1090 / 978 / 131 MHz
Track aircraft and read what they send
ADS-B and Mode S on the map, UAT for light aircraft, and the ACARS, VDL Mode 2 and satellite messages crews exchange with the ground.
Position reporting is only half of what an aircraft transmits. ADS-B and Mode S at 1090 MHz put the airframe on the map with callsign, altitude, speed and track; UAT at 978 MHz adds the light aircraft that never appear on 1090 along with the ground stations’ weather and traffic uplink.
The datalinks carry the text: ACARS on the airband channels and VDL Mode 2, the link most European traffic uses, with Inmarsat Aero covering the satellite side off an L-band patch antenna. Those messages are the flight, the aircraft and what it told the airline.
Past zoom nine the map draws airports with their air traffic frequencies, so the tower you can hear is one click from the aircraft you can see.
$ waveshark --tune 1090 --location 53.34,-6.26 --flightsMonitor a radio network and read it back later
DMR, TETRA, P25, NXDN, M17 and plain FM channels with who called whom, every over recorded as Opus and a local speech model writing down what was said.
Read that one