I’ve been using dump1090 for years with a single practical application. During the hurricanes over the 25 years of living near the Texas coast, I noticed local news was constantly reporting the status of the airports during storms. “How’s Hobby? How’s Bush Airport?” I started thinking about this. If an evacuation is necessary, would the airports be the last port of call for my life in Houston? Probably not, but it is a useful data point.
If you know the airport is operating, you can receive things from elsewhere in the country. The postal service is likely running if there are planes in the air. If there is a helicopter hovering over my neighborhood, there was either an accident or someone is being looked for depending on what type of helicopter. This is all useful information.
Enter dump1090 post Hurricane Harvey. With a Raspberry Pi, an ADS-B receiver, and a little bit of technical know-how, I was able to open a web-browser and see what is overhead. If I had Internet at the time, I was able to figure out where it’s going. Unfortunately, dump1090 is no longer maintained. There hasn’t been an update in 11 years on github.
Last night, I discovered tar1090, an actively developed aircraft tracker with a modern web interface. I have it up and running and am very impressed. So far, it’s ideal for my bug-in toolkit.
