Assembly of a Standalone Low-Cost RTL-SDR Receiver Using a Raspberry Pi
Alan M. Hubbard, Soroush Karimi, Nathan F. Hutchins · 2025
This paper presents the design and evaluation of a standalone, low-cost ADS-B monitoring system using a Raspberry Pi 5 and RTL-SDR receiver. As global air traffic density continues to rise, affordable and scalable alternatives to conventional surveillance systems are increasingly necessary. Leveraging the flexibility of Software Defined Radio (SDR) and the low power consumption of Single Board Computers (SBCs), this project implements a complete Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) ground station for continuous aircraft signal monitoring. The system architecture uses Dump1090 as the primary decoding tool while also exploring alternative ADS-B data processing methods and their advantages. A detailed assessment of theoretical line-of-sight detection was performed using geospatial tools, followed by two data collection campaigns totaling 55 days. Over 2.4 million ADS-B messages were received, with approximately 77% of active aircraft at Tulsa International Airport successfully detected. This work demonstrates the viability of distributed low-cost ADS-B receivers for augmenting surveillance coverage. Future work will focus on developing a network of multilateration-capable receivers to improve spatial awareness and detect spoofing.