Last year’s huge hack was software-defined radio; a little USB TV tuner that might listen in on radio broadcasts anywhere between 64 as well as 1200 MHz. This year, it’s all about the Raspberry Pi, so it’s unexpected we’re only just now seeing a mashup of these two pieces of hardware. [Corq] is utilizing a Raspi as well as RTLSDR TV tuner to listen in on aircraft transponders, as well as getting a whole lot of data from aircraft flying overhead.

Even though the ADS-B decoder [Corq] is utilizing is written for OS X, he’s reading the data coming from the USB TV tuner over the network with a program called Dump1090. This program enables [Corq] to connect his SDR to a Raspbery Pi as well as put it somewhere the antenna will get great reception – an attic, or an outside weatherproof situation – as well as stream data to his desktop over a WiFi or network connection.

With a USB TV tuner as well as a Raspberry Pi, [Corq] is able checked out the tail numbers, altitude, latitude, longitude, speed, heading, as well as even the type of aircraft currently flying over his house. That’s awesome enough, however the truth that he can efficiently do this over the Web makes it a fantastic hardware mashup.