Local Aircraft Radar using ACARS signal

May 3, 2026

There was a time when I liked aircrafts a lot. Like a really lot. But you know what is even more cool than flying a plane? To me, it is the understanding of aircraft communication systems, avionics and embedded systems and the overall engineering efforts applied to these amazing flying beasts!

Primarily

Constrained by the lack of support for VHF2/ADS-B on my old RTL-SDR, and unwilling to buy a new one (v3 or v4), I decided to use what I got instead.

Support for \

dump1090_rs —driver “remote, remote=tcp://127.0.0.1:55132, remote:driver=rtlsdr”

https://osmocom.org/projects/rtl-sdr/wiki

acarsdec —output full:file —soapysdr driver=rtlsdr 131.450 131.525 131.550 131.725 131.825

https://github.com/rsadsb/adsb_deku#

https://github.com/wiedehopf/tar1090

https://mode-s.org/1090mhz/

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-radio-scanner-tutorial-receiving-airplane-data-with-acars/

https://www.gta.ufrj.br/ensino/eel878/redes1-2023-1/trabalhos/Grupo03/acars.html