adsbexchange.com api interaction

adsbx.conf

[adsbx]

api_key = 

[search]

lat = 
lon = 
dist = 

period = 10
count = 2

adsbx.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import json
import requests
import datetime
import time
import cronus.beat as beat
import configparser

def get_and_save_adsbx(filename, URL, API_KEY):

    headers = { 'api-auth':API_KEY }
    res = requests.get( URL, headers = headers )

    with open( filename, 'w' ) as f:
        json.dump( res.json(), f )
    
    return res

def filename_timestamp( base ):
    """ create a filename with a prepended timestamp """
    timestr = datetime.datetime.now().strftime('%Y%m%d-%H%M%S') 
    return  timestr + '_' + base

if __name__=='__main__':

    config = configparser.ConfigParser()
    conf_file = 'adsbx.conf'
    
    config.read( conf_file )

    adsbxconfig = config['adsbx']
    API_KEY = adsbxconfig['api_key']

    searchconfig = config['search']
    lat = searchconfig['lat']
    lon = searchconfig['lon']
    dist = searchconfig['dist']
    period = float( searchconfig['period'] )
    maxcount = int( searchconfig['count'] )

    URL = 'https://adsbexchange.com/api/aircraft/json' +\
          '/lat/' + lat +\
          '/lon/' + lon +\
          '/dist/' + dist + '/'
    
    count = 0
    beat.set_rate( 1/period ) # rate set in Hz
    while beat.true() and count < maxcount:
        fname = filename_timestamp( 'absbx.json' )
        print( fname )
        get_and_save_adsbx( fname, URL, API_KEY )
        count += 1
        beat.sleep()