KG-ACARS Looking for info and sharing mine !

[ATCTech]

Those are good decodes, but you're confusing the flight number (JBU1234 for example) with the physical registration of the airplane, which N1234AA or CGNAM would be examples. The CG one you mentioned is a Canadian-registered airplane, all the CFxxx and CGxxx you see will be Canadian. All the Nxxxxx are U.S. registered, Of course other countries codes are different again, that's half the fun of decoding the messages.

Second, ALWAYS run the program with the squelch fully open. If the first tiny little bit of the data burst is missed you won't get reliable decodes, especially form weaker signals. And obviously it must be in AM mode. Play with the volume level in tiny little increments and find the sweet spot for decoding.

I won't get into the technicalities of it, but I regularly run KG-ACARS and other ACARS decoders in parallel. You'd be amazed how they differ in decode success on the same signal. My overall summary of that exercise (after a couiple of years, not a couple of hours) is that KG-ACARS tends to be more accurate on shorts ACARS messages, whereby the Airnav ACARS decoder software seems much better at longer ACARS messages, Go figure, but it's consistently that way on my PC. They're both good programs, but as they say "your results may vary". Don't give up trying!

 

[screenersam]

I'm willing to get partial codes for more action. with squelch open I was only getting 1-2 hits an hour.

I understand C- is Canadian, but would think they used numbers instead of letters.

 

[wkm]

If you are using your mic port then go into to mic properties and turn off effects and turn the gain down to 0db. From there setting lvls are easy. In the right hand side under the "sound waterfall" there is a audio lvl meter. Watch it when there is a incoming transmission set the levels on the pc and or the scanner to where they are blue to green. Green being optimal. Other things that help with better decode are a fm trap and a better antenna.

With kg-acars it will plot about 90% or more of Alaska Air which around here can be up to 20 or more flights in a hour. But rarely plot any other airlines. With acarsd it will only plot about 5 or 6 planes but that is because of how the positioning is deciphered.


BTW creating a directory is nothing more that creating a folder.

 

[ATCTech]

I understand C- is Canadian, but would think they used numbers instead of letters.

No, all letters, the Canadian way. Like snow, Rob Ford and Justin Beiber, sorry to say.

 

[screenersam]

thx for info. will tweak.
threre's all sorts of options when you right click the map. Still working on those.

most of my hits are on 136.55.

 

[screenersam]

some stuff I've learned; most of you probly already know this, maybe newbies can learn.

1) I get very few map plots, one every 2-3 hours. ID's by tale/plane number. maybe I should expand the map.
2) there are icons on top of the page. click on the first one for basic log info (flight#, plane#, maybe plane type, time). only once did I get dpt/dest.
3) the fourth icon may be set to 'raw' and give the acars transcript. This repeats the flight#/plane# and other info. sometimes I get position (Lat/Long), sometimes dept/dest cities (KLGA).

just about everything I get is a Boeing 7X7 or an Airbus 31X. I did get one Embraer. I live fairly close to a waypoint (Snow Hill MD) so I have aircraft in site almost constantly. I'm running 4-10 hits per hour, which is probly less than half the actual flights but I'm still enjoying this., esp since it was free!
my netbook is Windows XP, which will soon be unserviced, so I might have to upgrade to a newer one. many of these have the android system, which has an acars app.

 

[ATCTech]

What are you using for a radio and antenna? If you actually listen to the ACARS frequencies, are there way more audible bursts that you're able to decode? It sounds like you're suffering from flat-out poor signal strength to me. Typical range for here (with an outdoor antenna of course) is out to about 200NM.

ACARS is a very, very busy system in North America and Europe especially, so you should be almost inundated with data bursts in around your location given the proximity to IAD/DCA etc.

 

[screenersam]

pro-97 and stock antenna, 1/8 cable to microphone jack. I do see the scanner stop so I know not everything's being decoded. I suspect the cheap notebook isn't processing. maybe I'll just turn up the volume and see if that helps. no biggee, I don't need to see everything.

 

[majoco]

I do see the scanner stop

No wonder you aren't getting many hits. The very first bit of the data burst must be received or else the programme ignores it. You shouldn't be scanning, just pick a busy frequency and sit on it with the squelch open. A better antenna would help too. If I listen to 131.55MHz I get a data burst about every 5 seconds and I would say 75% get decoded with Acarsd. I have an outside antenna made from a cut-down TV antenna.

 

[screenersam]

I tried it on fixed frequency, I seemed to get fewer hits.
is acarsd better than KGacars?

I've noticed odd flight#s like GS0001 and XA0001. apparently these are leased/corporate planes on private flights. one was listed to 'Atrium Aviation', another to 'Netjets'. Anyone else running into these?

 

[ATCTech]

Yes, bizjets typically appear as GS or XA. That's not the IATA designator for any particular operator however, it's just a placeholder rather than seeing IATA codes like "UA", "SW", "AA", "BA" etc. for commercial airlines.

You definitely need an outdoor antenna to see whats really in the sky around you.... but that's up to your own priorities of course!

 

[screenersam]

No, all letters, the Canadian way. Like snow, Rob Ford and Justin Beiber, sorry to say.

speaking of which...
(of course when we got Beiber he was a cute kid. maybe we was a bad influence...)

 

[screenersam]

I tried monitoring on my BC898T, which I think is a better scanner (maybe cuz it's a base/tabletop unit) and is connected to a ceiling antenna.
First I scanned the acars freqs. I got about 84 hits, 25 of them on 136.65. 136.85 had the next most; 129.125, 136.575 and 136.75 had zero hits.
I went freq to freq with some success. I had so many JetBlue hits I stopped loggin them. Happily I got no JetBlue on 130.025 or 131.125 so I kept them on.
Interestingly, I logged USAir 1878 on 131.125, changed freq to 130.025, and got the same flight on that freq a few minutes later. Do they jump frequencies much, if at all? maybe after a certain time (I did this right at 2100 the other night).

 

[screenersam]

nother interesting log; CO 1682 had nine transmissions within a two minute period. two of them mentioned KCLT, the third said KRDU. I checked the log and right about that time they changed their course from southwest to south. I guess the CLT/RDU was a navigational change. Right at 2152.

Flight Track Log

 

[ATCTech]

Yes, a lot of frequency hopping goes on within the ARINC system in busy areas, Of course the aircaraft is moving too, so from one ground station to the next may not be the same frequency either, 131.550 aside. SITA users can't be told to frequency hop for the previously stated reason - they only have one frequency deployed in North America..

 

[screenersam]

much better luck with the 898T and attic antenna.
136.65 appears to have lots of JetBlue; 136.80 has American and United; 131.55 seems to have more 'special' flights. I started a new thread for strange logs, hope to see some contributes.

 

[GINES]

kg-acars map

Had you any trouble getting the map to work?

 

[screenersam]

finally did get the map okay. been concentrating on other stuff and really haven't done much with it lately.