand: 1 0.06%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 566
B737 : 334
B737-MAX : 144
B767 : 45
B757 : 17
B787 : 9
B777 : 9
B747 : 7
B717 : 1
unknown : 226
Airbus : 218
A321 : 77
A320 : 48
A319 : 47
A321-neo : 21
A320-neo : 16
A300 : 5
A350 : 3
A380 : 1
Embraer : 151
ERJ-175 : 90
E-145XR : 33
Phenom : 21
E-190 : 4
E-145 : 2
E-170 : 1
Cessna : 126
Skyhawk-172 : 30
Citation Encore : 22
Citation Soverign : 22
Skylane-182 : 19
Citation-525 : 14
Citation Longitude : 6
Citation Bravo : 3
Centurion-210 : 3
Caravan-208 : 3
Chancellor-414 : 2
Citation : 1
Cessna-150 : 1
Bombardier : 77
Challenger : 32
A220 : 18
CRJ200 : 9
CRJ900 : 9
CRJ700 : 5
Global Express : 4
PIC : 73
Piper Archer : 42
Skyhawk-172 : 30
Piper Arrow : 1
Piper : 61
Piper Archer : 42
Piper Malibu : 8
Piper : 5
Piper Seminole : 3
Piper Arrow : 1
Piper Lance : 1
Cub : 1
Beechcraft : 58
Bonanza : 18
200 Super King Air : 14
Beechcraft : 10
300 Super King Air : 8
90 King Air : 4
Travel Air : 2
Baron : 1
Beechjet : 1
other : 31
Hawker : 8
Mooney 20 : 8
MD-8x : 7
HondaJet : 3
DC-9 : 2
deHavillandCanada : 2
P.68 Observer : 1
Dassault : 28
Falcon : 14
Falcon2000 : 8
Falcon900 : 6
Gulfstream : 23
Gulfstream V : 11
Gulfstream IV : 6
Galaxy : 3
Gulfstream VI : 2
Gulfstream III : 1
helikopter : 21
JetRanger : 6
H500 : 4
R44 : 3
EC-145 : 3
AS350 : 2
R66 : 1
S-76 : 1
EC-135 : 1
LearJet : 15
LearJet 45 : 8
LearJet 60 : 3
LearJet 35 : 2
LearJet : 2
cargo : 6
A300 : 5
MD-11 : 1
military : 6
T-38 Talon : 4
TexanII : 2
Cirrus : 3
SR-22 : 2
SR-20 : 1
warbird : 1
B-25 Mitchell : 1

Airline flight summary

Total : 2724
Callsign is tail number: 458
Blockheads: 56
PIA: 2
Spionen: 11
Numerical: 3
Unidentified: 39
180 flights got close to the antenna.
N674TX did this the most, 7 times.
N674TX flew nearby the longest for 18.6 minutes.
N407MP was closest to the antenna, 1001 ft away.
Busiest plane: N11184 an E45X flew 6 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 569
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 419
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 195
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 188
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 140
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 120
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 86
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 47
EJA/1I - NetJets : 39
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 31
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 28
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 21
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 18
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 18
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 15
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 15
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 15
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 14
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 13
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 12
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 9
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 8
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 8
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 8
JSX/XE - JSX : 8
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 5
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 5
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 5
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 5
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 5
WJA/WS - WestJet : 5
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 4
HAL/HA - Hawaiian Airlines : 4
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 4
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 4
AFR/AF - Air France : 3
LET/ - Aerolineas Ejecutivas : 3
SCM/ - American Jet International : 3
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 3
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 3
FFL/ - ForeFlight : 3
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
ANZ/NZ - Air New Zealand : 2
XAA/ - Aeronautical Radio Inc : 2
BAW/BA - British Airways : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
UAE/EK - Emirates : 2
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 2
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 2
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 2
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 2
RDK/ - Memorial Hermann Hospital System : 2
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 2
AJI/ - Ameristar Jet Charter : 1
AMF/A8 - Ameriflight : 1
ARF/GV - Aero Flight : 1
CYO/ - Air Transport : 1
BYA/ - Berry Aviation : 1
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 1
EAL/EA - European Air Express : 1
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 1
RAX/ - Royal Air Freight : 1
JAS/ - Jet Aviation Flight Services : 1
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 1
CNS/ - Cobalt Air : 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.