This paper presents a single‐antenna receiver passive radar system in the context of moving target detection such as trains, car, planes and UAVs, leveraging the long‐term evolution (LTE) network as an illumination source. The proposed system uses signal reconstruction enabled by the telecom structure of the opportune signal in order to forego the use of a reference antenna. This presents the advantage of not relying on a physical signal for reference and its possible defect, potentially yielding better performances. The techniques introduced are validated through simulation and experiments. Moreover, a simplified passive radar system emphasises one of the key advantage of passive radar over other competing technologies for moving target detection: stealthiness and cost‐effectiveness.