Community

Become a feeder

Contributing to the network is simple and inexpensive. A Raspberry Pi and an RTL-SDR antenna are all you need to add coverage in your area and contribute data for meteorological research.

Hardware

Raspberry Pi

~€15–45

Pi 3, 4 or 5 — any model with USB and network. A Pi Zero 2W is sufficient.

RTL-SDR dongle

~€25–35

1090 MHz Software Defined Radio receiver. RTL-SDR Blog v4 is the recommended choice.

1090 MHz antenna

~€15–30

Omnidirectional vertical antenna. FlightAware 66 cm or home-built. Higher is better.

Estimated total: €55–110 The RTL-SDR Blog v4 includes a built-in 1090 MHz LNA filter

Setup with docker-adsb-ultrafeeder

The easiest way to contribute is docker-adsb-ultrafeeder, a Docker container that handles ADS-B reception, Mode-S EHS decoding, MLAT participation and feeding to multiple networks automatically.

1. Install Docker on Raspberry Pi OS

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

2. docker-compose.yml

version: '3'
services:
  ultrafeeder:
    image: ghcr.io/sdr-enthusiasts/docker-adsb-ultrafeeder
    container_name: ultrafeeder
    restart: unless-stopped
    device_cgroup_rules:
      - 'c 189:* rwm'
    devices:
      - /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb
    environment:
      # Your receiver location (lat/lon/altitude in meters)
      - READSB_LAT=45.46
      - READSB_LON=9.19
      - READSB_ALT=120m

      # Send data to FlyItalyADSB
      - READSB_NET_CONNECTOR=dati.flyitalyadsb.com,4905,beast_reduce_out

      # MLAT (replace with your coordinates and a unique name)
      - MLAT_USER=your-name
      - MLAT_CONFIG=dati.flyitalyadsb.com,30100,39000

    volumes:
      - /opt/adsb/ultrafeeder/globe_history:/var/globe_history
      - /opt/adsb/ultrafeeder/graphs1090:/var/lib/collectd

3. Start

docker compose up -d
docker logs -f ultrafeeder

MLAT note: accurate lat/lon/altitude is critical (error < 10 m). Use Google Maps or a GPS for exact position. Altitude is the antenna height, not ground level.

Connection endpoints

Host	Port	Protocol	Use
dati.flyitalyadsb.com	4905	BEAST TCP	Send ADS-B data (in)
dati.flyitalyadsb.com	30100	TCP	MLAT client
dati.flyitalyadsb.com	60005	BEAST TCP	Receive aggregated feed (out)
dati.flyitalyadsb.com	60004	SBS TCP	Receive aggregated feed SBS (out)

Feeder dashboard

After setup, monitor your statistics on my.flyitalyadsb.com: messages received, coverage, MLAT quality, aircraft tracked in the last 24h.

Open dashboard →