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: 1656
Unassigned icao range: 0
United States: 1532 92.51%
Mexico: 54 3.26%
Canada: 29 1.75%
United States Luftwaffe: 13 0.79%
Qatar: 3 0.18%
United Kingdom: 3 0.18%
Taiwan: 3 0.18%
Panama: 2 0.12%
France: 2 0.12%
Belgium: 2 0.12%
Turkey: 2 0.12%
Luxembourg: 2 0.12%
United Arab Emirates: 2 0.12%
Germany: 1 0.06%
Isle of Man: 1 0.06%
Isle of Man: 1 0.06%
Netherlands: 1 0.06%
Malta: 1 0.06%
Singapore: 1 0.06%
Australia: 1 0.06%
Japan: 1 0.06%
New Zealand: 1 0.06%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 578
B737 : 380
B737-MAX : 101
B767 : 33
B777 : 26
B787 : 17
B757 : 12
B717 : 5
B747 : 2
B727 : 2
Airbus : 240
A321 : 65
A320 : 61
A319 : 46
A320-neo : 31
A321-neo : 22
A300 : 9
A350 : 4
A340 : 1
A380 : 1
Embraer : 154
ERJ-175 : 74
E-145XR : 32
Phenom : 24
E-190 : 13
E-145 : 5
E-135 : 3
E-170 : 3
Cessna : 147
Skyhawk-172 : 36
Citation Soverign : 26
Citation-525 : 20
Citation Encore : 20
Citation Longitude : 14
Skylane-182 : 13
Citation Bravo : 8
Caravan-208 : 3
Centurion-210 : 3
Skywagon-185 : 1
Cardinal-177 : 1
Citation Mustang : 1
Stationair-206 : 1
Bombardier : 99
Challenger : 37
A220 : 24
CRJ900 : 20
CRJ200 : 8
CRJ700 : 7
Global Express : 3
unknown : 83
PIC : 62
Skyhawk-172 : 36
Piper Archer : 25
Piper Arrow : 1
Beechcraft : 53
Bonanza : 12
200 Super King Air : 10
300 Super King Air : 9
Beechjet : 8
90 King Air : 6
Beechcraft : 4
Travel Air : 3
Baron : 1
Piper : 46
Piper Archer : 25
Piper : 10
Piper Malibu : 5
Piper Seminole : 3
Piper Super Cub : 1
Piper Arrow : 1
Piper Lance : 1
Gulfstream : 39
Gulfstream IV : 17
Gulfstream V : 11
Gulfstream VI : 7
Galaxy : 4
Dassault : 29
Falcon : 17
Falcon2000 : 9
Falcon900 : 3
other : 25
Hawker : 12
Mooney 20 : 6
MD-8x : 3
HondaJet : 2
deHavillandCanada : 2
LearJet : 23
LearJet 45 : 9
LearJet 60 : 7
LearJet 35 : 4
LearJet 31 : 2
LearJet : 1
helikopter : 18
EC-145 : 7
JetRanger : 3
H500 : 3
Bell 4xx : 1
AS350 : 1
S-76 : 1
R22 : 1
Blackhawk : 1
Cirrus : 17
SR-22T : 6
SR-22 : 5
SR-20 : 4
Cirrus Vision : 2
cargo : 13
A300 : 9
MD-11 : 3
C-130 Hercules : 1
military : 9
T-38 Talon : 5
TexanII : 2
C-130 Hercules : 1
Blackhawk : 1
warbird : 1
T-6 Texan : 1
NASA : 1
WB-57F Canberra : 1

Airline flight summary

Total : 2607
Callsign is tail number: 428
Blockheads: 70
PIA: 0
Spionen: 4
Numerical: 1
Unidentified: 35
157 flights got close to the antenna.
N5278F did this the most, 6 times.
N5278F flew nearby the longest for 35.5 minutes.
N5278F was closest to the antenna, 1466 ft away.
Busiest plane: N11164 an E45X flew 6 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 572
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 406
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 178
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 147
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 103
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 102
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 64
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 63
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 44
EJA/1I - NetJets : 41
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 31
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 30
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 20
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 19
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 16
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 15
JSX/XE - JSX : 14
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 13
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 13
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 11
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 11
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 10
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 10
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 9
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 9
WJA/WS - WestJet : 6
SCM/ - American Jet International : 5
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 5
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 5
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 5
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 4
LET/ - Aerolineas Ejecutivas : 4
RAX/ - Royal Air Freight : 4
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 4
SWQ/ - Swift Air (Interstate Equipment Leasing) : 4
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 4
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 4
AFR/AF - Air France : 3
BAW/BA - British Airways : 3
BYA/ - Berry Aviation : 3
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 3
UAE/EK - Emirates : 3
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 3
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 3
CNS/ - Cobalt Air : 3
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 2
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
ANZ/NZ - Air New Zealand : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 2
LRC/LR - LACSA : 2
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 2
SIA/SQ - Singapore Airlines : 2
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 2
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 2
ASP/SP - Aspen Airways : 2
FTH/ - Mountain Aviation : 2
ACW/ - SERVICIOS AEREOS ACROSS, S.A. DE C.V. : 2
CNV/ - US Navy Air Logistics Office : 2
TNO/ - Aerotransporte de Carga Union : 1
AMF/A8 - Ameriflight : 1
NGF/ - Angel Flight America : 1
TSC/TS - Air Transat : 1
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 1
CAL/CI - China Airlines : 1
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 1
CKS/K4 - Kalitta Air : 1
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 1
QFA/QF - Qantas : 1
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 1
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 1
FFL/ - ForeFlight : 1
CAP/ - Civil Air Patrol : 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.