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BaseStation and RTL1090

A screenshot from my BaseStation installation showing a handful of midday planes within range of Toronto CYYZ.

If you’ve read my first post, you may have noticed a passing reference to an optional piece of software called BaseStation. This application is the software that ships with the Kinetic Avionics SBS radar boxes. However, you can also download the software and — using some third-party magic — connect it to your cheap RTLSDR dongle.

Even if you aren’t planning to use BaseStation as your main virtual radar application, you may still want to download and install it in order to get a virgin copy of the BaseStation SQLite database. This database seems to be the one on which all others are based; at the very least, it is used (directly or indirectly) or referenced by most of the other virtual radar applications like Virtual Radar Server or PlanePlotter.

The BaseStation database stores all of the information about the aircraft received by your dongle, and in a separate table it stores flight information for those aircraft. This is a wealth of data that can be used to determine how many times a single aircraft has been within range, the different routes it flies, and other tidbits that are considered useless information by your spouse but fascinate you.

Installing BaseStation

When you go to download BaseStation, you’ll notice there are two options: the first is a .zip file and the second is the CDROM version but is also a .zip file. I’m honestly not sure what the difference is, but I used the CDROM .zip file so I’m going to suggest you do as well. Save the .zip file somewhere you can locate it later, like in your Downloads folder or on your Desktop.

Once the download is complete, locate the .zip file and right-click on it. In the contextual menu that appears, select Extract All…. In the window that appears, make sure the box is checked beside Show extracted files when complete. That way the path where the files are uncompressed isn’t important. When the extraction finishes you’ll get a new window with a list of the uncompressed files. Double-click Setup.exe to start the install.

By default, BaseStation will want to install in C:\Program Files\Kinetic\BaseStation, but we want to change that to C:\Kinetic\BaseStation. The reason we want to eliminate Program Files from the path is that some of the other virtual radar apps that use the BaseStation database can’t write to a file that is within the Program Files directory structure. By installing BaseStation outside of that structure, we can get around that restriction. After the install completes, don’t run BaseStation just yet. We need to install that third-party magic I mentioned earlier before BaseStation will work with our dongle.

The Magic

First of all, thank you to François (F5ANN) for figuring out the software and steps required to do this. With that out of the way, let’s get that software. You will need:

COMbyTCP — this application will take a stream of data from a TCP port (like 31001, the one RTL1090 uses to serve the data from our dongle) and outputs it to a virtual COM port (like COM1, COM2, etc…) that you’re probably used to seeing on your computer.
com2tcp — a command line tool that takes the data from the virtual COM port and turns it back into a TCP port. (The download link is on the left side of the page.)
com0com — a utility that creates the virtual COM port for the other two apps to use. NOTE: You may have difficulty getting com0com to work in a 64-bit version of Windows due to the way Windows restricts digitally unsigned drivers. ~~There is a command line version that can be used in a 64-bit OS, but I haven’t managed to get it to work properly yet (so many options!), so I’m just going to pretend it doesn’t exist for now~~. Please see the comments below for instructions on modifying the app to work in 64-bit Windows.

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We’ll begin by installing and setting up the last app, com0com. Double-click Setup.exe to run the installer. Once it’s finished, you should have a folder in your Start menu for com0com, and inside that folder is a Setup application. Run that and you should get a window something like this:

It should have setup two virtual pairs of ports, one called CNCA0 and CNCB0, and a second pair whose names start with COM. Depending on your system’s configuration and the number of real, physical COM ports installed, the numbers after the word COM could be anything. The important thing to remember is that they are pairs; so if the first one is COM3 the second should be COM4. Or the pairs could be COM11 and COM12. Because the numbers could (likely would) be different on your system compared to mine, I’m going to refer to them as COMx and COMy. Substitute x and y with whatever the numbers are for your virtual pair. Remember these two virtual port numbers because you’re going to need them in the next steps.

TCP to COM and Back Again

UPDATE 2013-02-21: François reports that with the latest versions of RTL1090, COMbyTCP is no longer required. You can read his instructions here.

Next we’ll configure COMbyTCP. This app doesn’t have an installer so you can put COMbyTCP.exe anywhere on your system that you like. Run it by double-clicking its icon and you’ll see a screen that needs some configuring. There are essentially two sides to the app: the left side is for setting up the TCP port you want to get the data stream from; and the right side is to tell the app which COM port you want to send the data stream to. Setup the left side of COMbyTCP like this:

COMbyTCP Left Side — Set the IP address and port number to the address and port of the machine on which you’re running RTL1090. This is likely 127.0.0.1 and 31001 if you’re using default settings and only one computer.

