Introduction

Having bought an RTL-SDR compatible dongle recently I thought I could see what I could make it do. So one for the first things I did successfully was tracking planes using ADS-B.

ADS-B or Automatic Dependant Surveillance Broadcast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillance-broadcast) is used to track Aircraft, each plane is fitted with a transmitter which broadcasts its position, heading, altitude, identification and a number of other things on 1090MHz.

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Windows

I first made it work quite simply in Windows using adsb# which can be found here:

http://sdrsharp.com/index.php/a-simple-and-cheap-ads-b-receiver-using-rtl-sdr

This connects to the dongle, tunes it to the right frequency and begins decoding the packets and pumping the out on port 47806.

The next thing to do is to use something like ADSB Scope (http://www.sprut.de/electronic/pic/projekte/adsb/adsb_en.html#downloads) to connect to adsb# and plot the packets to actually see some planes moving.

I did this with limited success:

Success... kinda...

I left it running over night and whilst I was at work and managed to get a fairly long list of planes that had gone by:

7C7EEE #Australia 16:50:17
 7F03EC #Australia > 16:51:48
 7C6D39 VH-VUZ B738 B738 > 16:53:13
 7C1470 VH-EBM A332 A330-202 > 16:54:41
 7F03EC #Australia < 16:56:51
 7C6D39 VH-VUZ B738 B738 17:00:00
 7C80B7 VH-ZPL E190 ERJ 190-100IGW > 17:00:44
 7C1470 VH-EBM A332 A330-202 < 17:04:25
 7C6B09 VH-VFF A320 A320 < 17:06:47
 7C6A58 VH-VAI < 17:09:49
 7C80B7 VH-ZPL E190 ERJ 190-100IGW 17:20:31
 7C6B38 VH-VGQ A320 A320 > 17:24:42
 7C6C2D VH-VNJ A320 A320-232 > 17:29:46
 7C146B VH-EBH A332 A330-202 < 17:30:38 QFA773
 7C6C2D VH-VNJ A320 A320-232 17:39:06
 7C6B38 VH-VGQ A320 A320 < 17:42:36 JST737
 C81DD5 ZK-ZQF B738 B738 17:44:16
 7C802C VH-ZLQ SF34 340B > 17:48:11
 7C7527 VH-XFD A332 A332 > 17:51:01
 7C146A VH-EBG A332 A330-203 < 17:54:41 QFA569
 7C802C VH-ZLQ SF34 340B < 17:56:21
 7C7527 VH-XFD A332 A332 18:03:03
 7C6B4F VH-VHD A319 A319-115X(CJ) > 18:03:04
 7C6A89 VH-VBV B737 B737 > 18:03:06
 7C5B59 VH-SBV DH8C DH8C < 18:08:18
 7C6A89 VH-VBV B737 B737 < 18:08:51
 7C6B4F VH-VHD A319 A319-115X(CJ) 18:21:57
 7C6599 #Australia 18:27:56
 7C52FA VH-QOC DH8D DH8D > 18:30:13
 C8169D ZK-OJA A320 A320-232 > 18:37:21
 7C6B0B VH-VFH A320 A320 < 18:37:48
 C8169D ZK-OJA A320 A320-232 18:43:31
 7C6A57 VH-VAH BE20 BE20 > 18:44:12
 7C4E1C VH-PPQ D328 328-110 > 18:45:10
 7C52FA VH-QOC DH8D DH8D 18:46:03
 7C1479 #Australia < 18:48:32
 7C6599 #Australia 18:52:19
 7C146C VH-EBI A332 A330-202 > 18:53:05
 7C6C5A VH-VOS B738 B737-8FE > 18:55:03
 7C6D25 VH-VUF B738 B737-8FE 19:00:28
 7C4E1C VH-PPQ D328 328-110 < 19:00:29 PPQ
 7C6A57 VH-VAH BE20 BE20 < 19:02:17 AM312
 7C146C VH-EBI A332 A330-202 < 19:03:09 QFA571
 7C15AF VH-EKH SF34 SF34 19:08:14
 CDCF28 #ufo > 19:09:59
 7C6C5A VH-VOS B738 B737-8FE 19:10:19
 7C802C VH-ZLQ SF34 340B > 19:14:11
 CDCF28 #ufo 19:16:37
 7C5B59 VH-SBV DH8C DH8C > 19:19:43
 7C6599 #Australia > 19:19:44
 7C6599 #Australia < 19:24:47
 7C6C27 VH-VND A320 A320-232 19:26:22
 7C1470 VH-EBM A332 A330-202 < 19:26:33 QFA481
 7C52FD VH-QOF DH8D DH8D 19:30:03
 7C5B59 VH-SBV DH8C DH8C < 19:31:07
 7C6599 #Australia 19:33:38