Basic Tactical SIGINT: Tracking Aircraft and SDR Scanning 

Keep fighting the good fight S2U

My late father was a sigint specialist and instructor in the UK Royal Navy. He started as a wireless operator during WWII and served until 1963.

"Panasonic tough books are rugged." Maliciously chuckles in aircraft maintainer.

Loved the video topic, more people should learn about this! That being said, if powerusers are looking for a 'stronger' software that enables quite a bit more for a skill ceiling, looking into SDRAngel. From a tactical perspective aside from tracking you can also; - Listen to all unencrypted voice channels (Baofeng bois I'm looking at you) - Receive weather satellite images in case TV/Internet shuts down - Decode most digital forms of communication (Police typically use P-25 Phase 2 for comms) - Locate signal locations using KerberosSDR Honestly the sky's the limit and I'm still learning a lot as well!

There is a tool to pass ADSB, AIS, and a few other automatic reporting protocol contacts to an Atak server, that it then pushes out to connected clients.

Like most former mil aviation folks I'm always looking up and seeing what is overhead. A number of times I've seen light general aviation craft making orbits every 10-15 minutes. after the 4th or 5th time stopped what I was doing and glassed the A/C and it had something hanging off the port side the length of the A/C. Reminded me of a side looking lidar. Love these vids. You're taking me back in time 🙂

Thank you for everything you’re doing.

This video is why I’m still on RU-vid

Thank you for all of the work you do on this channel. It has been a great place to learn.

The airwaves are very polluted and getting worse. Regardless, this is a great series. Keep up the great work !

Just ordered an SDR and set of antennas…can’t wait to give it a shot!

This is amazing information. Getting into stuff like this as a lone wolf civilian can be pretty intimidating. Now I have a better idea of what I can and want to do. Amazing channel.

I've been binging your channel and I really dig it. It's given me a lot to think about. Looking forward to seeing more from you. Stay in the shade.

@S2 Underground - Really love the content you share, and very informative for the up and coming events that are going to transpire.

Next you gotta use DSD+ with ambe voice encoder with two RTL-SDRs for P25 and NXDN. Love your content! keep it up.

Always appreciate your videos, sir! Thank you!

Saw an AWACS style aircraft flying a pattern over St. Louis the other day on my flight tracker app. Crazy! Thanks for the info keep it coming. I’d love to see a full setup running everything into a pi or tough book. I dream of a setup like that.

Another great video on a mostly overlooked topic. Keep up the great work!!

Excellent! Very well covered and easy to follow. Thanks for all the effort you put into this.

I must have tuned in to you guys (no pun intended) about a week ago as thats when I started messing with this stuff...really good video, thank you for the awesome content as always. keep it up

Hey man, I honestly think this is one of the best videos you've put out. Thanks!

I'm wearing your t-shirt right now! 😉👍

Love your videos, and always excited when a new one comes out. Keep up the good work!

So much information, so well presented.

Love this step by step explanation! Please go over SDRAngel!!

Fantastic intro to concept video

More of these type of vids is what the world needs

Great information for getting started. There’s lots of terrible reviews of hardware that people don’t know how to operate.

This was an awesome presentation!

As a systems admin for a non-profit, cannibalizing parts and setting up windows to run correctly is a way of life. Although I did convince the VPs to spring for vxrail - soon, soon.

Great video, thank you !

Skyglass is an excellent option for tracking aircraft and there 3d movement. God bless you and yours

Just so you know, it didn't look like you covered it but maybe I missed it, RTL1090 Scope does load a basic overview map if you don't want to pay for PlanePlotter. I got to it by clicking left mouse a few times on the scope screen.

2 radio videos in a week?? Be still my beating heart! It's making the wait for my KrakenSDR feel like forever though... 5 more days until ship date!

Thx for video from Poland. Just shared it.

I miss you and your videos

Hero. @ the minute fifty-two second mark. You are an absolute Chad. God Bless and God Speed.

Could you go into p25 decoding and scanning? Or even how to listen to trunked systems? We should be able to listen in on police activity to hear what’s going on out there. Also, I’ve seen some people go into how to encrypt transmissions using multiple devices to retransmit and encrypt/decrypt

Great stuff. Thanks folks!

Excellent Content…

o man this seemed like a real hasstle but happy to say its set up and working thanks for the help, anyone after the dll files they are on website now

Awesomely informative as always. Do you have any recommended model of Toughbook to look at?

I work at the Panasonic National Repair Center, so keep rocking those tough books!!! But please don't send in that CF-19. I HATE working on those! You should check out the CF-20. Super thin and light

7:45 Those of us who have installed an ATI video card on a PC that used to have an NVIDIA card are grinning.

