A while back I set up a Raspberry Pi with an SDR dongle to track aircraft via ADS-B. Cool to watch on a map, but passive — I had to go look at it.
This week I added a geofence layer that makes it active. Now my house (Alexa Dots) tells ME when something's overhead.
When any aircraft enters 0.1 miles of our farm, a chain of lookups fires in under a second:
1. The ICAO hex code gets converted to a US N-number (tail number) — pure math, no API needed 2. The tail number hits the FAA aircraft registry to identify the make and model 3. The flight callsign queries a route database for the origin airport and city
Then every Alexa in the house announces: "There is a Cessna 172 from Chattanooga above your house!"
A Discord alert fires simultaneously with the full details — tail number, aircraft type, altitude, speed, origin, and a direct FlightAware link to track the flight live.
I also added a wider 10-mile watch radius specifically for Civil Air Patrol (CAP) flights. Living in rural Tennessee, CAP activity usually means search and rescue or disaster assessment nearby or one of my fellow CAP Pilots are practicing — worth knowing about.
My favorite unintended consequence: my 9-year-old and 6-year-old now identify aircraft types on sight. Every time Alexa speaks, they sprint to the yard and look up. Aviation education by accident.
Added cost beyond the original ADS-B setup: $0. Just Python and free APIs.
#ADSB #RaspberryPi #Aviation #Geofence #HomeLab
— Continue reading at https://dizydiz.com/blog/adsb-geofence-alexa.html