5 ms·

We have a an ADS-B receiver at Summit Station in Greenland which we use to track airplanes that produce RFI we see in our experiment. I've considered sharing da

by cozzyd 1y ago

We have a an ADS-B receiver at Summit Station in Greenland which we use to track airplanes that produce RFI we see in our experiment. I've considered sharing data (since nobody else seems to have data there) but the feeding instructions always scare me (run this script that downloads a bunch of random crap as sudo... no thanks). Please just give me a cURL command I can run... (perhaps some services have that, I haven't looked that hard).

NoiseBert69 1y ago
ADS-B is easy to receive with an 'rtlsdr' and opensource tools.
- cozzyd 1y ago
  Yeah we are receiving it and dumping it into a sqlite database per day, but we're not sharing it.
rootusrootus 1y ago
You can get containerized feeders for services like fr24 (e.g. liggy1/fr24feed) but that may not meet your requirements since it's really intended to handle everything from the sdr to the API, not siphon off data you are collecting some other way and then feed it.
- cozzyd 1y ago
  Yeah I definitely don't want to run an opaque container either. We're already collecting and storing the data... I am happy to throw the data over via a udp socket or http request, but I don't want random software that we don't control running...
  - jonah-archive 1y ago
    I had the same concerns awhile back and ending up running a slightly modified version of https://github.com/wiedehopf/mlat-client https://github.com/wiedehopf/mlat-client -- not quite as simple as an http push, but much simpler than a containerized feed client.
    - wiedehopf 1y ago
      That's only MLAT though and won't feed the ADS-B data.
  - wiedehopf 1y ago
    If you're not comfortable running my readsb (fork of dump1090) which is the feed client used by live / lol / fi and some other sites, then you can probably just send them data using socat. Most of them will have port 30004 open for their ingest domain, usually feed.domain.com. Thus you'd hook up socat to 127.0.0.1:30005 (i assume you run dump1090 or readsb locally as a decoder). And make socat send that to feed.adsb.lol:30004 and/or feed.airplanes.live:30004 If you're in a remote location, you don't need to worry about mlat-client as MLAT requires at least 4 receivers that receive common aircraft.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - cozzyd 1y ago
      Thanks! After doing some more digging I suspected something like this was the simplest solution! Thanks for confirming.
      - cozzyd 1y ago
        And to be clear, I'm not necessarily against running readsb I just don't want to run random bash scripts that mess with a running system... It looks like readsb is an evolution of dump1090 with potentially more features? I'll look into it when we consider reworking our software. For now I added a quick socat and I'll find out soon if it worked (no planes currently over Summit...). It would be nice if these websites advertised "Start feeding from your running dump1090 instance with socat tcp:localhost:30005 tcp:foo.bar:30004, here is a systemd service that does that." edit: it worked! airplanes.live now tracking QTR28V from Seattle to Doha. But to conserve bandwidth, it might make sense to send through a compressed ssh tunnel to something not in the middle of the Greenland ice sheet.
    - mcpherrinm 1y ago
      Is there a good documentation (or maybe code) reference to the protocols that get used here? Running readsb is fine enough by me, but I'm just interested in how these systems work. I see some mentions of a Beast format. And then there's the mlat-client too
toomuchtodo 1y ago
https://airplanes.live/get-started/ https://airplanes.live/get-started/ (other sites are corporate or have sold out [adsbexchange], happy to contribute reasonable costs to get a feed, no affiliation, I just like sensor feeds, thank you for the offer and consideration)
- cozzyd 1y ago
  I appreciate the information! And yes, the fact that most sites are corporate makes me really distrustful of running random scripts from them. This is sort of an example of what I'm talking about though, this script seems to install a bunch of random stuff but what I really want is an API to incorporate into our own recording process. As far as I can tell from a brief look, this binary (?) is downloaded from somewhere and run: https://github.com/airplanes-live/feed/blob/main/scripts/airplanes-feed.sh#L36 https://github.com/airplanes-live/feed/blob/main/scripts/air... but I just want to incorporate it in the system we're using already when I finally get to improving it from a 10-minute hack job from when I set it up as a side project that ended up being really useful (https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17522 https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17522)
  - toomuchtodo 1y ago
    I have to dive in a bit more to give good and specific guidance/context, but fundamentally, your system will require a shim to "speak" $UAT_SOURCE and the output this would expect, assuming the source was an sdr. Want help writing the code for this? Specs to build requirements RNO-G in -> SDR out are welcome. https://airplanes.live/hardware/ https://airplanes.live/hardware/ https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b/ https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b/ might also be of value.
    - cozzyd 1y ago
      yes, we have an SDR running some form of dump1090, then we are parsing json output from that and sticking it in a local sqlite database (we cycle databases once per day). Then that sqlite database eventually gets copied down. There are plans to improve our system to read a bit more directly but on low priority. It looks like these tools expect some format called BEAST that maybe can already be generated by dump1090, and then it's just a TCP stream to some endpoint?
btreesOfSpring 1y ago
Check out https://adsb.im https://adsb.im
evil-olive 1y ago
sdr-enthusiasts [0] produces some very nice self-contained Docker images as an alternative to the `curl | sudo bash` style of install script that plagues a lot of the ADSB ecosystem. most likely all you need is their "ultrafeeder" [1,2] image. 0: https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b 1: https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b/foundations/deploy-ultrafeeder-container https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b/foundations/deploy-... 2: https://github.com/sdr-enthusiasts/docker-adsb-ultrafeeder https://github.com/sdr-enthusiasts/docker-adsb-ultrafeeder
jjwiseman 1y ago
It's good to be careful. A popular ADS-B network used to distribute a raspberry pi image that let the maintainers ssh into your machine whenever they wanted.
- rpcope1 1y ago
  FlightAware?

