Question about acars

[kmacka]

I have all the equipment to start monitoring acars transmissions, but when I read the WIKI on acars, it said you need a cable with a good shielded connection. How do I know the cable I will be using is good enough and will not damage the scanner or soundcard.

 

[ka3jjz]

It's highly unlikely that a connection from your scanner's audio out (either speaker or line out) would do any significant damage; there isn't any voltage or current (to speak of) on either.

Cheap audio cable - such as the stuff you see at RS - will work, but if it's of any real length, might act to pick up noise and other junk and route it into the soundcard. Check out something say from Best Buy, or get some decent audio cable from a stereo store and build your own. It's quite easy and should pose no read problems to make. Alternatively - and I know a couple that have done this - I understand RS still sells a kit with RF chokes to try to cut the noise. If you find you are hearing junk from your PC in your connection, this is an easy solution. 73s Mike

 

[jparks29]

there are also programs out there like JACARS and AIRNAV that will download data from the internet.......although since only a handful of people are uploading ACARS data, there's a lot of missed traffic....

here's a screenshot of japan.....

 

[kmacka]

Ok thanks for the info....Now I am receiving the acars transmissions and using acarsd to decode them. My first question, is there place where I could read up on that would tell me what some of these transmissions mean...And secondly, are there better software packages available than acarsd. Thanks.

 

[trainman111]

From what I've used, ACARSD is the best. That's just my opinion though. I believe there are some that cost money and such (not sure if I'm right on that?), but I personally like ACARSD the most.

Nick

 

[Yokoshibu]

yeah airnav cost some $$ but I dont use it.... anyone here use airnav? ..... you can make maps for acarsd and it will plot positions automatically.... I like it!

 

[morfis]

Ok thanks for the info....Now I am receiving the acars transmissions and using acarsd to decode them. My first question, is there place where I could read up on that would tell me what some of these transmissions mean...And secondly, are there better software packages available than acarsd. Thanks.

1: http://www.acarsonline.co.uk/alabout.htm

2: not really and certainly not at that price

 

[adkad]

I have used Acarsd and now use airnav, which personally I like very much. If you want to spend money the combination of the airnav producds, acars decoder and plane tracker is great, as they connect automatically and plot the position and course of the planes the decoder picks up. For hfdl I love airnav suite which allows you to locate and identify the planes picked up. The screen shot above is from airnav suite. I guess it is all a matter of taste-I just prefer airnav over Acarsd. Adkad

 

[Yokoshibu]

yeah with acarsd you can make your own maps and it will track / plot the tracks of the aircraft ... at one point I was monitoring 3 freq's with 2 soundcards and it built a ton of tracks the other cool thing .... if you look at flightaware it blocks military flights but airnav / acarsd does not!

hey adkad - is hfdl the selcal or something else?

 

[morfis]

yeah with acarsd you can make your own maps and it will track / plot the tracks of the aircraft ... at one point I was monitoring 3 freq's with 2 soundcards and it built a ton of tracks the other cool thing .... if you look at flightaware it blocks military flights but airnav / acarsd does not!

hey adkad - is hfdl the selcal or something else?

HFDL = HF Datalink. System similar to ACARS but on HF freqs. The first software to work with this was the freeware by Charles Brain. Both the commercial version and the original can be found on his website:

http://www.chbrain.dircon.co.uk/pchfdl.html

 

[ka3jjz]

You can also see:

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/HFDL

I understand a new system table has been issued, but AFAIK no one has copied them yet (and the recent solar storms hasn't helped....) Some of the frequencies at the bottom of the article has changed, but most should still be good. 73s Mike

 

[adkad]

The thing with HFDL is you pick up aircraft all over the country on one frequency. The software is great (pchfdl) and if you have a shortwave radio that is good enough you can pick up stations in New York, California, Alaska, Hawaii, and a some others. The system has changed with a few frequencies but you can download the new dat file at the HFDL yahoo group site. With airnav suite you can map the aircraft as well. Lots of fun. Adkad

 

[Yokoshibu]

thanks everyone! I didn't know we had a wicki on it but now I do!

 

[kicktd]

Yokoshibu,

I just got acarsd the other day and so far it's been wonderful and I've logged lots of flights with it.

I'm currently working on the "web server" part of it to incorporate Google Maps instead of the default position reporting (hard to see) and map. Also made the font easier to read so no more straining to see the messages on the web page.

If you're interested in these updates as soon as I get done testing them I'd be glad to send you a copy of the template files (web.tpl and map.tpl) if you decide to run the web server for others.

 

[Spleen]

kicktd,

Definitely put me on the .tpl list.....even up to the last beta, I could never get the web server to plot points east of Greenwich....kinda useless when one is monitoring the Baltimore/Washington area....

 

[Yokoshibu]

(minus) - signs dude!

yeah I would like the tpls it cant be to hard to do... I didnt even think of it!

 

[Spleen]

I implemented kicktd's .tpl mods....you can see how it looks while I'm testing it out...

http://72.1.156.44:8080 (ACARSD web server)

 

[Yokoshibu]

no joy on dec 26th @ 02:30 edt (am)

 

[Spleen]

Had it down to implement latest version of web.tpl and map.tpl....should be back up now....