SkyWatch

This script is to be used in conjunction with an readsb/tar1090 setup to alert on specific aircraft via their Hex code, N-Number, or Flight Name. This has only been tested with the image from adsbexchange.com, but it should work with readsb/tar1090 setup.

The watchlist.txt file can contain a list of aircraft by Hex code, N-Number, Flight ID. You can also use * as a wildcard for picking up any flight starting with whatever you want. (e.g. AAL* will pick up all aircraft with a flight ID starting with AAL) One aircraft per line. These should be followed by a colon and then a label which can be whatever you like. Example: "a88bde: Dept of Commerce (hurricane hunters)"

There is a section in the code with squawk codes to alert on that can be edited to fit your needs.

Telegram Bot

Open up Telegram and search for "BotFather" and send the command /newbot and then follow the prompts for the bot name and username. You'll then be provided with the bot's token to be entered in the TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN section of the code. Next click on the link provided by BotFather, usually t.me/thebotnamehere. This will take you to the bot and you can hit start.

Then you can go to the following link for checking the Telegram Chat ID.

https://api.telegram.org/botYOURBOTTOKENHERE/getUpdates

Systemd Service

If you would like to set this script up as a systemd service that will start the script at boot time and restart it if the script stops, take the following steps to do so:

From the SkyWatch directory, run the following commands:

sudo cp skywatch.service /etc/systemd/system/

sudo systemctl enable skywatch.service

sudo systemctl start skywatch.service

The service should be started now and should start anytime your device is powered on or rebooted. You can check the status ofk the service by running the following command:

sudo systemctl status skywatch.service

If you need to stop the service, you can run the following:

sudo systemctl stop skywatch.service

If you make changes to the watchlist.txt file, you will need to restart the service with the following command:

sudo systemctl restart skywatch.service

Plane Data Source:

https://github.com/sdr-enthusiasts/plane-alert-db/tree/main