Interesting ADS-B broadcasts... What are they?

I have my Pi running dump1090 with the --write-json flag, and then I have a Python script that opens the json file and copies it to a file if there is any aircraft. I have had it running for the past day and a half, and I am seeing some very interesting enteries. Such as:

{ "now" : 1745564263.9,
  "messages" : 139804,
  "aircraft" : [
    {"hex":"000000","squawk":"1400","altitude":123100,"mlat":[],"tisb":[],"messages":2,"seen":22.6,"rssi":-44.3}
  ]
}
{ "now" : 1745565735.7,
  "messages" : 140199,
  "aircraft" : [
    {"hex":"738a69","squawk":"4142","flight":"IRON    ","altitude":30075,"vert_rate":0,"category":"A3","mlat":[],"tisb":[],"messages":393,"seen":48.0,"rssi":-31.9}
  ]
}

Are these spoofed? Or an actual broadcast from 120,000 feet and a flight named ‘IRON’?

Military flights are usually running with some “creative” names. Nothing unusual. The hex code is linked to an Israeli Gulfstream with some “special features”. Typically a radar/surveillance aircraft:

The first one is either a blocked aircraft/baloon etc. or it is simply wrong data.

Are aircraft/balloons at 120,000 being detected on ADS-B a common occurence? And same for data being incorrect.

Yes, Balloons are sometimes detected. What suspicious is the missing HEX code

1 Like

So what do you think it may be?

Can be anything.

Weak signal, incorrect data, blocked aircraft…

What does blocked aircraft mean, that they intentionally obfuscate their signal?

yes

(reply must be at least 20 characters)