Great channel

What you might do is you use multiple computers to run multiple SDRs. Though a scanner is certainly a great asset. The M1 is suited for this, as an individual sensor or sensors platform, as just one of its roles, and being that it is a fanless / sdd design, one could make the claim that it uncomplicates things dramatically. Another option is the humble android TV box which can give you some bang for your buck (hint, usb ports and other stats / i/o should be optimized for performance cost ratio. more usb mem / storage being the sweet spot. and the 1 is none thing too. so to including OS environment version and development is recommended), and can easily be integrated into a 24 /12 / 5 / dc power system to run off USB distribution (something I'm starting to warm too). Seems I may have just seen something about what looked like a tv box running linux, which could be a very useful tool also.

This is excellent

Mobile SIGINT isn't complete without an hour of QB luv, and motion sickness. Oh, and sweating and cursing. I love the homebrew kit. The decryption/tuner and reciever software that is open source now was the stuff of Clancy novels when I was in. SIGINT is definitely a bellwether for technological progress. Great video and good info. It definitely takes me back. Back to what, I can't remember, but it was fun while I was there. Keep passing the info along. This is a great hobby/occupation of you have the patience for it. From a retired 98G/35P.

Great info!

Thank you for this.

I've fiddled with adsb a lot. I love planeplotter, but a better option is adsb-scope. May be hard to find as I think its somewhat niche but its my go to software now, no internet required, completely free. I can relay more info if you want, but should be worth a little research

Absolutely love what you guy's are doing and this video and the 2 prior are extremally good info for what's coming. Having said that, my SDS sharp only hears static. Even in UHF/VHF no mater what antenna I use. I have a UHF/VHF antenna on my roof that I use with my radio set up. It wont even get NOAA signals that I obviously hear with my radio. So, Did I not buy the appropriate dongle? I bought 2 of the Nooelec NESDR's with the two antenna bundle on amazon that you referenced. It actually tracked Airplanes in Plane plotter but I get nothing but static with the SDS sharp. Should I have purchased the RTL-SDR for radio only? Any advice would be great, I am not a computer guy but the Plane plotter worked so I must have missed a step or something? Also note worthy is in the source drop down on my SDS sharp, there is no option for an NESDR dongle, not sure why or if it even matters? Thank you all!

I’m late to the game, but loved the video. I really want to give this a try. Former AF aviator.

Toughbooks are great. Even older models are very much usable today if you are willing to run Linux. I have CF 30 that in theory can run 64bit win 10 but the OS is so heavy and uses most of system resources to data mine and phone home you cant do anything with it. With Arch Linux build it runs 100% fine. Hard drive heaters are only useful when you are using mechanical drives, which there is no reason to use because SSD's have become so much cheaper and are direct upgrade. SSD's dont have finicky mechanisms inside that would require heating so the element is just wasting battery power.

I tracked a UAV from the Chesapeake to California yesterday

GREAT video! EMCON next? Be a short video. Anyway, I noted a few hands getting a tad discouraged. Still cheerful though, always a good sign. So, let me say this: just about anybody can do this. The only serious hurdle is the sometimes cranky software, and you'll get there eventually. Can you operate the radio in your car? You don't NEED a lot of prior knowledge to get a dongle radio working. Here's what you DO need: The dongle. Some wire, any old scrap will do, A usb cable. (a fancy one is nice, but you can grab one later. A small assortment of paperclips An alligator clip lead, a couple of feet long is nice. Install SDR# and while you're there, get their manual, the best one in the world of free stuff, imo. And it explains jargon as it is introduced, which is SOP everywhere but, ummm, planet SDR, I guess. Ok, you've blown your pocket change on this stuff. Let's make it work. First - straighten out some paperclips until you find one that just slips into the little hole where the antenna cable goes. DO NOT FORCE THIS. (you guys that are stroking out right now? You'll live.) If it doesn't just slip in, keep looking. Set that aside for now, take your wire and stretch it out, make sure it reaches the radio. Take the other end and get it up in the air, just knot the end around a curtain rod or something. Use tape. The wire doesn't care. Back at the computer, strip an inch or two of insulation off the wire. Now use the alligator clips and connect the wire to the paperclip. Or just twist em together. Just make the connection as good as you can. Plug the dongle into the pc. Launch SDR#. At the left shoul be a tab. Open it, and at the top is a drop down with types of radios. Scroll that puppy and find "RTL-SDR USB", and click it. Hit the "play" button. Tuning is easy - it's getting your numbers in the right place, first. But anyway, refer to the manual, or a vid. Tune in between 88 and 108 Mhz. You should see all sorts of bright streaks in the lower half of the screen, and big wide humps up top. Click on one. You should be hearing a local FM station. *Yawn* Big deal, right? Well, just keep tuning above 108. No too far above that, you'll get civil aviation, planes and ATC. Go up into the 160 mhz region, you'll find NOAA weather radio. Back down around 140ish you'll find hams and law enforcement, etc. This "zone" is the middle of VHF, and even if you're in a big city, you'll probably find stuff. You'll need to get that antenna outside and up in the air, though. If you can't find ANYTHING, check your antenna and the connection. Then the software connection. That's it. You're operating an intercept station. Next is antennas. But the fanciest antenna is still just a piece of wire. Usually. And you can say hello to Ohm's Law and that fun stuff later.

loving dump1090 and virtual radar if you have access to a roof. also been messing with SDRangel's ads/b setup

Great video. I miss the intro you used to do.

