When HN users recommended it
2 HN users recommended this between 2014 and 2015, in 2 comments.
20072026
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
2 HN users recommended this between 2014 and 2015, in 2 comments.
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
You need an [RTL-SDR USB device ($8)](http://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-DVB-T-Stick-RTL2832U-R820T/dp/...) and an [ADS-B antenna (Homemade from Coaxial: $5)](http://www.balarad.net/).
Oh, and a computer.
It's a pretty cheap way to get started with amateur radio!
If you're big into crowd-sourcing:
There are super-inexpensive RTL-SDR dongles[1] that can be used to track airplanes such as this.
I'm not a lawyer, but I've fooled around with these dongles and a few programs enough to discern that Gov't aircraft absolutely need to broadcast their info on the 1090MHz band.
It wouldn't be much of a stretch to have a few people pop these up and see if they could monitor the airplanes that are monitoring the city! :)
Just to expand a little bit:
You get an SDR, plug it in and use a program like `dump1090` or FlightAware. The repurposed TV Tuner will then listen to data on 1090MHz and decode airplane's Active Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) messages.
The ADS-B messages typically contain flight callsign, location (lat,lon), altitude, heading, and a few other tidbits.
There's a really active community around things like this. [2]
[1] http://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-DVB-T-Stick-RTL2832U-R820T/dp/... [2] http://www.rtl-sdr.com