Hello!
So when I go airplane spotting. I would like to see the airplanes flying in the vicinity without using a flight radar app which can be very delayed. Is there any type of mobile radar that a civilian could get their hands on? If so, where can I find it?
For the most part they are pretty accurate in my opinion. Interesting to see if there are other options though, however I highly doubt anything will beat Flightradar24 on a cost, mobility and reliability basis
MaxSez: best option: See if the App “Live ATC” bcast’s your Airports Tower or Approach. No cheap radar options for hobbies yet in search freq. max
you don’t need a radar, you can cheaply and fairly easily get a software defined radio receiver(this particular one can also pickup European over the air TV signals, but won’t work for American TV) and a small antenna, and pickup ads-b (type of transponder, not every plane in the USA has to have this type yet, but all passenger jets do) broadcasts from planes ( I’ve used my android phone and an app like this one to display it, I’m sure if you have a laptop there are pc apps that do the same).
Radios like that can ALSO (but NOT at the same time) be used to listen to atc (using a general purpose sdr radio app like this (it also picks up fm, weather, and many other radio bands, but not HAM radio)
If you want to do look for different radio dongles, the key term to use is “RTL2832” as that chip seems to be quite well supported.
All you need is a fast internet connection and flightradar. It’s the best free service you can use when airplane spotting.
Best thing for it is a marine grade one from garmin.
Get LiveATC and listen for what flight it is.
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