If you’ve changed anything in the setup of RTL1090, or you’re running RTL1090 on a different computer from the one on which you are running BaseStation, COMbyTCP, com2tcp and com0com, you’re settings will be different than these. But if you’re new to this hobby and haven’t changed anything, then it’s likely that your server is 127.0.0.1 and the port is RTL1090’s default 31001.

The right side of COMbyTCP is where you tell the app which COM port to send the data stream to. Here you will enter COMx as the port (remember, substitute x with your actual port number) and 3000000 as the baud rate. The rest of the fields should already be completed by default.

COMbyTCP Right Side — Set the port to COMx, the first COM port number in your virtual port pair that was setup by com0com. Set the baud rate to 3000000.

Once you’ve entered the correct information, you need to click two buttons in COMbyTCP: the first is Client, which will start the program listening to the TCP port; the second button to click is Get COM, which will connect to COMx and start sending the data stream to it.

Phew. I know this seems like a lot of work just to see some real-world aircraft on a virtual radar screen, but I think it’s worth it. And after you’ve done it once or twice, it gets easier and quicker to go through these steps. Anyway, at the moment we’re about halfway there. Yes, just half. Let’s continue.

We’ve now established a connection to RTL1090’s TCP data stream and are pumping it through to a virtual com port, but now we need to convert it back to TCP again. Why? BaseStation can connect to a Kinetic Avionic SBS box two ways: through a USB cable, or using Ethernet. Since we can’t fake a USB port, our only other option is Ethernet. And that means converting our data back to a TCP stream.

We’ll use com2tcp to do this, but unfortunately this application runs only from the command line. So we’re going to write a batch file (.bat) that we can save and use to run com2tcp using the same settings over and over again. Start by opening Notepad (Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories) and type in the following line of text:

com2tcp.exe --baud 3000000 --ignore-dsr --sbsbin \\.\comY 10001

Replace comY with the second com port number from your virtual port pair. So if COMx was 3, then COMy might be 4. Check com0com to make sure you’ve got the right pair. The last five digits in the command, 10001, are the port number to which you want to send the data. You don’t have to use 10001, but you should use a port that you know isn’t being used by any other application on your system. 10001 is as good a port as any other.

Now save your Notepad document. Call it com2tcp.bat and save it in the same folder as the com2tcp application. (In Notepad’s save dialog, you likely will need to change the format drop-down to “All files” in order for it to take the .bat file extension.) Double-click your batch file and it should execute a command window a return some text. After that it will appear to do nothing. That’s perfect. It won’t display anything else until BaseStation connects to it. At this point, you can minimize the command window and COMbyTCP.

Running and Configuring BaseStation

You probably thought we’d never get here. It seems like a lot of work, but it isn’t really. It takes just seconds to get this far the next time. But now we’re at the stage where we can launch BaseStation, configure it, and see some pretty planes. At this point, you’ll need to know your GPS co-ordinates in decimal format. If you don’t know them, you can find them by entering your address at http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/geocode.

Launch BaseStation. (This is so exciting!) The configuration wizard will run and prompt you to enter your location. You can either enter a city near you or enter your latitude and longitude. I recommend the latter. Click Next and you’ll be prompted to specify how you’re connecting to the data stream: USB or Network. Choose Network and enter the ip address and port number that you want BaseStation to connect to. This will be the ip address of the computer running com2tcp, which we setup earlier (likely this is 127.0.0.1), and the port you specified in the batch file (our default was 10001).

BaseStation Setup — BaseStation prompts you for your location and then for an ip address and port number.

When you click Next, BaseStation will attempt to connect to the specified TCP port and read the data stream coming from it. If you’ve done everything right, within just a few seconds you should see a virtual radar screen with some aircraft plotted on it. Congratulations!

In addition to seeing planes plotted on the screen, the command window running com2tcp should now be displaying additional lines of text regarding a connection from BaseStation. You don’t need to do anything with this information; I just wanted you to be aware that it appears there.

Using 2 RTLSDR dongles to expand coverage

If you’re like me, you’ve setup your RTLSDR dongle, you’ve connected some software to it, you’ve seen some aircraft on your screen and you’ve said, “Cool! How do I see more?”

