Getting Started
When you first visit spotter.post8.org, you'll see a live map centered on the Post 8 Aviation Explorers building. If GPS is enabled on your device (and you share your location), a dot will appear where your location is reported. This makes it easy to identify aircraft that you currently hear or see. . Aircraft currently being received by our small (and volunteer) ADS-B network appear as colored icons on the map. The right-hand sidebar shows a live table of every aircraft along with summary statistics.
Here's how to get oriented:
- Pan the map by clicking and dragging (or swiping on mobile).
- Zoom in/out using the + / − buttons, your scroll wheel, or pinch-to-zoom on touch screens.
- Click any aircraft icon on the map to select it and view detailed information in the left-hand info panel.
- Click a row in the aircraft table on the right to select that aircraft on the map.
Aircraft icons are color-coded by altitude — the legend at the bottom of the sidebar shows the current color scale. Lower-altitude aircraft appear in warmer colors (oranges/reds), while higher-altitude aircraft appear in cooler colors (greens/blues/purples).
Map Controls
Zoom (+/−)
Located in the lower-right corner of the map. Click + to zoom in or − to zoom out. You can also use your mouse scroll wheel, or the Q and E keys.
Layer Switcher
The stacked-layers icon in the upper-right area of the map opens the Layer Switcher. Here you can choose different base map styles (OpenStreetMap, satellite imagery, aeronautical charts, etc.) and toggle overlays like range rings, weather radar, and airspace boundaries.
Range Rings
If enabled in the layer switcher, concentric circles show the distance from the receiver site. These help you gauge how far away an aircraft is from Post 8's antenna.
Sidebar Buttons (Right Side)
The vertical strip of letter-buttons along the right edge of the map controls various display modes. When a button is active, its text turns dark. Here's what each one does:
Show or hide text labels on aircraft icons (callsign, altitude, speed). Useful for identifying planes at a glance, but can get cluttered when many aircraft are visible.
Cycles through label detail levels. Press once for basic labels, again for extended info (more data fields shown per aircraft), and again to turn them off.
Toggles labels along an aircraft's flight trail, showing altitude and time stamps at each point along the path.
Dims the base map to make aircraft icons and trails stand out more clearly, especially useful at night or on bright satellite imagery.
When active, clicking additional aircraft adds them to the selection rather than replacing it. Great for comparing multiple flights simultaneously — each selected aircraft shows its trail on the map.
Keeps aircraft visible on the map even after their signal is lost. Normally, aircraft fade after a timeout. Persistence mode lets you accumulate a picture of all traffic over time.
Hides all aircraft except the currently selected one(s). Click again to show everything.
Selects and follows a random aircraft — a fun way to discover what's flying in the area!
Locks the map center onto the currently selected aircraft. The map will pan automatically as the plane moves. Press again or click the map to stop following.
Top Bar Buttons
The buttons in the upper-right corner of the map provide quick actions:
Toggles a filter to show only military aircraft (identified by ICAO hex ranges and database flags). A quick way to spot military traffic in the area.
Re-centers the map to the default view — our Post 8 receiver site in the Topeka area. Useful if you've panned far away and want to snap back.
Selects every aircraft at once and displays all of their flight trails on the map. This gives you a full picture of traffic patterns in the region.
Other Top Controls
- Sidebar Toggle (arrow icon) — Show or hide the right-hand aircraft table and sidebar.
- Fullscreen (expand icon) — Enter or exit fullscreen mode.
- Settings Gear (⚙) — Open the settings panel (see Settings below).
Aircraft Info Panel
When you click an aircraft, a detailed info panel appears on the left side of the screen. It is organized into collapsible sections:
Identification
- Callsign — The flight number or registration entered into the transponder by the pilot.
- ICAO Hex — The aircraft's unique 24-bit address (shown in hexadecimal).
- Registration — The aircraft's alphanumeric tail number (e.g., N12345).
- Country — The country of registration, determined from the ICAO address.
- Type — The ICAO aircraft type code (e.g., B738 for a Boeing 737-800).
- Type Description — A decoded description of the type code (Landplane, 2 Jet engines, etc.).
- Owner/Operator — The registered owner or operating airline, if known.
- DB Flags — Database flags such as military, PIA (Privacy ICAO Address), or LADD.
