Using Software Defined Radio to Track Airplanes with a Raspberry Pi @raspberry_pi #raspberrypi

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Using Software Defined Radio to Track Airplanes with a Raspberry Pi.

Since I was a little boy I have had a fascination with airplanes. I am an active RC airplane modeler and I have a radio scanner that I use to listen to air traffic control conversations. Imagine my surprise when I came across a very interesting article in the December 2014 issue of LINUX Magazine titled, “Plane Spotting.”

Written by Charly Kuhnast, the one-page article describes how to use a USB DVB-T device to capture airplane traffic and plot it on a Google map. What a cool idea. Ol’ Sopwith decided to purchase a DVB-T and see if it would work on the Raspberry Pi.

A few Google searches and I determined the use of the DVB-T device is quite popular among Linux users. And, of course, somebody has already figured out how to get the plane spotter app working on a Pi. The most helpful article to me was written by David Taylor titled, “ADS-B dump1090.”

This Raspberry Pi “How-To” provides detailed instructions on how to get the plane spotter application up and running on a Pi.

If you are in a hurry to get going, use David’s article to determine how to install the required software and configure the system. If you are a new Raspberry Pi user and prefer clear instructions on how to get things working – this article is for you.


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