Bare Metal

Using your existing ADS-B receiver to feed BharatRadar

Recommended: Use the one-line feeder installer — it auto-detects your hardware and handles everything below automatically.

If you already have an ADS-B receiver running readsb (from ADSB.im, Wiedehopf’s scripts, or any other method), you can add BharatRadar as a feeder without disrupting your existing setup.

Quick Start #

Run this on your existing receiver:

curl -Ls https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bharatradar/infra/main/scripts/bharatradar-feeder | sudo bash

The installer will detect your existing readsb and offer to reconfigure it, or install fresh alongside.

Manual Setup #

1: Find coordinates / elevation #

https://www.freemaptools.com/elevation-finder.htm

2: Add BharatRadar to your readsb #

If your readsb uses /etc/default/readsb, add the feeder connector to NET_OPTIONS:

--net-connector feed.bharatradar.com,30004,beast_reduce_plus_out

Then restart readsb:

sudo systemctl restart readsb

3: Install mlat-client #

# Clone and build
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wiedehopf/mlat-client.git /tmp/mlat-client
cd /tmp/mlat-client && make -j$(nproc)
sudo cp mlat-client /usr/local/bin/mlat-client
cd / && rm -rf /tmp/mlat-client

4: Create the MLAT service #

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/bharatradar-mlat.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=BharatRadar MLAT Client
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/mlat-client \
  --input-type beast \
  --input-connect 127.0.0.1:30005 \
  --server feed.bharatradar.com:31090 \
  --user BR-YOUR_UUID_HERE \
  --lat YOUR_LAT \
  --lon YOUR_LON \
  --alt YOUR_ALT_M
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now bharatradar-mlat

Replace BR-YOUR_UUID_HERE, YOUR_LAT, YOUR_LON, and YOUR_ALT_M with your values.

Check if Your Feed Is Working #

Visit map.bharatradar.com — you should see aircraft from your receiver within a few minutes.

Optional: Local Interface #

If you don’t already have a local readsb map, you can install one:

# Install/update
sudo bash /usr/local/share/bharatradar/git/install-or-update-interface.sh

# Remove
sudo bash /usr/local/share/tar1090/uninstall.sh bharatradar

Misc Maintenance #

Update #

curl -L -o /tmp/lol-update.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bharatradar/feed/master/update.sh
sudo bash /tmp/lol-update.sh

Troubleshooting #

If you encounter issues, provide these logs on Zulip :

sudo journalctl -u bharatradar-feed --no-pager
sudo journalctl -u bharatradar-mlat --no-pager

Display Configuration #

cat /etc/default/bharatradar

Restart #

sudo systemctl restart bharatradar-feed
sudo systemctl restart bharatradar-mlat

Systemd Status #

sudo systemctl status bharatradar-mlat
sudo systemctl status bharatradar-feed

Uninstall #

sudo bash /usr/local/share/bharatradar/uninstall.sh

If the above doesn’t work, you may be using an old version:

sudo systemctl disable --now bharatradar-feed
sudo systemctl disable --now bharatradar-mlat