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.
Figure 1: Planes are tracked on various websites, such as airplanes.live.
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
Digital Autonomy
• The Answer Was Already on the Shelf
• Changing the Chip Industry: How Public Investment Has Grown Open Silicon
• United Nations Open Source Portal Goes Live
• EU Open Source Strategy Plays Key Role in Tech Sovereignty Package
• France Says “Au Revoir” to Microsoft
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
-
Dutch Government Turns to Open Source for Digital Sovereignty
Following in the footsteps of European countries, the Netherlands is looking to increase its sovereign digital infrastructure with open source software.
-
Linux May Soon Work on Snapdragon X2-Based PCs
If you're thinking about buying a Snapdragon X2-based desktop or laptop, Linux may soon be an option.
-
KDE for People Initiative Calls for AI Ban in Plasma
A new community of KDE wants the project to adopt a strict no-AI policy for KDE Plasma.
-
KDE Sets Ambitious Goals for 2026 and Beyond
KDE Connect reveals the goals for the Linux desktop darling, with one of those goals long overdue.
-
It’s Time to Test Fedora 45 Beta
Fedora 45 beta has been released with updated Gnome, KDE Plasma, and kernel.
-
Ubuntu Stonking Stingray Gets Even Rustier
Ubuntu 26.10 has completed its migration to the Rust-based coreutils.
-
AI Fixes Linux Bottlenecks Using “Hideous” Code
A Linux developer used AI to fix bottlenecks that caused problems when building the kernel. The resulting AI-generated code needed a lot of work.
-
Advanced Video Coding Still Under Patent
Brazilian patent BRPI0109962B1 has expired, which means that DivX and Xvid are no longer problematic for Linux, but it doesn’t mean that video is all of a sudden fully unleashed.
-
2,000 Vulnerabilities per Linux Release
Thanks to AI bug hunters, the Linux kernel is seeing record numbers of vulnerabilities, and it's overwhelming developers.
-
Linux Exempt from California’s Age Verification Law
So long as Linux is distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses, the OS is exempt from being required to verify the age of its users in California.