Configuring ADS-B Ports

YAAC's adsbdecoder plugin can receive ADS-B and UAT aviation surveillance radio signals using Software Defined Radios (SDR) and appropriate demodulation software, such as the rtl_sdr software package with its rtl_adsb decoder program, or optional software that can decode and convert UAT information, such as available at https://github.com/mutability/dump978.

To add a new ADS-B port, click the Add button on the Configure Ports tab. The port editing dialog will appear. Set the port type to ADS-B.

configuration panel for ADS-B receiver port

The other parameters you will need to specify for ADS-B is the connection to the ADS-B receiver you will use. The ADS-B receiver must provide the demodulated ADS-B raw information in the format

*xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;

where the * and ; are literal characters and the x characters are the hex digits of the binary message (the Linux utility rtl_adsb reports the messages in this format). YAAC can connect to the ADS-B receiver in two ways:

Once you have the settings the way you want them, click OK. Ensure that the SDR is connected to your computer, if you are using socket mode, that the SDR software has been already been started on your computer before you click OK. At that time, the port will launch the specified command (if using command mode) or connect to the SDR software socket (if using socket mode), and wait for ADS-B ASCII-hex frames to be received.