by cozzyd 1y ago

NoiseBert69 1y ago

ADS-B is easy to receive with an 'rtlsdr' and opensource tools.

cozzyd 1y ago
Yeah we are receiving it and dumping it into a sqlite database per day, but we're not sharing it.

rootusrootus 1y ago

You can get containerized feeders for services like fr24 (e.g. liggy1/fr24feed) but that may not meet your requirements since it's really intended to handle everything from the sdr to the API, not siphon off data you are collecting some other way and then feed it.

cozzyd 1y ago
Yeah I definitely don't want to run an opaque container either. We're already collecting and storing the data... I am happy to throw the data over via a udp socket or http request, but I don't want random software that we don't control running...
- jonah-archive 1y ago
  I had the same concerns awhile back and ending up running a slightly modified version of https://github.com/wiedehopf/mlat-client https://github.com/wiedehopf/mlat-client -- not quite as simple as an http push, but much simpler than a containerized feed client.
  - wiedehopf 1y ago
    That's only MLAT though and won't feed the ADS-B data.
- wiedehopf 1y ago
  If you're not comfortable running my readsb (fork of dump1090) which is the feed client used by live / lol / fi and some other sites, then you can probably just send them data using socat. Most of them will have port 30004 open for their ingest domain, usually feed.domain.com. Thus you'd hook up socat to 127.0.0.1:30005 (i assume you run dump1090 or readsb locally as a decoder). And make socat send that to feed.adsb.lol:30004 and/or feed.airplanes.live:30004 If you're in a remote location, you don't need to worry about mlat-client as MLAT requires at least 4 receivers that receive common aircraft.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - cozzyd 1y ago
    Thanks! After doing some more digging I suspected something like this was the simplest solution! Thanks for confirming.
    - cozzyd 1y ago
      And to be clear, I'm not necessarily against running readsb I just don't want to run random bash scripts that mess with a running system... It looks like readsb is an evolution of dump1090 with potentially more features? I'll look into it when we consider reworking our software. For now I added a quick socat and I'll find out soon if it worked (no planes currently over Summit...). It would be nice if these websites advertised "Start feeding from your running dump1090 instance with socat tcp:localhost:30005 tcp:foo.bar:30004, here is a systemd service that does that." edit: it worked! airplanes.live now tracking QTR28V from Seattle to Doha. But to conserve bandwidth, it might make sense to send through a compressed ssh tunnel to something not in the middle of the Greenland ice sheet.
  - mcpherrinm 1y ago
    Is there a good documentation (or maybe code) reference to the protocols that get used here? Running readsb is fine enough by me, but I'm just interested in how these systems work. I see some mentions of a Beast format. And then there's the mlat-client too

toomuchtodo 1y ago

https://airplanes.live/get-started/ https://airplanes.live/get-started/ (other sites are corporate or have sold out [adsbexchange], happy to contribute reasonable costs to get a feed, no affiliation, I just like sensor feeds, thank you for the offer and consideration)

cozzyd 1y ago
I appreciate the information! And yes, the fact that most sites are corporate makes me really distrustful of running random scripts from them. This is sort of an example of what I'm talking about though, this script seems to install a bunch of random stuff but what I really want is an API to incorporate into our own recording process. As far as I can tell from a brief look, this binary (?) is downloaded from somewhere and run: https://github.com/airplanes-live/feed/blob/main/scripts/airplanes-feed.sh#L36 https://github.com/airplanes-live/feed/blob/main/scripts/air... but I just want to incorporate it in the system we're using already when I finally get to improving it from a 10-minute hack job from when I set it up as a side project that ended up being really useful (https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17522 https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17522)
- toomuchtodo 1y ago
  I have to dive in a bit more to give good and specific guidance/context, but fundamentally, your system will require a shim to "speak" $UAT_SOURCE and the output this would expect, assuming the source was an sdr. Want help writing the code for this? Specs to build requirements RNO-G in -> SDR out are welcome. https://airplanes.live/hardware/ https://airplanes.live/hardware/ https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b/ https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b/ might also be of value.
  - cozzyd 1y ago
    yes, we have an SDR running some form of dump1090, then we are parsing json output from that and sticking it in a local sqlite database (we cycle databases once per day). Then that sqlite database eventually gets copied down. There are plans to improve our system to read a bit more directly but on low priority. It looks like these tools expect some format called BEAST that maybe can already be generated by dump1090, and then it's just a TCP stream to some endpoint?

btreesOfSpring 1y ago

Check out https://adsb.im https://adsb.im

evil-olive 1y ago

sdr-enthusiasts [0] produces some very nice self-contained Docker images as an alternative to the `curl | sudo bash` style of install script that plagues a lot of the ADSB ecosystem. most likely all you need is their "ultrafeeder" [1,2] image. 0: https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b 1: https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b/foundations/deploy-ultrafeeder-container https://sdr-enthusiasts.gitbook.io/ads-b/foundations/deploy-... 2: https://github.com/sdr-enthusiasts/docker-adsb-ultrafeeder https://github.com/sdr-enthusiasts/docker-adsb-ultrafeeder

jjwiseman 1y ago

It's good to be careful. A popular ADS-B network used to distribute a raspberry pi image that let the maintainers ssh into your machine whenever they wanted.

rpcope1 1y ago
FlightAware?