Troubleshooting ACARSD

[davidbroxson]

Maybe some of you that are using acarsd can help. Where is the volume meter so I can make adjustments, I downloaded meters.zip, but the scale goes from -30 to 0 db. I joined the yahoo group pretaining to Acarsd but the help is limited. Thanks

 

[benjaminarthurt]

David, maybe you can share what you are trying to adjust and how you have it set-up, as I am a little confused. for my ACARSD server I have the audio coming from the headphone out on my RS pro-2055. Into the audio line in on my computer. I then adjust the volume using the audio control on the scanner and the windows audio mixer in the computer.

Hope this helps, with the large number possible setups including operating systems its hard to be specific. Maybe share your specifics and someone here may be able to help more.

 

[davidbroxson]

Thanks for your reply, I have a RS pro-163 I have a cable from the headphone jack of the scanner to line in jack at the back of the computer. I have XP.

 

[benjaminarthurt]

Good, I find that if I set the volume on the scanner fairly low, about 1/4 up. And use the windows audio mixer to adjust the recording volume for the line in. Make sure you are adjusting the recording levels and not the output level. I've found that if you make the adjustments slowly and watch the volume meter at the bottom of the main acarsd window that a reading of around 12 gives me fairly good results

 

[davidbroxson]

Where's the volume meter at? I'm not seeing it under any of the acarsd menu listing. Nevrmind I see it. I put the slider to the bottom , zeroed it all out, made the slightest adjustment on the slider and now it reads 11 0 0 0 from 0 0 0 0, initially it read 32837 0 0 0.

 

[benjaminarthurt]

im away from home, but if memory servers me its at the bottom of the window in the status bar to the right. this isn't my screen shot but its similar to what I see, http://www3.sympatico.ca/scos/ACARSD1.jpg at the bottom right of the window it says [vol 12,0|0|0] not sure what the other numbers mean but that vol 12 is what you are looking for. Hope this helps

 

[davidbroxson]

Good, yea thats where I'm looking Thanks. I've gotten three hits , I see Msg # but no message content, can you tell me how to get that how to translate the content? Thanks Ben

 

[benjaminarthurt]

I see lots of blank messages on mine as well. I think its more of just a connection test than anything else. I believe if it is decoding the message number than it is doing the whole message just fine. Wait until you receive a few more messages. There may be just no messages coming through right now. Also, the message type means alot, I am still learning this too but it seems as though the message type and tail number may be more info for the terminal, just knowing that they are close.

You may also think about adding a preamp, for me this made the difference between decoding only the strongest messages and decoding most messages. Also improving the antenna you are using for receiving this too, remember that ACARS messages are not repeated, you are receiving the RF directly from the aircraft.

 

[benjaminarthurt]

I am heading out for the day, my Ham clubs Christmas party. But if you have any more questions I will be more than happy to help, I will check here tonight. I usually have my ACARSD server online so you can see what it is receiving but its broken right now.

Once you get this working well its interesting to see some of the messages. And remember not many US airlines are using this yet. I see lots of international flights. Around me in Buffalo, NY I see alot of aircanada flights and alot of international flights from O'hare (chicago)