Editing Mode-S Receiver

Jump to navigation Jump to search
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then publish the changes below to finish undoing the edit.

Latest revision Your text
Line 1: Line 1:
== WTF is Mode-S? ==
== WTF is Mode-S? ==
Mode-S is how airplanes tell radar who and where they are.  (The radar echo is also used, but obviously doesn't give tail number.)


Mode-S is the radio protocol used for secondary surveillance radar in the United States and most of the world. It is a direct descendent of Mode-A/C, which were originally used to add simple supplemental data to the primary radar returns on air traffic controllers' displays (like altitude and assigned squawk code). It is not literally RADAR, but it is a data protocol on a separate frequency (1090MHz), with equipment generally co-located with primary surveillance radar systems (often 1030MHz). In Europe now and the US eventually, a new higher-level protocol, ADS-B, is being implemented on-top of Mode-S. ADS-B allows for more sophisticated two-way data transfer data between ground stations and equipped aircraft. Right now in the US, most aircraft only transmit Mode-S, but any flight going to Europe generally supports ADS-B.  Most importantly, ADS-B-equipped aircraft generally transmit their location, so that aircraft can be tracked by anyone within line of sight, instead of relying on primary radar returns.  (The US is eager to move to ADS-B, as it means they can get rid of those hundreds (thousands?) of secondary surveillance radar stations they have to maintain across the US territories, and replace them with very simple systems not dissimilar to that described here! Also note that the US will also support ADS-B implementation via the UAT datalink instead of "1090ES"; this is a different thing and isn't covered by this project.)
Mode-S is the radio protocol used for secondary surveillance radar in the United States and most of the world. It is a direct descendent of Mode-A/C, which were originally used to add simple supplemental data to the primary radar returns on air traffic controllers' displays (like altitude and assigned squawk code). It is not literally RADAR, but it is a data protocol on a separate frequency (1090MHz), with equipment generally co-located with primary surveillance radar systems (often 1030MHz). In Europe now and the US eventually, a new higher-level protocol, ADS-B, is being implemented on-top of Mode-S. ADS-B allows for more sophisticated two-way data transfer data between ground stations and equipped aircraft. Right now in the US, most aircraft only transmit Mode-S, but any flight going to Europe generally supports ADS-B.  Most importantly, ADS-B-equipped aircraft generally transmit their location, so that aircraft can be tracked by anyone within line of sight, instead of relying on primary radar returns.  (The US is eager to move to ADS-B, as it means they can get rid of those hundreds (thousands?) of secondary surveillance radar stations they have to maintain across the US territories, and replace them with very simple systems not dissimilar to that described here! Also note that the US will also support ADS-B implementation via the UAT datalink instead of "1090ES"; this is a different thing and isn't covered by this project.)
Line 9: Line 8:


==What's at 2169==
==What's at 2169==
[http://ronin.noise/VirtualRadar/GoogleMap.htm ronin.noise current data]


[[User:Mid|mid]] and Balint installed an antenna tuned for 1090MHz on the noisebridge antenna masts. It runs to [[bunny]], a Geode LX800 motherboard with a [http://www.microadsb.com/ microADS-B] PIC decoder inside a NMEA/IP-67-rated weatherproof can powered over fake-PoE.  It's running Voyage Linux, why not. In testing, it has been able to follow aircraft over 150 miles away (we picked up the Aeroflot flight from LAX to Moscow on the other side of the Sierra last weekend, as well as flights en route over Paso Robles).
[[User:Mid|mid]] and Balint installed an antenna tuned for 1090MHz on the noisebridge antenna masts. It runs to [[bunny]], a Geode LX800 motherboard with a [http://www.microadsb.com/ microADS-B] PIC decoder inside a NMEA/IP-67-rated weatherproof can powered over fake-PoE.  It's running Voyage Linux, why not. In testing, it has been able to follow aircraft over 150 miles away (we picked up the Aeroflot flight from LAX to Moscow on the other side of the Sierra last weekend, as well as flights en route over Paso Robles).
Line 31: Line 28:
* [[User:jbm|jbm]] has been helping make bunny work
* [[User:jbm|jbm]] has been helping make bunny work
* [http://spench.net/ Balint] has been contributing motivation and has vast radio knowledge whenever he's in town
* [http://spench.net/ Balint] has been contributing motivation and has vast radio knowledge whenever he's in town
* [[User:jmhayes|jmhayes]] donated the Bullion decoder, ronin and a lot of knowledge
* [[User:jmhayes|jmhayes]] donated the microADS-B decoder and a lot of knowledge
Please note that all contributions to Noisebridge are considered to be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (see Noisebridge:Copyrights for details). If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource. Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

To protect the wiki against automated edit spam, we kindly ask you to solve the following CAPTCHA:

Cancel Editing help (opens in new window)