ADS-B Receiving and Flight Tracking with Eric Carlson

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Monitoring Aviation from a different point of view

ADS-B (Automatic dependent surveillance — broadcast) is the protocol used by airplanes to give their position beacons.  This includes there altitude, location, heading, and Squawk Code.


Monitoring ADS-B Traffic

Eric Carlson from FlightAware.com joins us on the podcast to talk about ADS-B monitoring using a PiAware setup.   This setup is very quick and easy, and is super affordable. 

Eric and I discuss the benefits of owning your own ADS-B receiving setup, the steps required to build your own ground station, and the perks of sending your data to FlightAware.com.

Once you have setup your home station, you begin sending your data to FlightAware.com and in turn, they upgrade your account to “Enterprise” status.

Buying the Equipment and Setting it up

We have a great tutorial in progress on how to setup the PiAware and all of the hardware.

Please click here for the tutorial

Not interested in a tutorial at this time?  No problem.  Sign up for the e-mail list below and we will start sending you the information when it is available.

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Contest Rules

Don’t forget to leave a comment below about this podcast from June 5, 2018 – June 19, 2018.  Eric will return to pick a few random winners and send out some FlightAware Hardware!

Leave a comment below in the comment area to qualify!

Links from this session:

LiveATC.net

FlightAware.com

Bonus Material:

Are you looking for your first scanner radio?

Download our new e-guide, “5 Thinks You Need to Know Before Buying Your First Scanner”.   This free PDF is about 30 pages long and has 5 things you should look for, plus a few extra bonus items to make sure you make an educated purchase.

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Podcast Transcription:

(Coming Soon)

35 Comments

  • Earl Grad, NV6E.

    Thanks for the very informative podcast about ADSB. I have used flightaware when I or family members have traveled. It is great to hear how the hobbyist is involved in providing the flight information. Will be looking to add a receiver to my hamshack too. NV6E.

  • Very informative podcast. I have been running an ads-b receiver setup with a flightaware dongle for about 6 months. Even though I am not an aircraft enthusiast, I enjoy seeing what the aircraft are flying over my house.

  • James Fehling

    Great podcast. I have always wanted to do this and now I see how easy it is. Can’t wait to get started. Thanks again

  • Gilberto A Rivera

    Found your website on FB. Been a radio enthusiast since I was a kid and a scanner user since 1982.
    Nowadays, my main area of listening is aviation. ADS-B compliments that and was pleasantly surprised you put out a podcast on that subject. Wish you did more in depth discussion on this subject. My current ADS-B setup is a Flight Aware ProStick and a Raspberry Pi3 B+ with a DPD production ADS-B antenna. I also have another Pi, with an RSTL dongle running an ACARS decoder.

    I own a BCD536HP and a BC125AT Uniden scanners.

    • Hi Gilberto.
      If you would like to come on as a guest and talk about your setup and your experiences with ACARS decoding, shoot me an e-mail by hitting the contact button on the top of the website.

      Thanks for your reply.

  • david

    Great podcast on ADS-B. Been monitoring ADS-B for a while and enjoy watching aircraft and tying into ATC monitoring. Thanks for all the great information.

  • William J Shaw

    I have been using Flight Aware for years and never knew this was available. Thanks for the great interview!

  • Been wanting to set up an ADS-B monitoring station for awhile now and this podcast definitely is making me want to even more now. It’s cool that we can contribute to a service like Flight Aware.

    • Hi Travis,
      You are one of our winners. You should have received an e-mail from Eric to arrange delivery.
      Thanks for listening to the podcast and leaving your comments!

  • tjwyman

    I’ve been curious about this for quite awhile and your interview definitely makes me want to give this a try. Plus it’s great to hear we can contribute to Flight Aware’s data!

  • Greg Weamer

    Great job on the podcast. I’ve been tracking flights with ADSB for over a year. Now what’s really cool– watch the Skyview screen, and be scanning approach and tower frequencies. You can see them lining them for up for arrivals, and hear them put someone into a hold, and see it real time!

  • Grant

    Looking forward to listening to this podcast ( doing them in order) Aircraft is also an interest of mine and I use Flightaware (as well as the other guys) to see what plane that is flying over. Not sure Eric could use my ADS-B data as the Melbourne area is fairly well covered, but if I had the gear I could contribute. Also I want to set up my spare pc and scanner to scan and cast the local airport traffic at Point Cook, especially during flying display days, hoping the podcast will fill in a few of the knowledge gaps that I have and prompt me to ask the right questions. Keep up the great work Phil.

  • KENNETH FOWLER

    Thanks phil,

    I knew that flight tracking was available but did not know how easy it was. I don’t have access to an outdoor antenna due to apartment restrictions. How easy is this to do with indoor monitoring? The explanation about linux was great because I don’t have programming experience. Is anything like this available for railroad tracking?

    Kenneth
    KD4IIW

  • Bob

    I enjoy using my ADS-B dongle but could use an upgrade. I check the logs for the unidentified ones and look them up. Sometimes you find interesting stuff. I like the adsbexchange site too since they don’t filter the data. Thanks for the great podcast about this and many other topics.

    • Congratulation Joseph – you are one of our winners. You should have received an e-mail from Eric to arrange delivery.
      Thanks for listening to the podcast and leaving your comments!

  • Garrett F

    Thanks Phil and Eric for a great session! The session inspired me to apply for a FlightFeeder and buy the gear to get set up. But hey…I wouldn’t mind another one from the contest. 😉 I would install that one at my uncle’s house in Lake Tahoe.

  • Bob Murphy N1FBF

    Phil & Eric, thanks for a very informative show. I like that you can be up and running quickly and the fact this is portable and can be setup anywhere.

  • Jeffrey Hochberg

    Brilliant session! I actually learned about ADS-B a couple of weeks ago. I dabbled a bit with SDR a while ago and would love to get back into it. It seems to me that ADS-B gives me a prime opportunity to do so! I’ve been a Flightaware user (iOS app) as I travel a lot for business. Knowing that I will be able to contribute back to the service as opposed to simply consuming data is incredible! Thanks for the details and keep up the great work!!!

  • Joe G KD2NXV

    Eric and Phil, very detailed information, I have been running an ads-b receivers since 2011 and have used several programs over the years. FlightAware is my preferred package and I’ve been running as a feeder on FlightAware since last September, will hopefully be adding a 2nd feeder sight in the future. Thanks again for the very helpful information!

  • Paul Teel (WB5ANX)

    I listened with great interest on my flight home today from a business trip. I thought how ironic it was I was listening to a podcast about tracking planes…while riding in one! This is definitely cool technology and one I will want to implement. Great stuff and great podcast.

    • Congratulation Paul – you are one of our winners. You should have received an e-mail from Eric to arrange delivery.
      Thanks for listening to the podcast and leaving your comments!
      73

  • Joe

    My favorite part about getting ADS-B via RF is spotting the planes that aren’t available online. Sometimes they are interesting, sometimes, not, other times, you never know. At my old office, it was right next to a busy small airport, we could receive the ADS-B the moment planes took off or just before they landed.

    I would have commented sooner but I usually listen to the episodes on iTunes while I ride a train.

  • Jason Dasho Ardmore OK

    Placed this comment the other day but I guess it didn’t post right 🤷🏼‍♂️. Anyways I always figured this would be complex project but podcast broke down the details nicely. Plan on doing this project this summer with my daughter as a stem project with her. Should be fun !

    • Congratulation Jason – you are one of our winners. You should have received an e-mail from Eric to arrange delivery.
      Thanks for listening to the podcast and leaving your comments!

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