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Hardware & requirements

Everything you need to build or buy an AryaOS gateway. This page covers the single-board computer, storage, radios, antennas, GPS, and power for backpack operations — plus the pre-assembled AirTAK go-kit if you would rather skip the shopping list.

Just want it to work?

Order an assembled and tested AirTAK go-kit. It ships with a Raspberry Pi, the right radios and antennas, GPS, and a field enclosure, all pre-flashed with AryaOS. The rest of this page is for teams building their own.

What each mission needs

AryaOS runs the same image everywhere; a mission's needs come down to which radios and antennas you attach and which device role you select. Use this table to plan a build.

Mission Deploy guide Radio Antenna GPS Device role
Aircraft (ADS-B 1090 MHz) Aircraft (ADS-B) RTL-SDR 1090 MHz ADS-B Optional air
Aircraft (UAT 978 MHz, US) Aircraft (ADS-B) Second RTL-SDR 978 MHz (or wideband ADS-B) Optional air
Maritime vessels (AIS) Maritime vessels (AIS) RTL-SDR VHF marine (161–162 MHz) Optional maritime
Drones (Remote ID / DroneID) Counter-UAS (drones) AntSDR (or Wi-Fi/BT sniffer) 2.⅘.8 GHz per hardware Optional cuas
Own position on the map Own position (GPS) — — USB GNSS puck any
Everything at once Multi-sensor COP Multiple SDRs Per band above USB GNSS puck multi
CoT relay / routing only Relay & routing — — Optional relay

One SDR per band

Each radio decodes one band at a time. To watch 1090 MHz and 978 MHz simultaneously (or add AIS), fit one RTL-SDR per band and give each a unique serial — see Re-serializing radios.

Single-board computer

AryaOS is a Debian trixie–based, arm64 operating system built with pi-gen. It targets the Raspberry Pi and is tested on the following models.

Model Architecture Status Notes
Raspberry Pi 5 arm64 Recommended Fastest; best headroom for multi-sensor builds
Raspberry Pi 4 arm64 Supported & tested The most common field build
Raspberry Pi 3 arm64 Supported & tested Works for single-sensor loadouts

Intel/amd64 is planned, not shipping yet

AryaOS images are arm64 only today (#129). The full gateway suite already installs on any Debian host from the signed apt repository, so you can run the software on amd64 even before a dedicated image exists.

microSD card

You write the AryaOS image to a microSD card and boot from it.

Spec Requirement
Minimum capacity 16 GB
Recommended capacity 32 GB
Class A1/A2 application-class recommended for responsiveness

The image resizes its filesystem to fill the card on first boot, so a larger card gives you room for logs, support bundles, and Node-RED flows without any manual steps.

Radios (SDR dongles)

AryaOS decodes signals with software-defined radio (SDR) dongles on USB.

RTL-SDR dongles (RTL2832U) cover the three most common bands:

Band Frequency Decoder AryaOS serial convention
ADS-B 1090 MHz readsb / dump1090-fa stx:1090:0
UAT (US) 978 MHz dump978-fa stx:978:0
AIS 161–162 MHz (VHF) ais-catcher assign a distinct serial

A blog-favorite is the Nooelec NESDR series; the factory UAT preset on AryaOS matches the NESDR Nano 3 "978" EEPROM serial stx:978:0.

Drone detection uses a wider-band radio such as the AntSDR to capture DJI DroneID and other Remote ID signals, feeding DroneCOT and DJICOT. See Counter-UAS (drones) for the supported capture hardware and setup.

Give each dongle a unique serial

AryaOS tells the ADS-B, UAT, and AIS decoders apart by USB serial (stx:1090:0, stx:978:0, and so on). If you install two identical dongles with the same factory serial, decoders will fight over the same device. Re-serialize before deploying.

Re-serializing radios

Set serials from Cockpit → AryaOS Site → Radios, or from a shell with aryaos-sdr:

sudo aryaos-sdr list
sudo aryaos-sdr set-serial 0 stx:1090:0

Replug the dongle (or reboot) for the new serial to take effect. See Radios & SDRs for the full workflow.

Antennas

The right antenna does more for range than anything else in the kit.

Band Antenna Notes
ADS-B 1090 MHz Tuned 1090 MHz ADS-B antenna A tuned whip or collinear outperforms the bundled telescopic; height and line of sight matter most
UAT 978 MHz 978 MHz or wideband ADS-B antenna US-only band; a wideband ADS-B antenna covers both 978 and 1090 acceptably
AIS (VHF) Marine VHF antenna (161–162 MHz) A proper VHF marine antenna dramatically improves vessel range

Range in the field

In a San Diego backpack test with no internet, a tuned ADS-B setup reached 55 miles of aircraft coverage. See Introduction for the full CONOP.

GPS / GNSS

A USB GNSS puck gives the gateway its own position, which AryaOS publishes to TAK via GPSTAK and LINCOT — useful for backpack and vehicle operations where the box is on the move.

  • Any gpsd-compatible USB GNSS receiver works (the popular u-blox ⅞-class pucks are common choices).
  • GPS is optional for fixed-site installs but recommended for mobile and dismounted use.
  • See Own position (GPS) to put the gateway on the map.

Power & battery for backpack ops

AryaOS is designed for disconnected, dismounted use — no LTE, no Wi-Fi backhaul required.

  • Power the Pi from a good-quality USB power bank; use one that meets the Pi model's current draw (a Pi ⅘ wants a solid 5V/3A source).
  • SDRs draw additional current — size the battery for the Pi plus every attached radio.
  • A powered USB hub can help when running multiple SDRs on a Pi ¾.

See Disconnected / backpack ops for the full field loadout.

The pre-built AirTAK go-kit

If assembling and tuning your own kit is not how you want to spend the week, the AirTAK go-kit is an assembled, tested, turnkey gateway with AryaOS pre-installed.

  • Buy assembled — Pi, radios, antennas, GPS, enclosure, and AryaOS in one box. Buy hardware
  • Build your own — Use the tables above, then flash the image.

Next steps