If you’re even more like me, you can’t get your antenna up to the roofline so it has a nice 360˚ view of the sky. So what can you do to expand your coverage in other directions so your software (Virtual Radar Server, PlanePlotter, etc) is seeing more of the horizon?

A plot of the maximum distance at which I've tracked aircraft using my two RTLSDR dongles. 398 nautical miles is my record. — A plot of the maximum distance at which I’ve tracked aircraft using my two RTLSDR dongles. 398 nautical miles is my record.

Use two dongles!

RTL1090 includes a wickedly cool feature that lets you string instances of the software together. These instances can be running on the same computer or on different computers on the same network. I’m using the latter, with one dongle plugged into a desktop computer in the living room and a second dongle plugged into a netbook in the bedroom. My bedroom faces south and my living room west, and that gives me relatively good coverage of roughly 240˚.

What Do You Need?

You’ll need a few things to set this up:

two (or more) RTL2832U dongles
two computers (odds are you have one already setup otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this yet)
a wired or wireless network to which you can connect the two computers — your router needs to support UDP (most do)
the RTL1090 software installed on both computers
an understanding spouse who will let you run a computer 24/7 in the bedroom (I’m a very lucky man. And no, you can’t have her.)

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Here’s my setup:

Primary PC: in the living room, a 20″ Intel iMac (2006 model) running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and on which I’ve installed Boot Camp, partitioned the hard drive, and installed Windows 7 Ultimate, set to be the startup disk. That may sound unnecessarily complicated but I’m comfortable with Macs and OS X and I had a spare iMac capable of running Windows. This machine is connected by ethernet to my router.
Secondary PC: In the bedroom is a Dell Mini 10v Netbook running Windows 7 Basic and connected to my network by wifi (802.11n).
Each computer has a dongle connected and configured using the steps I outlined in this post.

The trick to sending the data stream from the secondary dongle to the primary PC is in the command line parameters you use when you launch RTL1090.

Huh?

Yeah, that needs some explanation. Many Windows applications can accept parameters being passed to them when you double-click their icons. These parameters instruct the application to behave in certain ways, like using certain ports on the network, for example.

Network Ports and Command Line Parameters

By default, RTL1090 uses port 31001, 31002, 31012 and 31004 for different purposes. Port 31001 is used to broadcast the data stream that RTL1090 is receiving from your dongle. Port 31002 is used to receive the data stream from a second dongle on the network. Port 31012 is used to send data to a second dongle. And lastly, port 31004 is used to broadcast the same data stream as port 31001 but in a different format (called TCP 30003 format).

So let’s think this through: the primary instance of RTL1090 (in my case, the one running on the iMac in my living room) is listening on port 31002 for data from a second dongle. That means my second dongle has to be sending its data stream on the same port, 31002. But if I don’t change anything in RTL1090 using a command line parameter, my second dongle is going to be sending its data stream over the network on port 31002, just like the first one. That won’t work. To avoid this, we’re going to force each instance of RTL1090 to use certain specific ports. We’ll do this using two command line parameters: /portbase and /udptarget.

If you followed my instructions for installing RTL1090, you put it in C:\RTL1090. I recommend creating a shortcut to the application on your desktop. To do this, right-click on the RTL1090 application and choose Send to > Desktop (create shortcut). Now we need to add the command line parameters to the shortcut so that they are executed whenever we double-click the shortcut to run RTL1090. To do this, right-click on the shortcut and choose Properties.

A window opens and all of the text in the Target field is highlighted in blue to indicate it is selected. This text should read C:\RTL1090\rtl1090.exe. Press the right arrow key on your keyboard to move to the end of the line then tap the spacebar to insert a space. What you are going to type next depends on which computer you’re using at the moment:

on your primary computer, type /portbase=31000 so that the whole line now reads C:\RTL1090\rtl1090.exe /portbase=31000.
on your secondary computer, type /portbase=31020 /udptarget=31000 so that the whole line now reads C:\RTL1090\rtl1090.exe /portbase=31020 /udptarget=31000.

Click OK to close the window and save the new parameters to the shortcut.

What we’ve just done is force RTL1090 on your primary computer to use its default ports. This may seem like a redundant step but we want to ensure the two instances of RTL1090 don’t conflict with each other. On the secondary computer, we’ve forced RTL1090 to use port numbers starting with 3102 (i.e. 31021, 31022, 31032 and 31024.) The second parameter, /udptarget, forces RTL1090 to send its data stream to the dongle on the primary computer using port 31002, which is the default port that RTL1090 listens to.

