ACARS Newbie

[bdamm]

I have just started monitoring ACARS transmissions and I have a few questions about acarsd. I downloaded the program and I am receiving about 200 messages a day. What I would like to know is (1.) What is the block ID and is it of any importance? (2.) How can I decode the string of numbers and abbreviations in the message content? (3.) Why does the aircraft reg. seem wrong when I look it up on flightaware? (4.) And last, what is the DDE mode and how do I use it? I tried to look these up in the archive but found nothing.

 

[kicktd]

1) Not really of any importance. This is just the Downlink Block Identifier.

2) Sometimes it's easy to decode them such as Altitude, Airports IDs etc. but sometimes it's just position reports and a bunch of numbers which would only make sense to their airline/company unless you take the time to try and figure out what it means (Could be Fuel On Board (FOB), airspeed etc.)

3) I've never had a wrong aircraft reg. Flight aware won't recognize a commercial aircrafts tail number, you must search on flight aware by the Flight ID given for a commercial airline flight.

4) DDE is for connecting other ACARS programs to ACARSD so they can share ACARS information. These are mainly payware programs that you can run on the same computer and connect it to ACARSD (why, I don't know).

I have a PDF file that I found while searching for more info on ACARS myself that explains ACARS a little which you can get Here

 

[rcool101]

kicktd

That's a good PDF file and explains alot. Could you explain the part on the ACARS program concerning servers?

 

[kicktd]

As far as servers go, ACARSD allows others can connect and can see your traffic but you have to set this up in the acarsd.ini file in the acarsd folder. There are 2 server modes, Web Server where they connect via a web browser or Regular server mode where they must use a client program.

Now the DDE servers part is if you have a DDE client (Usually another ACARS decoding program) such as SkySpy, Airnav and there are some programs the connect via DDE that provide logging options also.

 

[bdamm]

Thanks kicktd. I still cant seem to get the DDE to talk to the program "Log Analyzer". I can import logs into it but can't get it to work live. I am also not getting flights or airports to show on my maps. It will show position reports though.

 

[kicktd]

yeah the airports have to be input into one of the files (airports.txt I think) in a certain format with lat/long etc.

Make sure in the lower right of ACARSD DDE is shown with a blue background. If not DDE isn't running so open acarsd.ini and find #StartDDEServer SkySpy,ACARS and remove the # and if Log Analyzer says to put a certain name, add it after ACARS and save the file, restart ACARSD and you should be good to go.