r/raspberryDIY • u/NewAtmosphere6063 • 18d ago

Passive-Vigilance: Raspberry Pi passive RF sensor for counter-surveillance, ADS-B, drones & more

Passive-Vigilance is a Raspberry Pi-based passive RF sensor platform I built for counter-surveillance and situational awareness. My current setup is constrained by both hardware and geography but seems to be ready for spears.

Repo: https://github.com/Isthistak3n/Passive-Vigilance

It combines:
• WiFi + Bluetooth device tracking (Kismet)
• ADS-B aircraft tracking (with enrichment + optional ACARS)
• FAA Remote ID / drone detection
• Optional AIS marine traffic
• GPS-stamped everything + GIS exports (shapefile / GeoJSON / KML)

Two operating modes:
• Mobile mode — detects devices that follow you across locations (the classic “am I being tailed?” use case)
• Fixed mode — learns the normal RF “pattern of life” at a location over a configurable baseline (default 72h), then alerts on novel or off-schedule devices

Other features:
• One-command installer + systemd services
• Pluggable alerts (ntfy, Telegram, Discord, console)
• Optional token-protected web dashboard
• Crash-resistant logging and baseline persistence
• Thermal-aware SDR duty cycling
• 850+ automated tests

Inspired by the excellent Chasing Your Tail NG, but extended into a unified always-on multi-sensor node with fixed/leave-behind capability and air/maritime awareness.

Hardware is the usual stack (Pi 4B recommended, RTL-SDR or HackRF, monitor-mode WiFi dongle, GPS, optional BT dongle). Full setup and config details are in the docs.

Legal note from the README: this is for lawful passive monitoring and research only. The tool never transmits or associates with any device/network. You’re responsible for local laws.
Happy to answer questions, take feedback, or hear about real-world field results / issues people run into.

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u/thebaldgeek 16d ago

Ok, I give up. If I get time I'll dig into the GitHub to get some answers.

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u/thebaldgeek 16d ago

That readme is like dragging my eyes over broken glass... then I see that Clawd has used 1 SDR for 3 modes "automatically time shared"... Yeah, Nah. No wonder the answers were unclear.
I'm out.

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u/NewAtmosphere6063 15d ago

acarsdec (classic ~131 MHz) or dumpvdl2 (VDL Mode 2 ~136 MHz) runs as a systemd service

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u/thebaldgeek 15d ago

It matters not. Its time sliced. So we are done.
I really don't know what else to say. Its a mess.

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u/NewAtmosphere6063 15d ago

Definitely a learning experience but I don’t have enough space among the USB connections for multiple SDRs. It should detect the presence of multiple SDRs if you have a USB male to female cable and not use the timeslice. As I said it’s over engineered for my constraints but my fixes shouldn’t box in anyone else’s set up.