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: 1651
Unassigned icao range: 0
United States: 1547 93.7%
Mexico: 46 2.79%
Canada: 17 1.03%
United States Luftwaffe: 9 0.55%
United Kingdom: 6 0.36%
Panama: 3 0.18%
Germany: 3 0.18%
Turkey: 3 0.18%
Qatar: 2 0.12%
Bermuda: 2 0.12%
Bermuda: 2 0.12%
Bermuda: 2 0.12%
Netherlands: 2 0.12%
Japan: 2 0.12%
United Arab Emirates: 2 0.12%
Taiwan: 2 0.12%
France: 1 0.06%
Cayman Islands: 1 0.06%
Cayman Islands: 1 0.06%
Cayman Islands: 1 0.06%
Belgium: 1 0.06%
Poland: 1 0.06%
Ireland: 1 0.06%
Luxembourg: 1 0.06%
China: 1 0.06%
New Zealand: 1 0.06%

Airframe summary

Boeing : 615
B737 : 367
B737-MAX : 164
B767 : 28
B787 : 17
B777 : 16
B757 : 9
B747 : 8
B717 : 6
Airbus : 256
A320 : 73
A321 : 72
A319 : 53
A320-neo : 28
A321-neo : 22
A300 : 3
A350 : 2
A330 : 2
A380 : 1
Embraer : 152
ERJ-175 : 92
E-145XR : 32
Phenom : 14
E-190 : 9
E-145 : 3
E-135 : 1
E-170 : 1
unknown : 151
Cessna : 109
Skyhawk-172 : 32
Citation Encore : 17
Citation Soverign : 16
Skylane-182 : 13
Citation-525 : 13
Citation Longitude : 10
Citation Bravo : 3
Centurion-210 : 2
Chancellor-414 : 1
Citation Mustang : 1
Caravan-208 : 1
Bombardier : 76
Challenger : 29
A220 : 16
CRJ900 : 11
CRJ200 : 9
CRJ700 : 6
Global Express : 5
PIC : 50
Skyhawk-172 : 32
Piper Archer : 17
8KCAB : 1
Beechcraft : 48
200 Super King Air : 14
Bonanza : 10
Beechcraft : 6
90 King Air : 5
Baron : 4
300 Super King Air : 4
Beechjet : 3
Travel Air : 2
Piper : 31
Piper Archer : 17
Piper : 7
Piper Malibu : 4
Piper Super Cub : 1
Piper Lance : 1
Piper Seminole : 1
other : 25
Hawker : 13
MD-8x : 4
Mooney 20 : 4
DC-9 : 2
deHavillandCanada : 1
HondaJet : 1
Gulfstream : 23
Gulfstream V : 10
Gulfstream IV : 10
Gulfstream VI : 2
Galaxy : 1
Dassault : 19
Falcon : 8
Falcon900 : 8
Falcon2000 : 3
LearJet : 18
LearJet 45 : 12
LearJet 60 : 5
LearJet 35 : 1
helikopter : 14
EC-145 : 3
R22 : 2
JetRanger : 2
R44 : 2
H500 : 2
AS350 : 1
EC-135 : 1
Blackhawk : 1
Cirrus : 13
SR-22 : 8
SR-20 : 2
Cirrus Vision : 2
SR-22T : 1
military : 4
T-38 Talon : 2
Blackhawk : 1
TexanII : 1
cargo : 3
A300 : 3

Airline flight summary

Total : 2753
Callsign is tail number: 355
Blockheads: 45
PIA: 0
Spionen: 4
Numerical: 3
Unidentified: 32
133 flights got close to the antenna.
N512LE did this the most, 6 times.
N5284F flew nearby the longest for 19.2 minutes.
LIFE5 was closest to the antenna, 1509 ft away.
Busiest plane: N12145 an E45X flew 7 routes for UCA.
UAL/UA - United Airlines : 597
SWA/WN - Southwest Airlines : 465
AAL/AA - American Airlines : 192
ASH/YV - Mesa Airlines : 176
UCA/C5 - CommutAir : 130
DAL/DL - Delta Air Lines : 126
SKW/OO - SkyWest : 123
NKS/NK - Spirit Airlines : 80
FFT/F9 - Frontier Airlines : 45
EJA/1I - NetJets : 35
ENY/MQ - Envoy Air : 23
VOI/Y4 - Volaris : 19
AMX/AM - AeroMéxico : 18
LXJ/ - Flexjet : 16
SLI/5D - AeroMexico Connect : 15
VIV/VB - Aeroenlaces Nacionales : 15
JBU/B6 - JetBlue Airways : 15
AAY/G4 - Allegiant Air : 14
ACA/AC - Air Canada : 13
ASA/AS - Alaska Airlines : 13
FDX/FX - Federal Express : 13
ATN/8C - Air Transport International : 11
UPS/5X - United Parcel Service : 11
SCX/SY - Sun Country Airlines : 8
ABX/GB - ABX Air : 7
CJT/W8 - Cargojet Airways : 7
VTM/ - Aeronaves TSM : 6
WJA/WS - WestJet : 6
TAI/TA - Taca International Airlines : 6
JSX/XE - JSX : 6
BAW/BA - British Airways : 5
EJM/ - Executive Jet Management : 5
THY/TK - Turkish Airlines : 5
EDV/9E - Endeavor Air : 5
SCM/ - American Jet International : 4
JIA/OH - PSA Airlines : 4
FFL/ - ForeFlight : 4
CMP/CM - Copa Airlines : 3
UAE/EK - Emirates : 3
HAL/HA - Hawaiian Airlines : 3
KLM/KL - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines : 3
DLH/LH - Lufthansa : 3
AFR/AF - Air France : 2
ANA/NH - All Nippon Airways : 2
AVA/AV - Avianca - Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia : 2
BYA/ - Berry Aviation : 2
CPA/CX - Cathay Pacific : 2
EVA/BR - EVA Air : 2
PAT/ - Department of the Army, Priority Air Transport : 2
QTR/QR - Qatar Airways : 2
NCR/N8 - National Air Cargo : 2
CWG/ - Wing Aviation : 2
ANZ/NZ - Air New Zealand : 1
CYO/ - Air Transport : 1
GTI/5Y - Atlas Air : 1
CLX/CV - Cargolux : 1
FRG/ - Freight Runners Express : 1
HER/UD - Hex'Air : 1
CKS/K4 - Kalitta Air : 1
GEC/LH - Lufthansa Cargo : 1
SCW/ - Malmo Aviation : 1
SCW/TF - Malmö Aviation : 1
LBQ/ - Quest Diagnostics : 1
RPA/RW - Republic Airlines : 1
YEL/YE - Yellowtail : 1
TWY/ - Sunset Aviation, LLC : 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.