How Do You Know It Worked?

Start with the secondary computer. Double-click the shortcut on your desktop to run RTL1090. Click the Start button and then click the Send UDP button. If you look at the bottom of the RTL1090 application window, you should notice two things. First, there should now be an orange “light” turned on. Second, directly below the orange light you should see the text TCP Port: 31021.

RTL1090 configured to run using /portbase=31020 and transmitting data to another dongle on the network. — RTL1090 configured to run using **/portbase=31020** and transmitting data to another dongle on the network.

Now go to the primary computer and launch RTL1090 by double-clicking its shortcut on the desktop. Click the Start button. If you look at the bottom of the RTL1090 application window, you should see two things. First, the yellow light should now be on. This indicates RTL1090 is receiving data from another dongle on the network. Second, below that should be the text TCP Port: 31001.

RTL1090 configured to run using /portbase=31000 and receiving data from another dongle on the network. The green light indicates an application like VRS or PlanePlotter is connected to RTL1090. — RTL1090 configured to run using **/portbase=31000** and receiving data from another dongle on the network. The green light indicates an application like VRS or PlanePlotter is connected to RTL1090.

Now you need only tell your radar software (Virtual Radar Server, PlanePlotter, etc.) to connect to port 31001 on your primary computer. Because you’ve merged the data from the two dongles, your radar software will now see aircraft being received by both dongles.

What If I Want Both Dongles On One Computer?

The idea is the same if you want to run two dongles on just one computer. You’ll need the RTL1090 software installed twice, though. Basically, setup the first instance of RTL1090 the same way you would if you were using just one dongle, like in these instructions. Once you’ve done that, make a copy of the C:\RTL1090 folder and call it C:\RTL1090_2. Make sure it has all the same files in it.

A second copy of RTL1090 on one computer. The folder is a duplicate or C:\RTL1090 but is name C:\RTL1090_2. — A second copy of RTL1090 on one computer. The folder is a duplicate or **C:\RTL1090** but is named **C:\RTL1090_2**.

On your desktop you would create a shortcut to each of the RTL1090 applications. You can rename the shortcuts to have more meaningful names.

Screen Shot 2013-01-24 at 9.02.55 PM

Then edit the Properties for each and edit the Target field to add the /portbase parameter to the first shortcut, and both the /portbase and /udptarget parameters to the second shortcut. It doesn’t matter which instance you run first, nor does it matter which one you Start first. Just remember that with the second instance you need to also click the Send UDP button to have it send its data stream to the first instance.

How Many Dongles Can I Have?

I have no idea, but in order to see a full 360˚ you shouldn’t need more than three (120˚ each) or four (90˚ each). You’ll need to change the /portbase for each instance of RTL1090, but I highly recommend that your primary instance use the default /portbase of 31000. That way, all other instances can be configured to use the same /udptarget of 31000. Those other instances should use a /portbase that is an increment of 10 from the primary. So if the primary is 31000, then the others would use:

/portbase=31010 /udptarget=31000
/portbase=31020 /udptarget=31000
/portbase=31030 /udptarget=31000

So why did I use 31020 for my second dongle when I should have used 31010? Simple…

I made a typo and didn’t bother fixing it. 🙂

Connecting PlanePlotter directly to RTL1090

The beauty of technology today is that it provides for flexibility, often allowing you to achieve one thing in many ways. In my last blog post, I showed you how to go from RTL1090 to Virtual Radar Server, and then to branch the feed off to PlanePlotter, ADSBScope and FlightRadar24’s feeder software. This time around, I’ll focus on connecting PlanePlotter directly to RTL1090, eliminating the middle man that is Virtual Radar Server.

PlanePlotter

Beginning with PlanePlotter version 6.3.3, you can configure it to connect directly to an instance of RTL1090. You would begin, of course, by installing and configuring RTL1090 the way I described in my first post. You would also need to install PlanePlotter as I describe, but when it comes to setup the steps are slightly different…and in fact slightly shorter.

Go to Options > Home location > Home location setup and enter your latitude and longitude. You can use W and S to specify co-ordinates west of the prime meridian or south of the equator (e.g. N43.55555, W79.33333)
Next go to Options > I/O settings. Under Input data, make sure Mode-S/ADS-B is turned on, and in the list of receivers scroll down and select RTL Dongle.
In order to view the aircraft, click Process > Start. If all went well, planes should start appearing in PlanePlotter.

