The no-jargon version

What is a feeder?

It is a small radio receiver at your home that listens for aircraft and shares what it hears. That is it. You are not talking to pilots, controlling aircraft, or transmitting anything.

Show me how it works ↓
An aircraft broadcasts its position to a feeder, which sends the data to a flight map Animated radio waves travel from an aircraft to an antenna. A dotted data line then travels to the adsb.win network and a map. NETWORK LIVE MAP AIRCRAFTYOUR FEEDER

From sky to screen

One tiny message. Four simple steps.

ADS-B stands for Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast. The name is a mouthful, but the idea is simple: an aircraft regularly announces where it is.

  1. 01

    The aircraft knows

    GPS and onboard instruments give the aircraft its position, altitude, speed, and direction.

  2. 02

    The aircraft broadcasts

    A radio message sends those details into the air, usually on 1090 MHz. It is more like a lighthouse than a phone call.

  3. 03

    A feeder hears it

    Your antenna catches the signal. A USB radio and small computer decode the message and securely pass the data along.

  4. 04

    The network maps it

    Reports from many feeders are combined, checked, and turned into the moving aircraft you see in flight-tracking apps.

What is in the box?

Antenna

USB radio

Small computer

Internet connection

A feeder listens. It does not transmit.

A basic setup is an antenna, an inexpensive software-defined radio, and a small always-on computer such as a Raspberry Pi. The software filters out everything except aircraft messages and forwards those reports to the network.

No microphone. No camera. No conversation. A feeder receives public aircraft broadcasts and sends decoded aircraft data—not audio—from your internet connection.

Why community matters

The map is only as good as the people under it.

Aircraft radio signals travel mostly by line of sight. Mountains, buildings, distance, and the curve of the Earth all create gaps. No single antenna can see everything, so each new feeder adds another useful view of the sky.

More coverage

A feeder can reveal aircraft that neighboring receivers cannot see.

More resilience

A network run by many people does not depend on one company or one giant antenna.

Open access

Community data can support a free, unfiltered live map and useful tools for everyone.

Interested in getting started?

You can build your first feeder in about an hour.

No radio experience or soldering required. Our beginner guide covers the parts, the software, antenna placement, and connecting to adsb.win.

Build your first feeder →