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: 1867
Unassigned icao range: 1
United States: 1724 92.34%
Mexico: 62 3.32%
United States Luftwaffe: 21 1.12%
Canada: 18 0.96%
Germany: 6 0.32%
United Kingdom: 5 0.27%
Netherlands: 3 0.16%
Turkey: 3 0.16%
Panama: 2 0.11%
Spain: 2 0.11%
France: 2 0.11%
Luxembourg: 2 0.11%
Unassigned (EUR / NAT regions): 2 0.11%
Australia: 2 0.11%
Taiwan: 2 0.11%
Qatar: 1 0.05%
Guatemala: 1 0.05%
Guernsey: 1 0.05%
Austria: 1 0.05%
Ireland: 1 0.05%
Malta: 1 0.05%
San Marino: 1 0.05%
Ukraine: 1 0.05%
China: 1 0.05%
Japan: 1 0.05%
United Arab Emirates: 1 0.05%
New Zealand: 1 0.05%
Paraguay: 1 0.05%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 619
B737 : 357
B737-MAX : 165
B767 : 40
B787 : 20
B777 : 17
B757 : 9
B747 : 7
B717 : 4
Airbus : 271
A321 : 77
A320 : 74
A319 : 56
A321-neo : 30
A320-neo : 26
A300 : 4
A350 : 2
A330 : 1
A380 : 1
unknown : 201
Embraer : 170
ERJ-175 : 94
E-145XR : 34
Phenom : 28
E-190 : 10
E-145 : 3
E-135 : 1
Cessna : 154
Skyhawk-172 : 46
Citation Encore : 27
Citation Soverign : 26
Skylane-182 : 20
Citation-525 : 16
Citation Longitude : 13
Citation Bravo : 3
Citation Mustang : 1
Chancellor-414 : 1
Cessna-150 : 1
Bombardier : 83
Challenger : 33
A220 : 19
CRJ200 : 11
CRJ900 : 8
CRJ700 : 7
Global Express : 5
PIC : 80
Skyhawk-172 : 46
Piper Archer : 30
Citabria : 2
Piper Arrow : 2
Beechcraft : 54
Bonanza : 14
200 Super King Air : 11
90 King Air : 8
300 Super King Air : 6
Beechcraft : 6
Beechjet : 4
Baron : 3
Travel Air : 2
Piper : 52
Piper Archer : 30
Piper : 10
Piper Malibu : 5
Piper Seminole : 4
Piper Arrow : 2
Piper Lance : 1
Gulfstream : 31
Gulfstream V : 13
Gulfstream IV : 12
Galaxy : 4
Gulfstream VI : 1
Gulfstream III : 1
other : 30
Hawker : 14
MD-8x : 5
Mooney 20 : 5
deHavillandCanada : 2
HondaJet : 1
Glider : 1
P.68 Observer : 1
Dornier328 : 1
LearJet : 25
LearJet 60 : 12
LearJet 45 : 10
LearJet 31 : 1
LearJet : 1
LearJet 35 : 1
Dassault : 22
Falcon : 8
Falcon2000 : 7
Falcon900 : 7
Cirrus : 22
SR-22 : 13
SR-22T : 5
Cirrus Vision : 3
SR-20 : 1
helikopter : 12
AS350 : 2
R44 : 2
EC-145 : 2
H500 : 2
JetRanger : 1
EC-135 : 1
R22 : 1
Blackhawk : 1
military : 11
T-38 Talon : 6
C-130J Hercules : 2
TexanII : 2
Blackhawk : 1
cargo : 9
A300 : 4
MD-11 : 2
C-130J Hercules : 2
Ан-12 Cub : 1
Soviet : 1
Ан-12 Cub : 1
NASA : 1
WB-57F Canberra : 1

Airline flight summary

Total : 3064
Callsign is tail number: 491
Blockheads: 66
PIA: 1
Spionen: 6
Numerical: 1
Unidentified: 47
181 flights got close to the antenna.
N5278F did this the most, 27 times.
N13HD flew nearby the longest for 37.2 minutes.
LIFE6 was closest to the antenna, 904 ft away.
Busiest plane: N14125 an E45X flew 7 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 670
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 443
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 191
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 178
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 143
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 129
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 126
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 80
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 49
EJA/1I - NetJets : 39
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 31
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 26
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 24
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 23
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 21
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 19
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 18
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 16
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 15
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 15
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 15
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 14
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 13
AAY/G4 - Allegiant Air : 10
WJA/WS - WestJet : 8
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 8
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 6
SCM/ - American Jet International : 6
BAW/BA - British Airways : 6
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 6
JSX/XE - JSX : 6
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 5
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 5
CYO/ - Air Transport : 4
HAL/HA - Hawaiian Airlines : 4
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 4
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 4
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 3
AFR/AF - Air France : 3
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 3
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 3
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 3
XSR/ - Executive AirShare : 3
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 3
CAP/ - Civil Air Patrol : 3
AMF/A8 - Ameriflight : 2
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
ANZ/NZ - Air New Zealand : 2
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 2
CPA/CX - Cathay Pacific : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
UAE/EK - Emirates : 2
IBE/IB - Iberia Airlines : 2
GEC/LH - Lufthansa Cargo : 2
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 2
JUS/U7 - USA Jet Airlines : 2
CNS/ - Cobalt Air : 2
NGF/ - Angel Flight America : 1
RCH/MC - Air Mobility Command : 1
HER/UD - Hex'Air : 1
SCW/ - Malmo Aviation : 1
SCW/TF - Malmö Aviation : 1
PAT/ - Department of the Army, Priority Air Transport : 1
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 1
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 1
RAX/ - Royal Air Freight : 1
FWK/ - Flightworks : 1
JAS/ - Jet Aviation Flight Services : 1
JTL/ - Jet Linx Aviation : 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.