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Pretty simple, no? Yes!

Using a RTLSDR Dongle for ADS-B

I like planes. I like radios, too. When I discovered that a USB dongle designed for receiving over-the-air television signals could also be used to receive ADS-B broadcasts from commercial aircraft, I knew I had to try it. I mean, it combines two of my hobbies, so not trying it was simply not an option.

I read everything I could find on the Internet in order to get a system up and running. All the information was scattered across various sources, though: websites, Yahoo Groups, mailing lists, emails… I downloaded files, apps, PDF manuals… It was a lot of reading and a lot of trial and error, but in the end I had a system up and running. So that you don’t have to go through all of the trouble that I did, I’ve decided to compile everything I learned into a single step-by-step post that you can follow to accomplish the same thing. By the end, you’ll be able to see on a virtual radar screen the aircraft that fly within range of your location, log that information in a database for reporting, and you’ll be able to share that data with others to further the hobby.

You’ll need a few things first, namely hardware and software.

Hardware

A RTLSDR USB dongle that uses the RTL2832U/R820T chipset. I found mine on eBay for $19, shipping included. I’ve read that not all dongles are the same and not all can receive on the required frequency, so read the descriptions carefully. This is what I ordered.

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Software

Only three pieces of software are required — the rest are all optional depending on what you want to achieve.

Required

RTL1090 is the software that decodes the ADS-B transmissions from the aircraft that are received by your dongle. You can download the latest build of RTL1090 from Yahoo Groups at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/rtl1090_english/files/ (You’ll need to join the group first, but this is quick and easy.)
In order for your dongle to work with RTL1090, you’ll need the latest Zadig drivers from SourceForge. There are two versions of Zadig — one for Windows Vista and Windows 7, and a second version for Windows XP. Make sure you grab the right version from the site.
Lastly you’ll need some DLL (Dynamic Link Library) files that you can get here.

Optional

Now that you have the three required pieces of hardware, you’ll need to download at least one piece of optional software in order to see the results of of the decoded data.

PlanePlotter is a virtual radar application that plots the location of aircraft. It can also share this data with other PlanePlotter users, or it can upload the data to a web service like flightradar24.com, which aggregates data from users worldwide and plots it all on a global map.
ADSBScope is similar to PlanePlotter but has a limited feature set. I like its radar display better than PlanePlotter’s, but that’s just my preference.
Virtual Radar Server (VRS) is a simple but very powerful piece of software that plots aircraft on a map that you can view with any web browser, on your local network or over the Internet. It also can rebroadcast the data feed in three other formats so you can piggyback other applications (like PlanePlotter or ADSBScope) on it. That may sound a bit confusing but it’ll make more sense later when we get into the step-by-step stuff. If you download VRS then I suggest you also download the Database Writer plug-in for it.
FlightRadar24’s feeder software can be used to share your data with the world on their website. Using this software to share rather than PlanePlotter gives you access to a premium membership at flightradar24.com.
Kinetic’s BaseStation software is very optional. I downloaded the CDROM version. BaseStation is what Kinetic uses to map aircraft fed from its own hardware, which costs hundreds of dollars. While we are aiming to do the same thing using a cheap USB dongle, there is no doubt that a commercial receiver like the SBS, Mode-S Beast or AirNav RadarBox would yield better results. I don’t run the actual BaseStation software because I can’t get it to recognize the feed from my dongle (though others say this is possible using even more software), but I do use the utilities that come with it to access and edit the database of aircraft and flights that are logged by the other applications I use.
SBS Resources is also very optional and — in my opinion — very unstable and confusing. Until you’re really comfortable with using all the other apps you’ve downloaded, I’d put SBS Resources to one side.

Other Things You Need to Know

As mentioned, there are numerous ADS-B receivers available on the market. As you might expect, each of these receivers translates the ADS-B data into a different format than the others, so they aren’t compatible with each other. The PlanePlotter software is able to understand all of these formats. Virtual Radar Server understands some of them, and ADSBScope understands one. It doesn’t matter which application you choose to use to map the data on a virtual radar, all of them are capable of translating the feed from RTL1090. (ADSBScope requires an additional parameter in RTL1090’s startup, but we’ll discuss that later.)

