Tracking Planes Above Your House with ADS-B
Sky Sleuth
© Lead Image © Oleksiy Tsupe, 123RF.com
Curious about the planes that fly over your home? With some simple and affordable equipment, you can receive their ADS-B signals and uncover detailed flight information.
If a plane is flying above your house, do you ever wonder about its origin and destination? While there are many websites that provide this information (see Figure 1 for an example), you don't actually need them. In many countries around the world, various aircraft types (primarily commercial passenger carriers) are required to be equipped with an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) transmitter. ADS-B provides air traffic controllers with more information about the aircraft than what radar can offer. With a simple antenna and an RTL-SDR USB dongle, anyone can capture these signals and process them on a computer.
ADS-B works automatically, broadcasting the flight state periodically without input from the pilot or air traffic controller. Typically, the aircraft transmits its position, altitude, and speed, along with its call sign for identification. This is how those websites are able to show you planes on a map: They use data from a network of computers equipped with an ADS-B receiver, which is then visualized and supplemented with external data. For more in-depth details about ADS-B and decoding signals, consider reading The 1090 Megahertz Riddle [1], which you can download for free.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Another Logic Bug Found in Linux Kernel
Qualys has discovered a vulnerability in the Linux kernel that can be used to elevate standard user privileges.
-
Ubuntu Core 26 Offers Game-Changing Enterprise Features
Ubuntu Core 26 could be a game-changer for organizations looking for increased security and reliability.
-
AI Flooding the Linux Kernel Security Mailing List
AI is giving Linus Torvalds a headache, but not in the way you might think.
-
Top Priorities for Open Source Pros Seeking a New Job
Professional fulfillment tops the list, according to LPI report.
-
Container-Based Fedora Hummingbird Designed for Agent-First Builders
Fedora Hummingbird brings the same approach to the host OS as it does to containers to level up security.
-
Linux kernel Developers Considering a Kill Switch
With the rise of Linux vulnerabilities, the kernel developers are now considering adding a component that could help temporarily mitigate against them… in the form of a kill switch.
-
Fedora 44 Now Gaming Ready
The latest version of Fedora has been released with gaming support.
-
Manjaro 26.1 Preview Unveils New Features
The latest Manjaro 26.1 preview has been released with new desktop versions, a new kernel, and more.
-
Microsoft Issues Warning About Linux Vulnerability
The company behind Windows has released information about a flaw that affects millions of Linux systems.
-
Is AI Coming to Your Ubuntu Desktop?
According to the VP of Engineering at Canonical, AI could soon be added to the Ubuntu desktop distribution.