ACARS Forum

[K7TKR]

With all thats been changed around here lately-I'm a little surprised I don't see a form dedicated to ACARS monitoring. So, I'm just curious how a forum dedicated to that little aspect of the hobby might be received.

 

[ka3jjz]

Not to put any kind of wet blanket on the idea, but there's a pretty active one on qth.net. I know, 'cause I used to be the listmaster for it :wink:

73s Mike

 

[Cobra_Commander]

whats a acars mean? :?:

 

[crayon]

whats a acars mean? :?:

Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System

This website link has plenty of info to help answer new questions if you want to know more. :wink:

 

[K7TKR]

Not to put any kind of wet blanket on the idea, but there's a pretty active one on qth.net. I know, 'cause I used to be the listmaster for it :wink:

73s Mike

But this is Radioreference.com and we cover all aspects of scanning here and now, that HF monitoring is a topic, I think ACARS should be too. And, since soundcard based decoders are cheap and all one needs is a scanner with the airband-something most scanners have-it's one of the easiest digital modes to receive.

Furthermore, the two lists I belong to are nothing more than a dumping ground for loggings. I'd like to see some real discussion. Maybe I might learn a few things.

 

[Spleen]

I've been playing with ACARSD for a couple of weeks, now. Still debating grabbing an old piece of crap PC and setting up a permanent server, but I'd have to find an old airband receiver or scanner to hook up, first.
( http://www.acarsd.org )

The ACARS decoding software available on the net ranges from free to about USD 60 or so, more if you want a suite that will decode Selcal, track flights, etc. My Winradio came with an ACARS decoder as part of a decoding suite; I'm finding out that ACARSD decodes just as well or better, and will pull in the pictures of planes, work in server mode, and lets you update the flight, registration, tail number, and other databases with a couple of mouse clicks.

No messy discriminator taps needed, just tune to an ACARS frequency in AM mode and go to town...

I wouldn't mind seeing an ACARS department here at all. Or better yet, maybe a section devoted to aviation scanning that would cover all the bases--UHF/VHF voice comms, ACARS, Selcal, etc.

 

[AZScanner]

Or better yet, maybe a section devoted to aviation scanning that would cover all the bases--UHF/VHF voice comms, ACARS, Selcal, etc.

Ahhh now you're talking. This might be worthwhile since there is a movement afoot to make the airbands digital in the not-too-distant future. The forum would already be in place to address this.

-AZ

 

[grem467]

i too would be all for a general aviation communications forum...

 

[ka3jjz]

I've been playing with ACARSD for a couple of weeks, now. Still debating grabbing an old piece of crap PC and setting up a permanent server, but I'd have to find an old airband receiver or scanner to hook up, first.
( http://www.acarsd.org )

No messy discriminator taps needed, just tune to an ACARS frequency in AM mode and go to town...

Yeah, I've played around a little with ACARSD here as well. Nice piece of software, just a little odd in the setup routines. And yes, it's probably worth getting a piece of sxxx Pentium 1 with a good soundcard if you're really going to get serious. And just about any old scanner that will cover the airband will do.

One point to keep in mind - and this bites a lot of the new folks - the scanner's squelch might not open fast enough to hear the sync tones that ACARS sends at the beginning of each transmission. You may have to open the squelch up all the way to get it to work correctly. No sync tones, no decoding. Volume levels can also play a part in this. Don't overdrive it. and you'll get all sorts of stuff....

73s from the ex-listmaster....Mike

 

[Spleen]

Yeah, that's why if I do this I'll have to get another airband radio (and another box, and another antenna, blah blah blah)...I've found (and been advised) that most decoding applications that work on short bursts of information such as ACARS, ATCS, PC-HFDL, etc. pretty much require squelch be deactivated or you miss important header information and probably scramble the decode. Got some time on my hands while I change jobs so I'll be in scavenge mode for a while....

