C. Osbourne wrote:
Recently I saw a Garmin G1000's (very cool) Mode S
radar display, superimposed over the moving map display.
They call it: "Mode-S transponders with Traffic Information
Service (TIS)"

We were in a class "B" area, and seeing all the traffic
in the area superimposed over the sectional map was
really fantastic.

My question is, is there a way to do something like this
with a laptop, computer that will receive this signal
in a portable unit that could be moved from plane to
plane?


No, the data is only sent to airplanes with mode S transponders. That's
how your plane is in the middle of the display and data about other
aircraft are referenced to you. It's not just a generic broadcast that
can be picked up by anybody with the right receiver.