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I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

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Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#111
post #73
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you filtering out military planes?

There's no reason to if they are flying with ADS-B transmitting. They're broadcasting their position and will usually appear on FR24 etc. If they are flying without ADS-B (which is legal for the military when needed) they won't be picked up by this system so no filtering needed.

Phantom planes are also technically possible. One could even do it themselves using the "Havok" firmware for HackRF One. I won't link to it, but to quote its wiki, "Yes, it works. For real. If you want to try it out, DO NOT transmit on restricted bands and ESPECIALLY NOT on 1090MHz."

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#113
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many airlines have arrangements where banks purchase the planes outright then lease them back in a long-term deal. Helps with airlines finances.

Isn’t the operator of a flight what shows up in e.g. Flightradar and also what you’d typically be most interested in, rather than the owner of the aircraft?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30041431

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#114
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did that camera set you back (or did you get it some other way)? Their page only says "Call for pricing", which usually means it's going to be outside my hobby budget hah.

I managed to get it for $500 on ebay... but I just checked and it looks like similar ones are around $1000 now, so I guess I got lucky. An Axis PTZ dome camera turned upside down works great too though and there are a lot of those available on Ebay.

Do you know any similar cameras for even cheaper (i.e. cheap Chinese stuff)?

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#115

Hi! I am the guy behind this, awesome to see it posted here. Happy to answer any questions. To answer a question I saw pop up, I am using the FAA aircraft registration data to pull up the extra information about the planes. It lists who actually owns the plane, vs who is operating it. That is why you see so many banks. Places like Flightaware have much better data, but a pricy to look up.

Ok, so how long before someone looks at those flights, times and maps out your exact house address?

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#118

My favorite was "Meatball Martini Airlines LLC." I'm going guess an Italian owns that.

I did some digging to try to find out. I found the owner's (well, registrant's) house, and it was reasonably average for someone flying their own private jet.

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#119

Hi! I am the guy behind this, awesome to see it posted here. Happy to answer any questions. To answer a question I saw pop up, I am using the FAA aircraft registration data to pull up the extra information about the planes. It lists who actually owns the plane, vs who is operating it. That is why you see so many banks. Places like Flightaware have much better data, but a pricy to look up.

Ok, so how long before someone looks at those flights, times and maps out your exact house address?

in grandpa voice

Back in my day, everyone’s address was listed in the phone book. If you wanted to remain anonymous, you had to pay a service charge to keep yourself from being listed!

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#120
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead you should just feed ADSBExchange, which doesn't require premium business plans or other nonsense. They also do not censor the data and will show you planes that the owners don't want you to see. https://www.adsbexchange.com/

Back when I first discovered flightradar24 it seemed like every plane I was curious about came up on there. The curious ones are mostly military planes as they don't follow standard routes and schedules. Then more and more I noticed stuff not appearing. Later I discovered ADSBExchange and things seemed to be on there. But now, again, I regular hear military planes right over my house with not a thing shown on ADSBExc…

Yes it is uncensored. Starting in 2019, aircraft conducting operations related to homeland security, law enforcement, national defense or intelligence can turn off ADSB out and communicate their location to the FAA out of band.
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