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Black Hat 2008: FasTrak toll system completely broken
FasTrak is the electronic toll collection system used by the state of California. Motorists can purchase a toll transponder for ~$26 and link the serial number with a debit account to have their tolls...
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PiAware, Automated Airliner Tracking On The Raspberry Pi
For the sufficiently geeky aviation nerd there’s FlightAware, a website that tracks just about every airliner and most private planes currently in flight. The folks at FlightAware compile all the...
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THP Semifinalist: Cheap Satellite Transponder
In 2016, a communications satellite will be launched into geostationary orbit somewhere over the middle east. Normally, this is fairly ordinary occurrence. This satellite, however, will be carrying two...
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Tracking Nearly Every Aircraft With A Raspberry Pi
FlightAware is the premier site for live, real-time tracking of aircraft around the world, and for the last year or so, Raspberry Pi owners have been contributing to the FlightAware network by...
View Article“Alexa, what plane is that?”
We’ve all probably done it — gazed up at a passing jetliner and wondered where it was going and what adventures its passengers were embarked upon. While the latter is hard to answer, the former just...
View ArticleAccidental Satellite Hijacks Can Rebroadcast Cell Towers
A lot of us will use satellite communications without thinking much about the satellite itself. It’s tempting to imagine that up there in orbit is a communications hub and distribution node of...
View ArticleAireon Hitchhikes on Iridium to Track Airplanes
SpaceX just concluded 2017 by launching 10 Iridium NEXT satellites. A footnote on the launch was the “hosted payload” on board each of the satellites: a small box of equipment from Aireon. They will...
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Radar in Space: The Gemini Rendezvous Radar
In families with three kids, the middle child always seems to get the short end of the stick. The first child gets all the attention for reaching every milestone first, and the third child will forever...
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Es’hail-2: Hams Get Their First Geosynchronous Repeater
In the radio business, getting the high ground is key to covering as much territory from as few installations as possible. Anything that has a high profile, from a big municipal water tank to a...
View ArticleJust How Do Aircraft Transponders Work Anyway?
Most of us will have a hazy idea of how radar works to detect aircraft by listening for reflected radio waves. And we’ll probably also know that while radar can detect aircraft, it’s not the most...
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See Satellites in Broad Daylight with This Sky-Mapping Dish Antenna
If you look up at the night sky in a dark enough place, with enough patience you’re almost sure to see a satellite cross the sky. It’s pretty cool to think you’re watching light reflect off a hunk of...
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