Installation and Setup of Required Software and Hardware

Once you have obtained a dongle, you’ll need to have RTL1090, the DLL files, and the Zadig drivers handy. Don’t plug your dongle in yet! We have some setup to do first.

Unzip rtl1090-latest-build. We need somewhere to place the application, so let’s create a folder on your hard drive. I recommend creating a folder called RTL1090 on your C Drive. I do not recommend putting it in C:\Program Files, however, as this gave me problems later on. Once your folder is created, copy rtl1090.exe to C:\RTL1090.
Unzip RelWithDebInfo. This should give you a folder called rtl-sdr-release. Go into that folder, then into x32 and copy the following files to the same folder where you installed RTL1090:
- rtlsdr.dll
- msvcr100.dll
- libusb-1.0.dll
Plug your RTL2832U/R820T dongle into an available USB port in your computer. If Windows starts to install drivers for it, try to cancel it. Don’t panic if you can’t cancel it. We’ll simply replace those drivers in the next step.
Uncompress the Zadig drivers you downloaded and run Zadig.exe. In the drop-down menu select Bulk-In Interface 0. (If that isn’t available then go to the Options menu and select List All Devices. Then try again.) Don’t change anything else; just click Replace Drivers.
Run RTL1090. Click the options for RTLAGC and Tuner AGC, then click START. If you did everything correctly up to this point, RTL1090 should start streaming raw data in hex format in its window.

Installation and Setup of Optional Software

RTL1090 broadcasts the raw data on port 31001, so any software you install to read the data has to connect to this port. I’m going to walk you through my setup, which uses Virtual Radar Server AND PlanePlotter AND ADSBScope. All of this is running on one PC, by the way, namely a Dell Latitude D610 laptop running Windows 7.

Virtual Radar Server (VRS)

Installation of VRS is pretty simple. Just download and run VirtualRadarSetup.exe. Also download and install DatabaseWriterPluginSetup.exe. This is a plug-in for VRS that creates and populates a database of aircraft and flights for use in the virtual radar display.

Run VRS and select Tools > Plugins… A window opens showing the Database Writer.
Click Options. In the field for Database filename enter the following: C:\Kinetic\BaseStation\BaseStation.sqb (note the use of both upper and lowercase).
Click Create Database.
Check the box beside Enabled to activate the plug-in, then click OK to close the window.
Click Close to close the Plugins window.
Now select Tools > Options. Each option is numbered (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc).
Set 1.1 Data source to AVR or Beast Raw Feed.
Set 1.2 Connection type to Network.
Set 2.1 Address to 127.0.0.1
Set 2.2 Port to 31001 (this is the port on which RTL1090 broadcasts the raw data)
Set 4.1 database filename to C:\Kinetic\BaseStation\BaseStation.sqb, which is the database you created in the Database Writer plug-in.
Set 4.2 Flags folder to C:\Kinetic\BaseStation\OperatorFlags (you may have to create this folder)
Set 4.3 Silhouettes folder to C:\Kinetic\BaseStation\OperatorFlags (yes, the same folder as above)

Still in the Options window, you’re now going to tell VRS where you are in the world so that it can calculate distances correctly.

On the left side of the Options window, click Raw Feed Decoding
Set 1.1 Receiver location to the latitude and longitude of your location. Give this location a name. If you don’t know your location in lat and long format, you can find it here. Simply enter your street address, city, state/province and country, select Google, then click Geocode It. you’ll get lat and long numbers in the format xx.xxxxxx. Use these numbers in VRS. (Note, if you’re south of the equator or west of the prime meridian, your numbers will start with a – (e.g. 43.55555, -79.33333). Write these numbers down, as well, because you’ll need them again later.

The next two sets of Options in VRS are for specifying parameters related to the built-in web server. You can force users to login, change the port number the server runs on, specify an initial latitude and longitude to be displayed in the map, the type of map to display, and change measurement units. How you configure these is up to you and has no impact on the setup of PlanePlotter or ADSBScope later on. For now, you can skip over Web Server and Web Site and jump straight to the next set of Options.

On the left side of the Options window, click General
We’re interested here in setting up 3.1 Rebroadcast Servers. Click the … button in the field to bring up the Rebroadcast Servers setup dialog. We’re going to setup three servers. For each one, first click the New button.

