Getting nothing at all on ACARS

[V8C]

Hi,

I have WACARS and a Realistic Pro-25 scanner.

I have connected the scanner to the LINE-IN port on a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop via a 3.5mm jack from the scanner earphones output and fired up WACARS. I am getting good signal strength on WACARS (half way up the scale, green) and have tuned in to frequencies 131.725, 131.525 and 136.900 in turn on the scanner and left it for periods of up to 30mins but I am getting... absolutely nothing.
I have tried selecting "Use 38.4KB/Sec Sound Driver" and "Use 44.1KB/Sec Sound Driver" (in turn, not together). Occasionally a little bit of junk pops up in the RAW log but generally this is blank.
The input on the laptop is set to line-in.

Am I doing something stupid? Can anyone help?

N.B. I have tried using AGWPE to define a TNC as well.
N.B2 The version of WACARS I have appears to be (c)1999. Is there a newer one? Do I need a newer one?
N.B3 My location is South-East Essex (c.London) UK

 

[kd5dga]

WACARS was a good program but I found that WACARS will not run right with windows XP and WACARS has not been supported in a very long time.
Try a program called ACARSD. ACARSD has a great interface with lots of options to choose from.ACARSD is supported by the developer. I use ACARSD from time to time and excellent results. Plus it is free.
www.acarsd.org
If you still want to try WACARS then uncheck both 38k and 44 k sound buffers. This will defaul WACARS to run at 22k. I used WACARS in the past on a windows 98 computer with excellent results but since the developer does not support the program anymore newer version of windows come out and the program usually becomes obsolete. Another thing is if your soundcard does not support lower buffer rates, the program will not run properly.

 

[V8C]

I've changed to a different machine now (PC instead of a laptop) and running acarsd fairly successfully (picking up a flight every 10mins or so on 131.725mhz).

The server is on the acarsd website too

Interesting point though, I'm getting all sorts , ranging from Air Malta to Korean Air and even a couple of private learjet type things floating around over europe but I don't seem to be picking up any brit-based airlines, such as british airways / easyjet / monarch / etc....

 

[kd5dga]

uh, before I forget search around the internet for WACARS db. updates. You database maybe out of date. That maybe the reason why you are seeing aircraft and no Brittish based aircraft.

 

[Bill_White]

DB updates are here:
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/acars