The Shopping List- A Raspberry Pi (2 or 3) - You can order from anywhere but maybe try Element14
- A blank micro SD card (16GB preferred, class 10 preferred) - can pick up almost anywhere.
- RTL-SDR Dongle. I'd suggest rtl-sdr.com. The basic one comes with a basic antenna that will get your started. You can upgrade to a bigger antenna later (if you want better range).
What else is required?- A small amount of time.
- Access to a command line with git (could be Windows, Linux, Mac OS). More on this shortly.
- One or all of the following accounts: Flightradar24, Flightaware, Planefinder.
ADSB Websites
Using my method, you can sign up to either one or more of these accounts. The rest of the process (i.e. their install page), is done mostly for you.
Join using the following links. If you see plans, don't join anything. The advantage of submitting data is that you immediately get full, top of the range access for free as payment for submitting.
https://flightaware.com/account/join/
https://planefinder.net/sharing/register
https://www.flightradar24.com/premium
Now for the small amount of tech...
The secret sauce to my method is website called Resin.io. What the heck is Resin.io?
Ummmm a couple of videos might help explain this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fi8FLHduL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQVnHCcwzrE
A document could help a little more:
https://resin.io/how-it-works/
But put simply, Resin.io takes all the hard work out worrying about your device, the installs, configuration or even monitoring. I've written the code, so you don't have to worry. Just like the last video.... get a martini and it's a few minutes.