Name: Passthrough. Format: Pass-through. Port: 33001. Enabled: On.
Name: BaseStation. Format: BaseStation. Port: 33002. Enabled: On.
Name: AVR. Format: AVR. port: 33003. Enabled: On.

Once all three are configured and enabled, click OK.
Click OK again to close the VRS Options window.

If you’ve got everything setup correctly, the Connection status in VRS should now say Connected. If not, try selecting Tools > Reconnect to Data Feed. If you are connected, you’ll notice a blue http link in the middle of the VRS window. Click it to open the VRS map in your web browser. You should see nearby aircraft superimposed on the map.

PlanePlotter

You might think you can connect PlanePlotter directly to the same port that VRS connects to, but RTL1090 doesn’t seem to like that too much. The last connection forces all previous ones to disconnect, so only one app can listen to RTL1090 at a time. Because VRS is rebroadcasting the feed from RTL1090, we can connect PlanePlotter to one of the rebroadcasts instead.

Start by installing PlanePlotter by running the setup program you downloaded. That’s the easy part. Once you run PlanePlotter, you’ll need to configure a few things to get it listening to the rebroadcast from VRS.

Go to Options > Home location > Home location setup and enter your latitude and longitude. Note that unlike VRS, you can use W and S instead of a – to specify co-ordinates west of the prime meridian or south of the equator (e.g. N43.55555, W79.33333)
Next go to Options > Mode-S receiver > Beast receiver > Setup TCP/IP client. Here we will enter the ip and port number of the Passthrough feed we set up in VRS, so 127.0.0.1:33001
Finally go to Options > I/O settings. Under Input data, make sure Mode-S/ADS-B is turned on, and in the list of receivers scroll down and select Beast receiver TCP.
In order to view the aircraft, click Process > Start. If all went well, planes should start appearing in PlanePlotter.

ADSBScope

ADSBSCope doesn’t need any installation. All you have to do is unzip the file you downloaded and then move the uncompressed folder to the root of your hard drive. Once done, you should have a folder called C:\adsb_all. ADSBScope has two versions: one displays a maximum of 256 aircraft, so if you’re PC is underpowered you may want to use this; the other displays thousands of aircraft but uses more CPU horsepower. Whichever one you want to run can be found by going to C:\adsb_all\pc_software\adsbscope\XX where XX is the current version number (25 as of this writing). In there you’ll see two executable files: run the appropriate one.

Once ADSBScope is running, you’ll once again need to do some configuration to get things working correctly.

Start by going to Other > Network > Network setting. We want to configure the RAW-data-client port and url to match the AVR rebroadcast from VRS, so 33003 and 127.0.0.1. Click Close when done.
Next you’ll want to move the map, zoom in (or out) and relocate the green crosshairs until they are roughly pointing to your part of the world. You’ll see the latitude of the crosshairs on the left side of the screen and the longitude at the top. Move the map around until the lat and long match yours. If you’re having trouble and need some reference points, go to the Load Maps menu and select your part of the world.
Once the map is in place, go to Other > Set Receiver location to have ADSBScope remember your location for the future.
To activate the radar display, go to Other > Network and select RAW-data Client active.

FlightRadar24 Feed

If you want to share the data from your dongle with the world, install and run the fr24feed application. Click the Sign Up button and enter all the relevant information. For port number, you’ll want to enter the post of the BaseStation rebroadcast from VRS, which is 33002. It’s very difficult to change the port number if you enter it wrong, so make sure it’s right before you finish signing up!

FlightRadar24 will assign your virtual radar station a name (mine is CYKZ1) based on the airport closest to your latitude and longitude. It may take a while for your feed to fully register with FR24’s servers and for your premium account to become active — I had to wait overnight for this to happen — so be patient.

Conclusion

And there you have it. You now have a cheap USB dongle feeding ADS-B data to three applications and one website. The steps I’ve outlined above are the basics to get this working. You don’t have to use Virtual Radar Server; instead you can connect PlanePlotter, ADSBScope or FR24 directly to RTL1090 if you want to limit your PC to running just the bare number of apps for this purpose. There are also additional features in PlanePlotter for sharing your data with other PlanePlotter users or with FlightRadar24 — or both. You can also configure RTL1090 to output its raw data in a different format, or to use multilateration. That’s a big word that I have to admit I don’t fully understand yet. I’ll cover the more advanced options in other blog posts.

For now, enjoy watching your virtual radar screen! My range, by the way, has topped 200 nautical miles.