- Squawk — The 4-digit transponder code assigned by ATC.
- Route — The reported flight origin and destination, if available.
- Photo — An aircraft photograph, when available in the database.
Spatial
- Groundspeed — Speed of the aircraft over the ground.
- Baro. Altitude — Barometric pressure altitude above mean sea level.
- WGS84 Altitude — GPS-derived geometric altitude.
- Vert. Rate — Rate of climb or descent.
- Track — The direction the aircraft is travelling over the ground.
- Position — Latitude/longitude of the last known position.
- Distance — Distance from the Post 8 receiver to the aircraft.
Signal
- Source — How the aircraft data was obtained (ADS-B, MLAT, TIS-B, etc.).
- Msg. Rate — Messages per second being received from this aircraft.
- Messages — Total message count from this aircraft during the current session.
- Last Pos. / Last Seen — Time since the last position report / any message.
Additional Sections
- FMS SEL — The pilot's selected altitude and heading in the Flight Management System.
- Wind — Calculated wind speed and direction at the aircraft's position.
- Speed — Ground speed, true airspeed (TAS), indicated airspeed (IAS), and Mach number.
- Altitude — Detailed barometric and geometric altitude, vertical rates, and QNH setting.
- Direction — Ground track, true heading, magnetic heading, magnetic declination, track rate, and roll angle.
- Accuracy — Technical data quality indicators (NACp, SIL, NACv, NIC, Rc).
Aircraft Table
The sidebar table lists every aircraft currently being tracked. You can:
- Click a column header to sort the table by that column (click again to reverse).
- Click a row to select and highlight that aircraft on the map.
- Use the Columns tab (above the table) to drag-and-drop columns into your preferred order, or show/hide specific data fields.
The row color indicates the data source — ADS-B, MLAT, and other sources each have their own color. Selected aircraft are highlighted with a distinct color.
Search & Jump
Click the Search tab above the aircraft table to access two features:
Search
Type a callsign, registration, ICAO hex code, or aircraft type to filter the table to matching aircraft. For example:
- SWA1234 — search by callsign
- N12345 — search by registration
- B738 — search by aircraft type
- a1b2c3 — search by ICAO hex
Jump to Airport
Enter an ICAO airport code (like KTOP for Topeka, or KMCI for Kansas City) or a latitude/longitude pair to instantly move the map to that location.
Filters
The Filters tab gives you fine-grained control over which aircraft are displayed:
- Altitude Filter — Set a minimum and maximum altitude range. Only aircraft within that range will be shown.
- Source Filter — Toggle visibility by data source (ADS-B, MLAT, TIS-B, etc.).
- DB Flags Filter — Filter by database flags such as military, PIA, or LADD.
Each filter section has a Reset button to clear it and return to showing all aircraft.
Flight History & Traces
With an aircraft selected, click the History button in the info panel to explore that aircraft's past tracks:
- Date Picker — Choose any past date to load the aircraft's recorded track for that day.
- Previous / Next — Step through days one at a time.
- Leg Selection — If the aircraft made multiple flights in a day, step through each leg.
- Playback — Click on the trace line to start playback. Use the speed buttons (1x, 5x, 10x, 20x, 40x) to control replay speed, or Stop to pause.
Settings (⚙ Gear Icon)
Click the gear icon on the right side of the map to open the settings panel:
- Text and Icon Size — A slider to scale the entire interface up or down.
- Icon Size Multiplier — Separately scale just the aircraft icons.
- Units — Switch between Aeronautical (feet, knots, nautical miles), Metric (meters, km/h, km), or Imperial (feet, mph, miles).
- Ground Vehicles — Show or hide ground vehicles that have ADS-B transponders (airport service vehicles, etc.).
- Non-ICAO Targets — Show or hide aircraft without a standard ICAO address (radar-only tracks).
- Dim Map — Reduce map brightness so aircraft stand out.
- Darker Colors — Switch to a darker color scheme for the interface.
- Reset All Settings — Restore every setting to its default value.
