I have a fleet of Raspberry Pi computers, and three of them run PiAware in conjunction with an SDR (software defined radio USB dongle with aerial) which listens out for ADS-B transmissions on 1090MHz. These are geographically located in NW London, Surrey and Somerset so I normally get to see a fair few planes on a good day but with the Covid-19 lock-down, traffic has dropped to about 10% to 15%, which is indeed a huge reduction.
Monitoring from Crewkerne has the best range, with planes sometimes transmitting ADS-B signals from over 150 miles away. NW London has around 60-70 miles range and mine in Surrey a paltry 40-50 miles range. I've seen 'USAF 100th Refuelling Wing' a few days ago, and have also picked up FAA flights (Fleet Air Arm). Helicopters tend to be a bit limited in terms of info broadcast, especially so with anything registered to the UK Police for obvious reasons. I've also seen a helicopter registered to 'UK Home Office'. The majority of planes in the sky seem to be cargo (CargoLux/DHL et al).
(data feeds from my 3 Pi computers get sent back to FlightAware servers for inclusion on their website)
If anyone is remotely interested in doing the same, it will probably cost around £80-£100 to get one going.
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