One of the most popular USB gadget in the last years, not only in the ham radio world, is the USB SDR dongle based on the RTL2832 chip.

Many users choose to install this device on Windows platforms because is very easy to configure and to operate it. But, for permanent operation, a Windows client computer or laptop, working continuously, is not an economical solution, from any point of view: occupied space, power consumption, remote administration and so on.

In many cases, the small Raspberry Pi box can replace successfully a Windows solution. At the beginning, the usage of Linux OS is not an easy task for a Windows user, but after few simple projects this will be not an obstacle.

A very simple project, for a Raspberry Pi and USB SDR dongle, is the receiving of the ADS-B signals transmitted by the commercial aircrafts on 1.09 GHz. 

ADS-B (Automatic…