Inflight Wifi + USB ADS-B receiver?

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Sitting on inflight wifi on a 15 hour flight over the pacific in an area with no current ADS-B coverage thinking… Has anyone ever used a USB ADS-B receiver on a plane and sent data back via inflight WiFI? Seems like it could be a good way to get some coverage on flights where there currently isn’t any (at least until the new satellite feeds come online next year!)

2

It’s an interesting idea, there are a few potential issues

  1. you’re sitting in a large metal tube (usually…) which is not great for reception
  2. you’re sitting <50m from a 500W transponder transmitter, this may deafen the receiver
  3. not a technical thing, but messing around with antennas mid-flight may raise some questions…

Stratux is doing basically the same thing without the wifi backhaul in a GA context.

3

i have done this but without internet onboard usually i fly with Ryanair and that does not have wifi, i use this app and signal receiver with a standart dvbt donge is pretty good
play.google.com/store/apps/deta … ADSB_final

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

4

Interesting idea. I will be flying AS to OGG next month, no inflight internet. If I wanted to load a tracker onto my android device, being less than <50m from the transmitter (I will be sitting two rows behind the wings, probably 20m at most), will i need the antenna on the receiver? One less wire to deal with and fewer questions inflight. Assuming the AS 738 I ride on is ADS-B equipped, I will get aircraft position along the way. Many of the AS 738’s do not have ADS-B. Things may not work out for me.

5

I’ve done it a couple of times (when you’re stuck in one of those planes without fancy displays that show we’re you’re at on the map).

Usually I just use a regular dongle without antenna (because as mentioned, pulling an antenna out might raise some questions). I then launch RTL1090 (beta v3) which has a nicely built-in map that shows me where I am without the need of internet to download map tiles.

My reception is usually just the plane I am on. On a rare occasion it shows other planes -very- close to me, generally limited to 3 max. Tried once with the antenna and that only made one extra plane popup.

Hope this might answer some of your questions