Tag: RTL-2832U SDR

 Introduction
If you are an aircraft monitoring enthusiast, you might have eyed some of the ADS-B radar boxes that allow you not only to receive ADS-B tracking information, as well as ACARS information, and live Air Traffic Control frequencies. These boxes typically go in the $800 range. If you are wanting to experiment with adding these features to your cheap ADS-B station, we can do it for about $40, using two additional RTL2832U sticks. This is of course assuming that you already using a RTL2832U stick for ADS-B  reception with PlanePlotter. If you are using another ADS-B receiver, you can still add the additional two sticks to add ACARS and live ATC reception. I highly recommend that you consider using a RTL2832U stick with the R820T chip set for ADS-B, since it has the best sensitivity in the 1090MHz range. Even used with the included whip, you can typically receive ADS-B signals out to 75 miles indoors or more depending on your location. As we have seen, adding an external antenna can increase the RTL2832U ADS-B reception significantly. This “poor mans” ADS-B, ACARS, and ATC receiver system in no way competes with the $800 boxes, but can work very …

Introduction

ADS-B Aircraft Monitoring can be a fascinating hobby, allowing you to view live tracks of some nearby aircraft within a 100 miles or more in your area. Some hobbyist also like to share their data with networks that provide this information to the general public. ADS-B monitoring can be an expensive hobby with ADS-B receivers alone going in the $200 to $800 range plus the cost of a computer system to process, display aircraft positions, and possibly share the data. Thanks to recent advances is using certain inexpensive Digital Video Broadcast – Terrestrial (DVB-T) dongles as Software Defined Radios, it is now possible to create very inexpensive versions of ADS-B receivers and sharing systems. This article will show you how you can create your own complete ADS-B receiving and sharing station for less than $200. This is done using some inexpensive off the shelf computer hardware and a RTL2832U DVB-T stick. The price of this project can vary greatly depending on what you may already have on hand, what hardware options you choose, and where you shop for parts. This article will try to keep the price around $200 or less. You don’t have to be a computer expert …