 

[cipher66]

I like the idea of an ACARS forum. This method of communications is very interesting and is becoming more important as the move to digital air to ground (ATC) communications matures. And yes, to effectively monitor ACARS you must have your scanner level set to a "good" level with the squelch off - the header info is an integral part of the entire message

Paul

 

[K7TKR]

Yeah, I've played around a little with ACARSD here as well. Nice piece of software, just a little odd in the setup routines. And yes, it's probably worth getting a piece of sxxx Pentium 1 with a good soundcard if you're really going to get serious. And just about any old scanner that will cover the airband will do.

So far, both pieces of software I have, have had no problems with of my receivers from my Icom on down. However, I can't say enough about AirNav's software. It works when the other has problems picking up the data.

What's cool though and I do mean really cool, is using the AirNav ACARS decoder's DDE link to thier AirNav Live tracker. However, that requires a computer hooked to the internet, a little bit more in cash out lay, and a system that's capable of multitasking.

 

[Spleen]

kd7lqw, have you tried POSFIX? You might have to make your own map depending on where you live, but it will take DDE input from several ACARS decoding/reporting apps...

http://www.posfix.fsnet.co.uk/


For what its worth, I'm currently testing an ACARSD setup tonight.....66.93.55.167....will probably be up until the urge to play Far Cry comes on, but I'll turn it back on for overnight play...

 

[K7TKR]

kd7lqw, have you tried POSFIX? You might have to make your own map depending on where you live, but it will take DDE input from several ACARS decoding/reporting apps...

Nope. I do have AirNav's Suite4 which will do posits as long as they are in the ACARS messages. It's already set up for the DDE interface and works well with thier ACARS decoder.

 

[Spleen]

'k....I almost registered AirNav's suite after trying out the plot function for a while, but it had trouble reading the logfile produced by the Winradio ACARS decoder...though looking back the problem may have been with the system in general...I'll have to try it out in conjunction with ACARSD and see if it works any better....might turn out to be worth the $....and would be an excuse to build that dedicated decoder, since you can up the amount of passes the decoder in ACARSD makes on the received blurb depending on how much CPU processing power is free...theoretically, a 1 GHz CPU running a basic OS load with no unnecessary services running should be able to use the 10 pass maximum without breaking a sweat. I had only suggested POSFIX because you mentioned a cost issue...AirNav's map are very pretty, but at the time it wasn't worth laying out the $ for pretty maps that weren't getting plotted after obvious location information was being decoded.

 

[K7TKR]

I only mentioned the cost in passing. I have registured versions of all AirNav's software including thier secal decoder. To some users, the cost might be a stumbling point when looking at whats avaible for ACARS decoders.

I mentioned the live-flight tracker because it is simpley, just the coolest software I've ever used. But it can be very expensive because to use ut one must suscribe to the AirNav's live tracking service.

 

[Spleen]

When you say "live tracking service", you mean the little feature where it goes out and grabs flight information from a central box and then plots them accordingly?

 

[K7TKR]

No. As far as I know. AirNav's Live flight tacker grabs live ACARS and FAA data and sends it through the internet to your computer via the Live Flght Tracker software. The software then plots the aircraft's posit, alttiude, speed and direction. The software also allows a visual "flight Plan" from origin to destination. The software displays ALL commercial aircraft in the air and will display a data-block for each aircraft with all the flight data I just listed.

If you use the DDE link in AirNav's acars decoder-the Live-Flight-Tracker will display a "aircraft found" message when the decoder hears the actual acars transmission-one then may click on that aircraft on the screen and follow it's progress.

 

[Spleen]

Got it. I think the version I was playing with way back when had an "Internet Interface" option or something similar. You could set it up to update automagically or do it on-demand. I remember hearing it kept breaking because the site(s) that it pointed to kept moving or changing hostnames or became non-public...they must have contracted something since then so access was guaranteed to the new Flight Tracker software.

So I guess back to the original question: how do we get set up an Aviation Scanning forum? Drop to note to Lindsay?

 

[K7TKR]

The AirNav acars decoder does have an internet port on it-for sending and receiving acars data and for getting pictures of received commercial aircraft-but I don't use it all that much. I'd rather have a radio pumping acars data to the decoder than the internet-unless I'm using the live flight tracker.

As to the master of this website-I'm hoping he's has or will stumble across this thread. Otherwise, might have to drop him a line I suppose.