
Get eyes in the sky with your Raspberry Pi - alexellisuk
https://blog.alexellis.io/track-flights-with-rpi/
======
pdelbarba
I use one of these (in a way) whenever I fly. I have an RPi running Stratux
with a WAAS GPS reciever and two modified RTL-SDR dongles, one for each ADS-B
band. It then rebroadcasts all this info over a wifi network that my ipad
picks up and displays with foreflight. The whole thing sans ipad was ~$100, is
super reliable, and fits cleanly in a small case. The commercial version
(Stratus 2s) is $900 and has reliability issues.

On a side note, these only pick up AC that are broadcasting ADS-B which is
most commercial aircraft and a minority of commuter/personal planes. This will
change at the beginning of 2020 when the FAA will mandate all aircraft will
need it (or at least anyone planning to ever operate in a mode C ring/near a
major city)

~~~
devy
As a previous HN post indicated, majority of that $900 price tag probably went
to product validations and certifications :)

~~~
pdelbarba
Not permanently mounted flight hardware, no TSO required. Only certification
required for that would be basic FCC ISM transmission stuff, the same as your
router. If they used a precertified module (like most internet of shit
devices) you only need the harmful emission testing. It's also very unlikely
that they voluntarily went through any of it because the devices regularly
overheat and fail.

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jjwiseman
Once you've gone to all the work of setting this up, you need to upgrade from
the rudimentary dump1090 web interface. The best open source web UI I know of
is Virtual Radar Server, which I run on my Raspberry PI using Mono:
[http://www.virtualradarserver.co.uk/](http://www.virtualradarserver.co.uk/)

VRS displays much more information about flights and about your receiver
performance, and is more customizable.

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rb808
SDR aside - wow a rpi DVB-T tuner for 12 quid!? Is there an ATSC tuner for US
at a price like that?

~~~
olympus
Sort of. You can buy an ATSC tuner on Amazon for about $35. There isn't any
SDR software written for them, so you are buying a single purpose item.

The RTL-SDR dongles can't receive ATSC because ATSC is 6 MHz bandwidth and the
RTL can only handle 3.2 MHz max.

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qubex
I'm fascinated by the idea and practice of SDR but I find the focus on
tracking airliners to be rather boring (for most) and uninspired. Surely we
can come up with something more interesting and potentially discovery-
orientated, or at least a little more awesome, such as perhaps radio astronomy
or somesuch?

~~~
new299
In general, I find these kinds of comments strange.

There are many applications I might find more interesting too. However rather
than criticizing others I spend my time feeling vaguely guilty for not doing
any of them...

~~~
onion2k
There are two ways to read a comment that says "I don't find this
[useful|inspiring|interesting]." The first is to take it as a criticism, and
the second is to take it as a statement of fact that is strictly limited to
the person saying it. Where it's ambiguous it's far better to assume the
second meaning, if only due to the Principle of Charity.

~~~
qubex
I suppose that the concept I was trying to articulate was better expressed as
follows: "It is quite unfortunate that the baseline "Hello World!"-type
project for SDR is listening in to airliners' telemetry, as it is widely
available by other means, entails RX-only skills and equipment, and does not
really provide wide avenues for later development".

That is, of course, my personal opinion, but it is also something of a
critique: wouldn't people be more excited if the baseline project involved
TX/RX, obviously with slightly more involved hardware (and limited to ISM
bands & transmission power limitations)?

~~~
new299
The baseline "Hello World" has always seemed to me to be capturing the full FM
spectrum. I think that was the first example given in Gnuradio.

I know the posted article is nothing new, but it doesn't seem like a great
idea to discourage people from writing up their experiments, even if it isn't
anything amazing and new...

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zeep
many flights are not required to broadcast this signal....

~~~
opless
[Citation Needed]

