ADS-B Aircraft Tracking with readsb

With a cheap RTL-SDR dongle and an antenna, you can receive ADS-B — the 1090 MHz signal aircraft broadcast with their position, altitude, and ID — and plot live traffic overhead. theLAB's redbox runs this 24/7.

#How it works

Aircraft transmit ADS-B constantly; readsb decodes the 1090 MHz Mode-S frames and outputs positions you can map (tar1090) or feed to networks (FlightAware, ADSB.lol).

# readsb decoding from an RTL-SDR
readsb --device-type rtlsdr --gain 49.6 --net --write-json /run/readsb

#The dongle is the catch

On redbox, readsb holds the RTL-SDR 24/7 — so other SDR jobs (like weather-satellite capture) can't use that same dongle simultaneously. Run them on a second dongle or schedule around each other.

#Antenna matters most

Related: Weather Satellite Imaging with NOAA and Meteor · theLAB Fleet Map