Keyboard Shortcuts
For power users — all the single-key shortcuts that work when the map is focused (not when typing in a search box):
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| W / ↑ | Pan map north |
| S / ↓ | Pan map south |
| A / ← | Pan map west |
| D / → | Pan map east |
| Q / − | Zoom out |
| E / + | Zoom in |
| H | Home — reset map to default center |
| F | Follow selected aircraft |
| R | Follow a random plane |
| T | Select all aircraft (show all tracks) |
| M | Toggle MultiSelect |
| P | Toggle Persistence mode |
| I | Isolate selected aircraft |
| U | Toggle military-only filter |
| L | Toggle labels |
| O | Cycle extended label detail |
| K | Toggle track labels |
| B | Toggle map brightness / dim |
| V | Table: show only aircraft in current view |
| C / Esc | Clear selection |
Data Fields Explained
Data Sources
- ADS-B — Direct aircraft broadcast of position and identity. The most accurate and most common source.
- MLAT — Multilateration. Position is calculated by timing differences across multiple receivers. Requires at least 4 receivers to see the aircraft.
- TIS-B — Traffic Information Service–Broadcast. Position data relayed by FAA ground stations, often for aircraft that don't have ADS-B Out.
- Other Mode S — The aircraft is transmitting Mode S data (altitude, identity) but not ADS-B position.
Squawk Codes
Some squawk codes have special meanings. The aircraft table highlights these with distinct colors:
- 7500 — Hijack 😲
- 7600 — Radio failure (lost communications)
- 7700 — General emergency
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't I see a plane that I can hear overhead?
Our receivers have a limited range (typically 100–250 nautical miles depending on altitude and terrain). If the aircraft is very low, behind terrain, or outside our coverage area, we may not receive its signal. Some aircraft also have older transponders that don't broadcast ADS-B position data.
Why do some aircraft show as "n/a" for registration or type?
The aircraft database doesn't contain every aircraft in the world. Military, government, and recently registered aircraft are often absent. The ICAO hex address is always shown, but the registration and type depend on database lookups.
What does the altitude color mean?
Aircraft icons are colored by altitude using a gradient scale shown in the legend at the bottom of the sidebar. Generally, lower altitudes are warmer colors (orange/red) and higher altitudes are cooler colors (green/blue/purple). Ground vehicles appear in a distinct color.
Why do some aircraft appear and disappear?
ADS-B reception depends on line-of-sight radio signals at 1090 MHz. Aircraft can temporarily drop out due to terrain obstructions, antenna pattern nulls, interference, or simply flying out of range. They'll reappear when the signal is reacquired.
What is the coverage area?
Our Post 8 network primarily covers the Topeka, Kansas area as of now. The jiggy-jaggy outline reveals where we've spotted planes in the past 24 hours, and can vary based on weather or whether one of our receivers has failed. High-altitude aircraft can be detected at greater distances (often 200+ nautical miles), while low-altitude aircraft may only be visible within 25–100 nautical miles of the receiver. We even have a receiver that picks up just ground plane traffic at KTOP (and work is underway to correct a glitch with getting that data into our spotter network).
Can I use this on my phone?
Yes! We recommend it, especially if you share your GPS coordinates with the page. The map is fully responsive and supports touch gestures — pinch to zoom, swipe to pan, and tap aircraft to select them. For the best experience on a small screen, hide the sidebar using the toggle button.
Join the Post 8 Spotter Network
Whether you're an aviation enthusiast, a radio hobbyist, or just curious about what's flying overhead — we'd love to hear from you. No prior experience is needed; we'll help you get set up. If you're a teen or a Post 8 Explorer, please ask your parents to get involved with a Post 8 technology advisor volunteer.
To learn more or to get involved, contact us:
Credits & Thanks
The Post 8 Aircraft Spotter is built on tar1090, an outstanding open-source ADS-B web interface created and maintained by wiedehopf. We are deeply grateful for his work — tar1090 and readsb powers thousands of ADS-B tracking sites around the world and is provided free of charge to the community.
- tar1090 on GitHub: github.com/wiedehopf/tar1090
- readsb on GitHub: github.com/wiedehopf/readsb
- Support wiedehopf: If you appreciate tar1090 (the system we've adapted into Post 8 Spotter), please consider sponsoring wiedehopf on GitHub.
Additional thanks to the open-source projects that make this possible:
- OpenStreetMap — map tile data
- OpenLayers — map rendering engine
- FlightAware — dump1090-fa ADS-B decoder
- The global ADS-B volunteer community for sharing data and knowledge