A lot of the flight trackers out there are using data from setups very like this! They are often crowdsourced (augmenting that by buying data for areas with little or no coverage like the FAA data for Atlantic/Pacific crossings).

It's a fun thing to setup and watch. :-)

We sell a similar receiver in our store! https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/mini-digital-tv-stick

FlightAware.com will send you a free one if you are in an area they need coverage for and are willing to keep it plugged in!

[1] https://flightaware.com/adsb/

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011HVUEME/ is the latest version I think, but I have the same version linked in your shop.

>Cool, but I'm not sure about the practical uses.

paradoxical difference between that consumer grade setup and military grade system:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-flaw-in-the-buk-missile-s...

"So the Buk can pick up the signal of an aircraft. But if it's operating in standalone mode, it can't tell whether that aircraft is a military target, or a jetliner with nearly 300 people onboard."

who needs practical uses?

Exactly, I'm a geek, I don't have practical uses for lots of things that I do.

I've got four of these "ADS-B receivers" (Raspberry Pi + SDR dongle + antenna) up and running in four different locations with a few more that still need to be set up and deployed. I don't have a practical use but it is pretty neat.

I considered trying to write my own stuff to do MLAT for aircraft without ADS-B transmitters after I get the others deployed but my math probably isn't that good.

Another thought was to log all of the location data from all my receivers to a central database and do "something" with it, although I've yet to figure out what that "something" is/would be.

> I don't have practical uses for lots of things that I do.

Seems like you're trying to come up with one!

My only point about practicality is that I don't know what I would use this for. Wrong term I suppose.