New User Questions: ARinc, HF Acars, etc. ?

[BOBRR]

Hello,

Pretty new at this, so please bear with me.

Trying to get the old, unsupported version, of PC-HFDL working.

It mentions in its Help manual ARINC, and a bunch of frequencies for the N.Y. site.
These being: NEW YORK 004 21931 13276 11315 8912

These are different from what shows up in the regular
Acars. which shows as the most popular 131.550.
I imagine these are considered as VHF Acars, used over the continental U.S. Right ?

So, I guess I am dealing with three items: VHF Acars, HF Acars, and Arinc freq's

**Which ones will PC-HFDL work on ?

What freq's for each would you suggest (Boston area)
What modes ? USB for all three of them ?

Is the present HF Acars the same as Arinc ?
What are the differences, please ?

Really confusing for a newbi like me.
If anyone could clarify all of this for me, would be most appreciative.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[ka3jjz]

First off, let's start with a few definitions, from WikiPedia and our own wiki...

High Frequency Data Link - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HFDL - The RadioReference Wiki

Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SITA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PC-HFDL is designed to work with the mis-named 'HF ACARS' frequencies. And as the 2nd article shows, there have been numerous changes to the frequencies; in fact, it seems every year around the March timeframe, there is a table change.

Standard VHF ACARS is used within a country (not just the US - I understand there are land stations in several other countries as well). HFDL comes into play when a plane is outside ACARS coverage areas, usually out over the ocean. However given the nature of HF, even if you are well inside a country, it's not out of the question to detect a flight hundreds or thousands of miles away. I haven't noticed many flights using LSB, but there's no real reason they couldn't. Most, I think, use USB.

ARINC is the name of the company, based here in the Annapolis area, that administers and develops various avionic applications (among many other things), as shown in the wiki article. In fact you will often see ARINC freqs being referred to as ARINC/SITA - this is because, as I understand it, ARINC sold off part of the business of administering these freqs to SITA some time ago. ARINC (also sometimes called 'company' frequencies) freqs are often used to allow planes to call their company HQ, or sometimes communicate to another airport through a company (to relay messages, maint requests and so forth).

You can't really predict which HF freqs will be utilized during the day or evening - as mentioned in the wiki article, often planes will scan for the best freqs to use. So should you. I've said this many times; a basic understanding of HF propagation is essential to be successful in this game. Once again, the wiki has an article with lots of links for this. I would start with the AE4RV propagation tutorial, then look through some of the EHam and AC6V links to see if there's something there you can use to enhance your understanding. In general, freqs above 10 mhz should be checked during the day, below this at night.

Joining the HFDL yahoo group (the link is in our HFDL wiki article) and groups like the UDXF will give you some idea of what freqs are most active in a given area during a time of day; just remember, it's not an absolute. Changes can and will occur, particularly as we start getting closer to the summer months.

73 Mike

 

[BOBRR]

From OP

Hi,

Just a quick thanks for all the help, and info.

Appreciate it very much.

Regards,
Bob (outside of Boston)

 

[VK2GEL]

Gday can you give examples of major airlines using HFDL please?

I thought they would mostly use VHF and satcom ACARS.