Low Cost VHF Receiver
Demonstrates how to build an inexpensive multichannel VHF receiver using a Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR to record ATC audio.
Summary
Recording Air Traffic Control Communications
The OpenSky Network and the EU-funded ATCO2 project developed distributed receiver networks to systematically capture and transcribe Air Traffic Control (ATC) voice communications over VHF frequencies.
The ATCO2 Receiver Feeder Architecture
The project explores how crowdsourced ATC voice recordings uploaded to the OpenSky repository can be processed, archived, and analyzed to improve air traffic management efficiency and safety.
Setting Up the RTLSDR-Airband Receiver
Building a dedicated VHF receiver station utilizes RTLSDR-Airband, an open-source software package capable of simultaneously monitoring multiple AM voice channels across civil aviation bands.
Hardware Assembly on Raspberry Pi
The physical receiver is assembled using a standard Raspberry Pi single-board computer, an inexpensive RTL-SDR USB tuner dongle, and a tuned dipole antenna kit configured for aviation VHF frequencies.
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