ADS-B Mode-S

My tracking of nearby ADSB-out aircraft using my local AWACS server.

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: 1936
Unassigned icao range: 1
United States: 1795 92.72%
Mexico: 53 2.74%
Canada: 33 1.7%
United States Luftwaffe: 25 1.29%
France: 4 0.21%
United Kingdom: 4 0.21%
Germany: 3 0.15%
Turkey: 3 0.15%
Qatar: 2 0.1%
Netherlands: 2 0.1%
Taiwan: 2 0.1%
Nicaragua: 1 0.05%
Panama: 1 0.05%
Belgium: 1 0.05%
Czech Republic: 1 0.05%
Luxembourg: 1 0.05%
Malta: 1 0.05%
Japan: 1 0.05%
United Arab Emirates: 1 0.05%
New Zealand: 1 0.05%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 661
B737 : 462
B737-MAX : 108
B767 : 35
B787 : 19
B757 : 17
B777 : 15
B747 : 4
B717 : 1
Airbus : 370
A320 : 104
A321 : 98
A319 : 74
A320-neo : 53
A321-neo : 32
A330 : 3
A300 : 3
A350 : 2
A380 : 1
Embraer : 163
ERJ-175 : 104
E-145XR : 26
Phenom : 22
E-135 : 4
E-145 : 4
E-190 : 3
Cessna : 129
Citation Soverign : 29
Citation Encore : 24
Citation-525 : 22
Citation Longitude : 17
Skyhawk-172 : 11
Citation Bravo : 10
Skylane-182 : 8
Caravan-208 : 3
Chancellor-414 : 2
Stationair-206 : 1
Cardinal-177 : 1
Centurion-210 : 1
Bombardier : 115
Challenger : 45
A220 : 23
CRJ900 : 19
CRJ700 : 11
CRJ200 : 9
Global Express : 8
Beechcraft : 62
300 Super King Air : 14
200 Super King Air : 11
Bonanza : 10
Beechcraft : 8
90 King Air : 7
Baron : 5
Beechjet : 4
Travel Air : 3
unknown : 59
Gulfstream : 56
Gulfstream V : 29
Gulfstream IV : 18
Gulfstream VI : 6
Galaxy : 3
Dassault : 48
Falcon2000 : 18
Falcon : 15
Falcon900 : 15
other : 35
Hawker : 17
MD-8x : 9
Mooney 20 : 4
DC-9 : 3
HondaJet : 1
Dornier328 : 1
PIC : 34
Piper Archer : 22
Skyhawk-172 : 11
Piper Arrow : 1
Piper : 33
Piper Archer : 22
Piper Malibu : 6
Piper : 4
Piper Arrow : 1
LearJet : 30
LearJet 45 : 16
LearJet 60 : 7
LearJet 35 : 6
LearJet 31 : 1
military : 20
T-38 Talon : 15
TexanII : 4
C-130 Hercules : 1
Cirrus : 18
SR-22 : 9
SR-22T : 8
Cirrus Vision : 1
helikopter : 14
EC-145 : 6
JetRanger : 2
H500 : 2
Bell 50x : 1
AS350 : 1
R44 : 1
R66 : 1
cargo : 7
A300 : 3
MD-11 : 3
C-130 Hercules : 1
NASA : 1
WB-57F Canberra : 1

Airline flight summary

Total : 3017
Callsign is tail number: 455
Blockheads: 106
PIA: 1
Spionen: 2
Numerical: 2
Unidentified: 54
167 flights got close to the antenna.
AAL2835 did this the most, 3 times.
N5279F flew nearby the longest for 9.3 minutes.
N5280F was closest to the antenna, 3086 ft away.
Busiest plane: N136SY an E75L flew 6 routes for SKW.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 566
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 447
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 289
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 160
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 138
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 100
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 88
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 82
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 73
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 46
EJA/1I - NetJets : 43
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 43
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 25
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 18
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 16
AAY/G4 - Allegiant Air : 15
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 15
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 15
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 15
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 14
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 14
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 13
JSX/XE - JSX : 12
WJA/WS - WestJet : 11
SWQ/ - Swift Air (Interstate Equipment Leasing) : 10
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 8
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 7
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 7
EDG/ - Jet Edge : 7
JZA/QK - Air Canada Jazz : 6
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 6
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 6
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 5
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 5
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 4
AFR/AF - Air France : 4
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 4
SCM/ - American Jet International : 4
BAW/BA - British Airways : 4
DCM/ - FLTPLAN : 4
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 4
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 4
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 4
RAX/ - Royal Air Freight : 4
SWG/WG - Sunwing Airlines : 4
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 4
GAJ/ - Wheels Up - Gama Aviation : 4
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 4
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 4
AJT/M6 - Amerijet International : 3
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 3
XOJ/ - Xojet : 3
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 3
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 3
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 3
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
ANZ/NZ - Air New Zealand : 2
CYO/ - Air Transport : 2
LET/ - Aerolineas Ejecutivas : 2
TSC/TS - Air Transat : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
UAE/EK - Emirates : 2
VTS/ - Everts Air Alaska/Everts Air Cargo : 2
KFS/ - Kalitta Charters : 2
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 2
GEC/LH - Lufthansa Cargo : 2
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 2
VIR/VS - Virgin Atlantic Airways : 2
WSW/WO - Swoop : 2
SNC/2Q - Air Cargo Carriers : 1
AJI/ - Ameristar Jet Charter : 1
AMF/A8 - Ameriflight : 1
TAA/ - Aeroservicios de La Costa : 1
BYA/ - Berry Aviation : 1
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 1
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 1
GLF/ - Gulfstream Aerospace : 1
PAT/ - Department of the Army, Priority Air Transport : 1
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 1
RDK/ - Memorial Hermann Hospital System : 1
CAP/ - Civil Air Patrol : 1
FTH/ - Mountain Aviation : 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.