Raspberry Pi ADS-B

Have you ever looked up into the sky at an airplane and wondered "Where is that plane going?"  Believe it or not, there's an app for that... multiple.  Websites like FlightRadar24 and FlightAware are used by government agencies, airlines, charter companies, and more to track the location, altitude, and speed of aircraft all around the world.  Aircraft equipped with ADS-B systems broadcast this real-time information on a 1090 MHz frequency and is picked up and transmitted by radar when an aircraft is close to an airport.  But what about when an aircraft isn't close to an airport?

These sites rely on crowd sourcing to help triangulate the position of every single airplane in the sky.  A Raspberry Pi ADS-B is an inexpensive way to crowd source aircraft signals.  By using a single board computer, a bit of code, and a 1090 MHz antenna, enthusiasts from all over the world can help FlightRadar24 and FlightAware to deliver accurate aircraft information.  These sites are able to receive transmitted information and match it to existing flight plans to tell users exact where the plane about them is going.

I've setup and deployed three ADS-B receivers as of December, 2024.  Receiver locations are located in various locations of the Eastern United States supplying data to help pinpoint aircraft locations accurately.  By default, systems are only able to feed data to one site, but I was able to recode portions of the PiAware image on each Pi to be able to feed to multiple sites at once.