ADS-B - Decoding and displaying aircraft tracking data

I've been interested, for a long time, in watching the various websites showing aircraft data in real time, but not got around to doing it directly with an SDR, relevant applications and a suitable antenna.

After investigating what programmes were available for the Windows environment, I chose:

• RTL1090
  
  RTL1090 is a non tunable 1090 MHz receiver application for Mode-A/C or Mode-S transmissions.
  
  Mode A equipment transmits an identifying code only.
  Mode C equipment enables the air traffic controller see the aircraft altitude or flight level automatically.
  Mode S equipment has altitude capability and also permits data exchange.
  
  ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) is a technique that relies on aircraft or airport vehicles broadcasting their identity, position and other information derived from on board systems (GNSS etc.)
  
  This signal can be captured for surveillance purposes on the ground (ADS-B Out) or on board other aircraft in order to facilitate airborne traffic situational awareness, spacing, separation and self-separation (ADS-B In).
  
  
• Virtual Radar Server
  
  Virtual Radar Server is an open-source .NET application that runs a local web server.
  
  You can connect to the web server with any up to date browser and see the aircraft plotted on a map.

After configurations, these applications receive the local ADB-S 'S' mode transmissions and show aircraft details as a map overlay. The end effect is virtually identical to the web based and mobile 'phone based views, except for not needing an Internet connection and only being able to see a limited number of aircraft dependent on the antenna gain and location.

With an internal HB9CV - cut for 70 cm ! - I was still able to see plots up to around 40 miles distance:

Click on the image to see it full size! 😉

Decoding telemetry data from satellites 🚀

Here, to date, are the screen shots of the decoded telemetry data that I've been able to receive from a small range of satellites.

• CAS-9/XW-3/HO-113 was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in China.

It carries a CW telemetry beacon, GMSK telemetry data transmission, V/U mode linear transponder for SSB and CW, a visible light band space camera and an experimental thermoelectric generator for high school students.

It took several attempts to obtain a strong enough signal for decodable data; an 84 degree pass finally produced the necessary results. 😊

The decoded data I received was as follows: 

 Click on the images to see them full size! 😉 

There may be an issue with with SWR - note the forward and reflected power levels which give a calculated figure of about 5.5:1.

• The Bobcat-1 satellite was developed at the Ohio University Avionics Engineering Centre and launched on October 2nd 2020 and deployed into orbit from the ISS on November 5, 2020.

It is a 3U cubesat deployed to study Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). As implied, the global network includes Europe’s Galileo, the USA’s NAVSTAR GPS system, Russia’s GLONASS and China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System. Studies will hopefully improve the availability and performance of these navigation systems for other satellites and spacecraft.

It will probably de-orbit sometime early in 2022.

 

• The KSU-Cubesat (King Saud University Cubesat) is a 1U cubesat which was developed by students and researchers of the College of Engineering at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.
  
  It was launched on March 22nd 2021 from Kazakhstan and takes photographs of the Earth, moon and space and sends the images to the College ground station.

• JAISAT-1 (Joint Academy for Intelligent Satellites for Amateur Radio of Thailand) - a 3U cubesat - was launched on July 5th 2019.  It is Thailand's first amateur radio satellite.
  
  The JAISAT-1 Beacon signal is on 435.700 MHz in GMSK Mobitex 4800 bps and it carries an amateur radio 2m to 70 cm linear transponder for SSB and CW communications.