Every airliner overhead is broadcasting where it is and quietly texting its operator. Airwave Scan puts the traffic on a live map, decodes the datalink, and lets you listen to the controllers working it.
Decode 1090 MHz and the sky fills in — each target on the map with the numbers that matter, updated second by second.
ACARS and VDL Mode 2 carry position reports, free-text, OOOI times and controller-pilot datalink — decoded and threaded into the feed.
The datalink tells you what; the voice tells you why. Tune the AM air band for the towers, approach and center sectors around you.
Nearby facilities — tower, ground, ATIS, clearance and approach, pulled from the catalog
Thousands of ACARS lines a day are noise. A built-in classifier — that you can teach — surfaces the gems: diversions, oddball free-text, and the messages worth a second look, and remembers them across restarts.
A 1090 MHz antenna and an RTL-SDR fill the map; a second dongle on the air band adds the voice. Both run on the same Pi.