Simple ACARs dongle receiver.

[SCPD]

I am using PlanePlotter with an RTL2832 R820T dongle running "rtl1090" software to tune and decode.

Does anyone know of a program that essentially is basic in its operation that would allow me to receive an individual ACARs frequency for use with PlanePlotter? To clarify, I don't want to have to run SDR sharp or similar software, as it seems like overkill, to receive one frequency. I am looking for a receiver program similar to rtl1090 that would allow me to tune it to the ACARs frequency and then pipe the audio via VAC into Planeplotter.

I receive about 4 different active ACARs frequencies here and would eventually like to have a RTL2832 dongle for each channel.

 

[kma371]

I am using PlanePlotter with an RTL2832 R820T dongle running "rtl1090" software to tune and decode.

Does anyone know of a program that essentially is basic in its operation that would allow me to receive an individual ACARs frequency for use with PlanePlotter? To clarify, I don't want to have to run SDR sharp or similar software, as it seems like overkill, to receive one frequency. I am looking for a receiver program similar to rtl1090 that would allow me to tune it to the ACARs frequency and then pipe the audio via VAC into Planeplotter.

I receive about 4 different active ACARs frequencies here and would eventually like to have a RTL2832 dongle for each channel.

do you have an extra scanner? you can just run the audio directly into your PC mic in and select that audio input from within plane plotter.

 

[AlertNewEngland]

If you find the autotune fork of SDR#, you can use just one dongle to receive all 4 ACARS channels for processing by PlanePlotter (as long as the channels you are using fit in the bandwidth window).

Steve

 

[SCPD]

SDR# fork for multiple ACARs

The autotune fork sounds like it would work. Has anybody confirmed that it can tune quick enough to the frequency to capture the data?

3 of my channels will fit within the 2Mhz window but one of the ACARs channels is outside. Any ideas on how to tackle that one? I don't think just combining the audio will work for the last channel as I would be combining the background white noise with the ACARs data.

 

[AlertNewEngland]

I was using the version that can be found here, and can confirm that it tunes instantly whenever the squelch you set is broken. I received a very high message rate when I was using it. I was playing with it again this morning, though, and had some trouble getting it to work with frequency correction, so I'm not sure what's changed. Yahoo! Groups

You should actually be able to increase the bandwidth to 2.8 MHz wide without dropping any frames, and you might even have success at 3.2 MHz. Not sure if that helps.

 

[AlertNewEngland]

Unfortunately I can't seem to get the frequency correction to work on the 'correct' autotuning version. There's a newer scanning version, but it doesn't seem suitable for multi-channel ACARS use. It's a bummer, because when I had the older version working, it really was fantastic.

 

[SCPD]

4th channel is 136.850 Mhz which has a significant amount of ACARs traffic on it here too. I am not too sure how I am going to combine this one. Others are 131.550, 131.475 & 130.025 Mhz.

 

[DaveNF2G]

There are about 9 ACARS channels now. I scan them all (with a regular scanner) and feed the audio direct to PlanePlotter. I get tons of messages and, most importantly, position plots.

I did experiment with one of the frequency scanning plugins for SDRSharp a while ago and it worked well for ACARS. For a while, I had a totally SDR aircraft tracking station in operation.

Now I'm trying to rebuild it after having had to reinstall Windows XP onto my laptop, and I'm having trouble even getting PlanePlotter to work. ggrrrrrr....

 

[SCPD]

re: scanner option

David:

I have tried the scanner option for ACARs but found that the scanner would not stop quick enough to reliably decode. Tried my old BC890XLT for this. I haven't tried my BCT15X but don't want to tie it up for just decoding ACARs.

I am pondering all my options here as I will probably wait until the weather is warmer before permanently setting up my aircraft tracking station. Having fun in the process though.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Some scanners are better for this purpose than others. I used a PRO-97 and currently use a PRO-96 and get adequate performance for my needs.

I also used the autotune/scan plugin with SDRSharp, but it scanned more slowly than a scanner.