You can upgrade the RAM on the toughbook to 16GB if you've got some basic electronics skills. It'll run like a dream after you've done this.

love this content. keep er comin. maybe you can do something showing stuff you can do about the drone issue since part 107 faa nazis are out now? remote id is going to be taking off soon and im sure this wont be tracked the same as conventional aircraft. at least not at first. id love to see what you have to say about this.

old navy CTR here...cool video!

Very nice... Thanks..

Very spooky setup I need to learn to code lol

it says in the release notes for Jetvision "Version 1" that it's deprecated (they spell it "depreciated", but it's deprecated), and that you can't use it to Multilaterate aircraft as a Ground Station.

1st time video today & Apache fly over my Navajo self...co-inc

Btw you gave your location in this video, love the content just wanna keep you safe

Have you looked into passive radar using SDR? You can use existing radio stations to bounce waves off of aircraft.. and track them. I'm new here, maybe you covered this previously. Great stuff!

Thanks a lot!!

Received

Thank you s2

good points

Can you make one on underwater surveilence? My guess it some if not all of the countries on the baltic sea probably could have picked up who did what to the pipelines.

Also, ADS-B is only good for civil aircraft and military flights that are in transit or otherwise not engaged in combat. Combat aircraft (fighters, bombers, special mission aircraft) turn off their ADS-B transmitters when they are engaged in operations. Just pay attention to the airspace around Ukraine these days on ADS-B apps. U.S. F-16s and F-15s go right up to Ukraine airspace and "disappear" (probably just in a holding pattern waiting for SHTF) and then "reappear" when they're headed home or hitting the tanker for gas.

4:50 The heatsinks!! That's what mine needs desperately. It won't run for long before overheating and seizing.

Try sdrangel, the signals interface is quite interesting I especially enjoy the time domain analysis vs frequency in a 3d graph. And the wonderful ability to incorporate massive extendable filtering

.DLL files and sketchy web-sites. What fun this will be.

Excuse my ignorance, still learning how to use some of these concepts. Can everything shown in this video be used offline? If I were to be running this in the field, would I need an internet connection or does the SDR antenna take care of that? Mainly curious about the plane plotter portion.

Riding around with a dirty box in the trunk!

Wish there was a way to use meshtastic to data link multiple ADSB scanning SDRs.

Bruh no linux??

My system shows both ADSB and mode-S. I can receive up to 400Km; even on a compromised antenna. I have local access to the rPI to view data. Yes, it is streamed globally; but I can see this data locally, as long as home network is working.

wow im actually here on time for once

Specs and source for that antenna at around 6:20 ? I really like that one!

Are you moving any of the outputs of information to TAK? Very interested in hearing about that

Hi, could you do ground, air, and sea sensors. Both what Ground Sensor Platoon would use, and what is commercially available?

Can personally recommend the pi400 (bought new for $100 USD)

Thanks for making this accessible to us masses! One suggestion, explain how you got the usable map that just magically appeared between 29:34 and 29:36. I am sure I will figure something out eventually but for now the map is not very useful.

For linux try dragon os/focal from an encrypted usb lock. The lock is a 10 button hardware usb key with local storage. It puts the password key in hardware before a boot iso

Salutations. Knowing nothing of radio I just stumbled upon your video from seven mouths ago on secure radio communications. I'm looking for the follow-up video.

Thats Jonesboro (JBR) where I do live and let me tell you we get interesting traffic.

Can you do a series on using Linux? I've been running Mint for a few years but without the windows-esque desktop I'd be lost. I know no terminal commands.

The beginning of this video gives me flashbacks to my A-School for being a CTR lol 😂

Love the heatsinks on the neSDR xD Was reading "the case is the heat sink" alot but naaaah not that hot pls. On the good old Alfa sticks it was vital to cut the case and put a sink on the chip or they stopped after a few minutes of replay or what ever attack ^^

Can you use ATAK on the Panasonic tablet?

You absolutely don't need any ads-b data in war conditions, for tactical use whatsoever. There are no ads-b radars on enemy air planes, as well as on friendly ones. Sigint , elint, comint is what you do. You look for drones, gps jammers, uhf, vhf, satcom, military radios, radars, and lots of other stuff in the most unexpected parts of the spectrum. Cheers from Ukraine

Hello, late comer but Really enjoying your vids. I am a Ham and recently got into SDR. I just picked up the AirNav Radarbox Flightstick and Signalplus 1090 Mhz Antenna. my question, Is the AirNav subscription worth it help me to learn more about ADS-B aircraft tracking? Thanks!

Any concerns about where the SDR dongle is manufactured?

Will you or have you done a video on how to get satellite imagery with the sdr?

I was lost sooo early on....could I get one of y'all to program my VCR?

What would be the minimum model Toughbook to get? For GhostNet use as well.