Uploading it to FlightAware contributes to global understanding of flight patterns, and also entitles you to a complimentary Enterprise subscription, which usually costs $90 a month. But, as the information is public, and there’s nothing to identify you in the stream beyond your location, there’s little reason to keep it to yourself. The data you can pick up is fascinating, and it’s up to you what you do with it.
The positions update in real-time, and clicking the aircraft call signs in the table to the right opens up more information about each one. If all you want to do is view nearby planes on your own network, click “Go to 1090 SkyAware Map” to see a map of detected aircraft. You should see the FlightAware welcome page.
On the line below, you’ll see a dummy wireless password (“s3cr3t99”) replace this with your real password, then save and close the file. Search this file for the term “wireless-ssid” and replace “MyWifiNetwork” with the name of your Wi-Fi network. First, locate a file on the card called piaware-config.txt and open it in Notepad (or your preferred plain text editor).
Once you’ve created your card, there are just a few configuration tasks to do on your PC before using it to boot the Pi. Note that any data that’s currently on the card will be wiped, so make sure you’ve backed up any contents you need to keep.
You’ll find the software at /adsb/piaware/build, and FlightAware recommends using balenaEtcher to write the image to your card. Like the standard Raspbian installation, it’s distributed as an image, which you can download on a PC and write to your microSD card. When we say that FlightAware is easy to set up, that may be an understatement: it comes in the form of a customised version of the Raspberry Pi OS called PiAware, so it’s up and running as soon as you boot up the computer. You can run them both together, but we’re going to start by installing FlightAware, as it’s easy to set up and includes a preconfigured ADS-B service that can then also be used by Flightradar24. There are two apps for the Pi for flight tracking: FlightAware and Flightradar24. We’ve found that we get good results with the antenna extended to 14cm, 21cm or 28cm experiment yourself, and use a ruler when setting it up. As Pimoroni explains, “the antenna works best when its length is a multiple of a quarter of the ADS-B transmission wavelength, which is 69mm”. Setup is about as simple as plugging your DVB-T adapter into a USB socket, but there’s one trick to be aware of: although the telescopic antenna extends to around 35cm, it’s recommended to not pull it out all the way.
On good days, we can even spot planes crossing above Lincolnshire, around 100 miles to the north. Needless to say, you can’t pick up transmissions from thousands of miles away, but the range is better than you might imagine: from our test location, roughly equidistant between Stansted and Southend Airports, we’re able to track all aircraft operating out of those two sites, as well as those coming into Gatwick and Heathrow.
It’s possible to buy FlightAware-branded ADS-B receivers that have been designed specifically for aircraft tracking, but there’s no need: we’ve had great success with a regular DVB-T adapter. And as luck would have it, that equipment is simple and inexpensive, as the transmissions can be picked up by a standard DVB-T receiver, which is more commonly used for tuning into free-to-air digital TV and radio. This is primarily intended to be picked up by other nearby planes, ground stations and air traffic control towers – but it’s unencrypted and uses a standard frequency of 1,090MHz, so with the right equipment you can easily listen in yourself. Most commercial and private aircraft continuously transmit their identity and position in the form of a standardised data stream called an automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B). If you have an old card knocking around, this is a good excuse to donate the aged card to your Pi and buy a larger, faster one for your phone or camera. Whichever Pi you settle on, you will also need a microSD card to store the operating system.
How to turn the Raspberry Pi Zero W into a coat bot.Raspberry Pi: Top projects to try yourself.