Using Virtual Radar Server with 1090MHz UK

Once you have an ADS-B feed configured and sending data to us then you can configure Virtual Radar Server to access our aggregated feed.

Aggregated ADS-B Feed

Data from all ADS-B ground stations is aggregated (merged and de-duplipcated in real-time) to produce a single 'clean feed' from all contributors. This clean feed can be used as input to programs such as Virtual Radar Server and PlanePlotter.

The rest of this page deals with how to use Virtual Radar Server with our aggregated feed.

Virtual Radar Server

Virtual Radar Server (VRS) is an open-source Graphical Information System (GIS) or "mapping server" written by Andrew Whewell that runs a local web server on your PC to which you can connect a web browser and view aircraft in real time.

Using Virtual Radar Server you will get a display like this and be able to navigate around the map and zoom in and out, inspect individual aircraft, etc:

Virtual Radar Display

Typical display from Virtual Radar Server

Normally you connect VRS to a local receiver and you get to see the aircraft movements received by only your receiver. By connecting VRS to the 1090MHz UK server instead you get to see the aggregate feed from all receivers feeding 1090MHz UK merged into a single stream - giving you more like national coverage.

How to obtain Virtual Radar Server

The Virual Radar Server web page is here and the download page is here.

Configuring Virtual Radar Server with 1090MHz UK

Once you have installed Virtual Radar Server, configure it to work with our service as follows:

  1. Go to Tools > Options > Receivers
  2. Create a Receiver entry
  3. Name: 1090MHZ UK
  4. Format: AVR or Beast Raw feed
  5. Location: (blank)
  6. Connection type: Network and 'normal' radio button
  7. Address: adsb.1090mhz.uk
  8. Port: 30002
  9. Passphrase: (blank)
  10. Send keep alives: checked

the configuration should look like this:

Virtual Radar Setup page

Hit the [OK] button to save the settings - this completes the configuration.

Open the map display

Go back to the main page on Virtual Radar Server and you will see a blue link about half way down the left side - click the link and your web browser will open a new window and connect to the Virtual Radar Service and you should get the full display of aircraft.

Access Control Lists

Our servers implement authorisation to access services such as the ADS-B RAW feed based on your IP address being in our Access Control List (ACL).

When you configure your receiver to send an ADS-B feed to us, our server recognises your feed and automatically adds your IP address to our Access Control List, meaning that you can also connect to all of the services that we provide.

If you disconnect your ADS-B feed your connection will 'time-out' and we remove your IP address from the ACL, howevr your existing connections will remain connected and active but you will not be able to make a new connection from your IP address to the servers.