readsb
A high-performance ADS-B decoder for real-time aircraft tracking and data aggregation from SDR receivers.
What is readsb?
Readsb is a fork of the original dump1090 project, optimized as a high-performance decoder for Mode-S and ADS-B signals captured by software-defined radios. It transforms raw RF data into structured aircraft position, velocity, and identification information, solving the need for a reliable, extensible backend for flight tracking systems.
Aviation enthusiasts, hobbyists running personal ADS-B stations, developers of flight tracking websites, and operators of aggregated flight data services who need a robust, self-hosted decoder.
Developers choose readsb for its proven stability, extensive network protocol support, and active development focused on performance and interoperability with major flight tracking platforms, all while remaining fully open-source and configurable.
Overview
ADS-B decoder swiss knife
Use Cases
Best For
- Building a personal ADS-B receiver station with an RTL-SDR dongle
- Feeding real-time flight data to public aggregators like ADSB Exchange
- Powering a self-hosted flight tracking map with tar1090 web interface
- Setting up a high-traffic ADS-B data ingestion node for a global network
- Decoding and analyzing Mode-S/ADS-B signals for aviation research
- Creating a lightweight, headless ADS-B decoder for Raspberry Pi or embedded systems
Not Ideal For
- Mission-critical production systems requiring absolute stability
- Users wanting a complete GUI flight tracker without additional software integration
- Projects focused on decoding non-aviation SDR signals like AIS or weather data
- Teams lacking Linux command-line and system administration skills
Pros & Cons
Pros
Decodes ADS-B, Mode-S, TIS, and Mode A/C with CRC error correction, providing comprehensive aircraft signal processing for diverse tracking needs.
Configurable decode threads and CPU-specific builds, like -mcpu flags for Raspberry Pi, enable efficient handling of high data rates from embedded to server hardware.
BeastReduce output throttles data for aggregators, and TCP support for Beast, RAW, SBS, JSON, and ASTERIX protocols ensures seamless integration with global flight tracking networks.
Generates JSON traces and heatmaps that power web interfaces like tar1090, directly supporting major public tracking sites such as adsb.lol and globe.adsbexchange.com.
Cons
The README warns it's 'continually under development' with expectations of bugs and segfaults, making it unsuitable for deployments where crashes are unacceptable.
Requires manual building from source with dependencies like librtlsdr-dev, or reliance on external scripts, and involves detailed command-line options for setup, posing a steep learning curve.
Critical instructions are scattered across multiple external wikis and GitHub pages, such as the adsb-scripts and tar1090 repos, complicating onboarding and troubleshooting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
dump1090Dump1090 is a simple Mode S decoder for RTLSDR devices
plane-alert-dbA list of interesting aircraft - Governments, Dictators, Military, Historic and just plain odd.
flightmonSimple command-line "GUI" for showing current dump1090/readsb data
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