Mission 02: Aviation Traffic Monitoring

2026-05-05

Map live commercial aircraft traffic and evaluate the integrity of the ADS-B broadcast protocol.

receivereconlooking glass

Complexity Rating

Receive1/5

Decode2/5

Analysis2/5

System Studied

ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast)

Hardware Requirement

rtlsdr

Software Suite

dump1090readsb

1. Field Methodology: Capture

Passive reception on 1090 MHz using a tuned vertical antenna with a clear line-of-sight to the sky.

Gear Selection NoteAn RTL-SDR with a 1090 MHz filter (like the FlightAware Pro Stick) significantly improves range.

2. Analysis Workflow: Decode

Decoding Pulse Position Modulation (PPM) bursts into ICAO hex codes, altitude, velocity, and position data.

dump1090 --interactive

Waiting for RTL-SDR... click START CAPTURE to listen on 1090 MHz.

Status: Idle

0 Tracks

1090.00 MHz

3. Findings & Limitations

ADS-B is an unauthenticated broadcast protocol; while highly efficient for traffic awareness, it lacks built-in integrity checks against spoofed data.

Legal & Ethical Briefing

Passive monitoring of aviation broadcasts is generally legal and encouraged for educational situational awareness.

What to study next

Look into Mode S Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) and how it complements ADS-B.

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