Aircraft Spotting (and more!): Use your spare gear as a power source for community data exchanges

If you've ever used a flight tracking app or checked the local weather on Weather Underground, you've probably looked at data provided, in part, by volunteer contributors. Crowdsourced data exchanges collect this information and share the aggregated results online via interactive maps. The data ranges from radio signal telemetry for aircraft, ships, weather balloons or satellites, to seismic measurements, air quality and weather. The end result is to provide a useful service to a larger community through apps or websites that may require a paid subscription or may use advertising support. In exchange for the time and money spent generating and feeding data into their trading exchanges, these outlets sometimes offer participants enterprise-level access to their apps and services, which can otherwise be quite expensive. . Some feeders may also simply want their data to be viewable through a specific vendor's UX, or take advantage of contributing scientific data to a project alongside an international community.

Flightradar24 users track data on all types of flights.

Map of radiation levels from SafeCast sensors in Fukushima.

Devices that power them are sometimes proprietary, supplied or sold by commercial data exchanges, but are more often made by participants. For radio data, a typical setup would be to connect a Raspberry Pi with a custom operating system to an inexpensive RTL-SDR dongle and a homemade antenna. Even early RasPi models work well, although it may be beneficial to have Wi-Fi (integrated or via dongle) for optimal tracker placement