I've always been pretty intrigued with receiving ADS-B - especially more so now since ADSB seems to be taking off in the US a little more. I've used a AirNav radar box with good results but didn't like the lock-in with their software and hardware, so I've gone the RTL route.
I recently built a new house here in San Antonio and finally got all my ADS-B stuff installed and ready to go. My setup is as follows:
Hardware:
ASUS Netbook running Ubuntu Netbook 14.04
RTL2832U R820U NooElec DVB Stick (Amazon.com: NooElec NESDR Mini USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver Set, (Previously TV28T v2), RTL2832U & R820T Tuner, MCX Input. Low-Cost Software Defined Radio Compatible with Many SDR Software Packages. R820T Tuner & ESD-Safe Antenna Input, Guaranteed: E)
Mini Circuits 900-2000 MHz Preamp
DPD Productions ADS-B outdoor vertical antenna
Software
modeSdeco2 - ModeSDeco2 and ModeSMixer2 - console programs for RTLSDR and transcoding - Radarspotting
SBS Basestation - Home
PlanePlottter - planeplotter / FrontPage
Virtual Radar Server - Home - Virtual Radar Server
others
All the hardware is installed in the attic near a ventilation tile to make sure a very short run of coax is used from the preamp to the antenna. The DPD productions antenna is mounted to a PVP vent pipe on the roof. The netbook also sits in the attic and connects back to my local network over Wifi. The modeSdeco2 software provides multiple TCP interfaces to any computer on my network for platform independent decoding of ADS-B using most of the ADS-B scope type applications.
The setup allows me to regularly log aircraft from the Gulf of Mexico east, to the Mexican border south, to Houston and about 75 miles south of DFW. Pretty good range considering I'm in a somewhat lower section of North San Antonio with hills to my north.
Some pictures below.
Enjoy!
I recently built a new house here in San Antonio and finally got all my ADS-B stuff installed and ready to go. My setup is as follows:
Hardware:
ASUS Netbook running Ubuntu Netbook 14.04
RTL2832U R820U NooElec DVB Stick (Amazon.com: NooElec NESDR Mini USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver Set, (Previously TV28T v2), RTL2832U & R820T Tuner, MCX Input. Low-Cost Software Defined Radio Compatible with Many SDR Software Packages. R820T Tuner & ESD-Safe Antenna Input, Guaranteed: E)
Mini Circuits 900-2000 MHz Preamp
DPD Productions ADS-B outdoor vertical antenna
Software
modeSdeco2 - ModeSDeco2 and ModeSMixer2 - console programs for RTLSDR and transcoding - Radarspotting
SBS Basestation - Home
PlanePlottter - planeplotter / FrontPage
Virtual Radar Server - Home - Virtual Radar Server
others
All the hardware is installed in the attic near a ventilation tile to make sure a very short run of coax is used from the preamp to the antenna. The DPD productions antenna is mounted to a PVP vent pipe on the roof. The netbook also sits in the attic and connects back to my local network over Wifi. The modeSdeco2 software provides multiple TCP interfaces to any computer on my network for platform independent decoding of ADS-B using most of the ADS-B scope type applications.
The setup allows me to regularly log aircraft from the Gulf of Mexico east, to the Mexican border south, to Houston and about 75 miles south of DFW. Pretty good range considering I'm in a somewhat lower section of North San Antonio with hills to my north.
Some pictures below.
Enjoy!