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: 1959
Unassigned icao range: 0
United States: 1804 92.09%
Mexico: 89 4.54%
Canada: 29 1.48%
United Kingdom: 6 0.31%
United States Luftwaffe: 6 0.31%
Panama: 3 0.15%
Germany: 3 0.15%
Turkey: 3 0.15%
Qatar: 2 0.1%
Netherlands: 2 0.1%
Luxembourg: 2 0.1%
Malta: 2 0.1%
Japan: 2 0.1%
Taiwan: 2 0.1%
France: 1 0.05%
Bermuda: 1 0.05%
Bermuda: 1 0.05%
Bermuda: 1 0.05%
Cayman Islands: 1 0.05%
Cayman Islands: 1 0.05%
Cayman Islands: 1 0.05%
Isle of Man: 1 0.05%
Isle of Man: 1 0.05%
Australia: 1 0.05%
India: 1 0.05%
United Arab Emirates: 1 0.05%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 656
B737 : 367
B737-MAX : 188
B767 : 29
B777 : 24
B787 : 19
B757 : 19
B717 : 6
B747 : 4
unknown : 295
Airbus : 254
A321 : 74
A320 : 63
A319 : 49
A321-neo : 35
A320-neo : 24
A300 : 5
A330 : 2
A350 : 1
A380 : 1
Cessna : 158
Citation Encore : 34
Skyhawk-172 : 33
Citation-525 : 24
Citation Longitude : 22
Citation Soverign : 18
Skylane-182 : 16
Citation Bravo : 6
Citation : 1
Centurion-210 : 1
Caravan-208 : 1
Citation Mustang : 1
Chancellor-414 : 1
Embraer : 156
ERJ-175 : 84
E-145XR : 36
Phenom : 22
E-190 : 8
E-135 : 3
E-145 : 2
E-170 : 1
Bombardier : 98
Challenger : 48
CRJ200 : 15
A220 : 14
CRJ700 : 9
CRJ900 : 8
Global Express : 4
PIC : 56
Skyhawk-172 : 33
Piper Archer : 21
Piper Arrow : 1
8KCAB : 1
Beechcraft : 47
Beechjet : 9
Bonanza : 9
300 Super King Air : 9
90 King Air : 6
200 Super King Air : 6
Beechcraft : 5
Baron : 3
Gulfstream : 41
Gulfstream V : 16
Gulfstream IV : 13
Galaxy : 6
Gulfstream VI : 6
Piper : 39
Piper Archer : 21
Piper : 8
Piper Seminole : 5
Piper Malibu : 4
Piper Arrow : 1
other : 33
MD-8x : 12
Hawker : 11
Mooney 20 : 4
HondaJet : 3
P.68 Observer : 1
DC-9 : 1
deHavillandCanada : 1
Dassault : 17
Falcon2000 : 7
Falcon900 : 6
Falcon : 4
Cirrus : 16
SR-22 : 6
SR-22T : 6
SR-20 : 2
Cirrus Vision : 2
helikopter : 14
EC-145 : 3
R22 : 2
R44 : 2
H500 : 2
S-76 : 2
R66 : 1
AS350 : 1
EC-135 : 1
LearJet : 9
LearJet 60 : 5
LearJet 45 : 4
cargo : 7
A300 : 5
C-130J Hercules : 2
military : 3
C-130J Hercules : 2
TexanII : 1

Airline flight summary

Total : 3088
Callsign is tail number: 481
Blockheads: 69
PIA: 4
Spionen: 3
Numerical: 0
Unidentified: 33
308 flights got close to the antenna.
N111LE did this the most, 8 times.
N111LE flew nearby the longest for 22.5 minutes.
N5279F was closest to the antenna, 1061 ft away.
Busiest plane: N11165 an E45X flew 8 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 662
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 485
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 221
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 182
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 148
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 120
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 82
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 58
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 49
EJA/1I - NetJets : 40
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 36
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 27
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 26
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 25
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 23
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 22
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 21
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 18
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 15
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 13
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 12
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 11
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 11
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 9
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 9
WJA/WS - WestJet : 8
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 8
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 6
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 6
AAY/G4 - Allegiant Air : 5
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 5
TSC/TS - Air Transat : 5
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 5
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 5
FFL/ - ForeFlight : 5
BAW/BA - British Airways : 4
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 4
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 4
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 4
CNS/ - Cobalt Air : 4
JSX/XE - JSX : 4
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 3
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 3
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 3
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 3
CAP/ - Civil Air Patrol : 3
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 3
AFR/AF - Air France : 2
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
NGF/ - Angel Flight America : 2
CYO/ - Air Transport : 2
CAY/KX - Cayman Airways : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
UAE/EK - Emirates : 2
DCM/ - FLTPLAN : 2
HER/UD - Hex'Air : 2
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 2
PKW/ - Sierra/Pak West Airlines : 2
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 2
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 2
ACW/ - SERVICIOS AEREOS ACROSS, S.A. DE C.V. : 2
AJI/ - Ameristar Jet Charter : 1
AJT/M6 - Amerijet International : 1
SCM/ - American Jet International : 1
FRG/ - Freight Runners Express : 1
GEC/LH - Lufthansa Cargo : 1
NTW/CE - Nationwide Airlines : 1
POE/PD - Porter Airlines : 1
QFA/QF - Qantas : 1
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 1
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 1
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 1
RSP/ - Jet Suite : 1
BOX/3S - Aerologic : 1
SBE/ - World Class Aviation : 1
FWR/ - Flight Aware : 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.