SMART MAKE HATC - Homemade Air Traffic Control With 4x RTL-SDR (50$)

Proof of concept of low cost HATC - Homemade Air Traffic Control

Below is a simply collection of information on air traffic reception, a link of some software to be used and a proposal for proof of concept hardware system.

- 4x RTL-SDR (one of the sdr must be changed at the software or hardware level to correctly receive the HF frequencies)

- 1x UHF antenna

- 1x AM Loop antenna

- 2x VHF antenna

- computer or raspberry (Many OS are supported like Windows, Ubuntu, Debian, iOS and others)

HF tuned to USB on frequency 6.532 Mhz

Other frequencies reported in image

Hobby Level Software

- MultiPSK (restricted to 5 minutes in the non-registered version)

- ACARSD

- The most current version of PC-HFDL can be found at the HFDL Yahoo group

- PlanePlotter (Not a decoder but will show aircraft decoded by PC-HFDL)

- Sigmira

- Sorcerer

Note: It has been recently discussed on the UDXF (at groups.io) that Sorcerer is using an old freq/site list - you may get correct decodes, but not correct site IDs

Sigidwiki (with more software):

https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/High_Frequency_Data_Link_(HFDL)

VHF tuned to AM on frequency 131.725 Mhz (software ACARSD)

Other frequencies reported in image

Hobby Level Software

- MultiMode Cocoa (Mac OS X)

- MultiPSK (Unlicenced only allows 5 minutes decoding at a time)

- Acarsdec

- Sorcerer

- rtl_acars_ng

- ACARSD

- PlanePlotter (Free to use for 21 days)

- AcarsDeco2

Sigidwiki (with more software):

https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Aircraft_Communications_Addressing_and_Reporting_System_(ACARS)

VHF tuned to AM on frequency 136.975 Mhz

Other frequencies reported in image

Hobby Level Software

- MultiPSK

- dumpvdl2

- vdlm2dec

Sigidwiki (with more software):

https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/VHF_Data_Link_-_Mode_2_(VDL-M2)

VHF tuned to PPM on frequency 136.975 Mhz

Other frequencies reported in image

Hobby Level Software

- MultiPSK

- ADSBSharp (Usage with RTL-SDR Dongles)

- Dump1090

- RTL1090

Sigidwiki (with more software):

https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Automatic_Dependent_Surveillance-Broadcast_(ADS-B)

After having carried out several tests and tests of some software reported in my online channels I wanted to consolidate a simple but effective idea of building a multiple receiver of air traffic messages.

Many of the software listed in the list support data streaming via web server, ip, tcp, udp, json, mqtt and others that you can connect to different statistical, collecting, viewing on the map and more software.

If you are looking for how to install the Linux software I suggest you to search through my publications the procedures defined "SMART INSTALL" and use them to install the desired software.