Transmission1

can anyone recommend a good ACARS decoding software?

Also, has anyone used the virtual radar type programs and hardware like AirNav Radar Box.
Are they any good?

Cheers

I am also interested in finding some good software to decode ACARS.

Have you tried ACARSD? http://www.acarsd.org/

Decodes, fetches information and images of the aircraft from the web and can be set up to be a server, including a web server. Supports multiple audio sources so can capture multiple channels using multiple scanners.

There is a program called Plane Plotter from COAA.co.uk that does acars decoding as well unfortunately it has a 21 day trail period and after that it has to be registered, I used this before I switched over to HF receiving and it worked really well for me, if you have an HF receiver Planeplotter can be used to decode SELCAL as well.

73s
Graham

I use Acarsd for decoding and the flightradar24 site to get the aircrafts positions, works well for me.

As much as I would like an Airnav radarbox, "she who must be obeyed" has seen the price and put her foot down with a firm hand

If you are interested in going down the hardware radarbox route the original leaders where the Airnav and SBS versions, but there is a bit more competition now with such as the Plane Gadget and Aurora versions at a cheaper price.

http://radarspotters.eu/forum/index.php covers most of them and also there is a very cheap usb unit called the MicroADSB that gets some good reviews.... http://89.252.226.243:8000/

Cheers Neil, yes ive toyed with Acarsd and also Airnavs version, ACARS decoder, although the proper version is a 6 monthly subscription.

Also had a play with http://acarsanalyser.com/, but i cant get the DDE to work alongside Acarsd or the Acar Decoder. Incidentally, the acarsanalyser.com used to be a commecrial program and is now totally free. The interface is superb.

ive just downloaded planeplotter too, 21 day trial, just giving that a quick whirl.

I use flightradar 24 on the laptop and also the pro version on my iphone. its quite nifty.

As far as virtual radar is concerned, i also have a "she who must be obeyed" and likewise my spend is restricted, so for the time being i make do.

So can I pick up the ACAR freqs on my scanner? and be able to decode them? if so what are the freqs.

liamcarbin wrote:So can I pick up the ACAR freqs on my scanner? and be able to decode them? if so what are the freqs.

http://www.acarsd.org/ACARS_frequencies.html , you will have no problem picking them up on your scanner.

I find I have the most success on 131.725, the European primary.

Thank you very much, just been trying it out with plane plotter. Seems to work great

liamcarbin wrote:Thank you very much, just been trying it out with plane plotter. Seems to work great

Nice one. I think you will find it very addictive, I know I am hooked on it

neil-c wrote:

liamcarbin wrote:Thank you very much, just been trying it out with plane plotter. Seems to work great

Nice one. I think you will find it very addictive, I know I am hooked on it

It seems very empty of planes though, only picked up one aircraft.

Great that can decode this from my scanner....although one of those AirNav boxes * Drools *

liamcarbin wrote:

neil-c wrote:

liamcarbin wrote:Thank you very much, just been trying it out with plane plotter. Seems to work great

Nice one. I think you will find it very addictive, I know I am hooked on it

It seems very empty of planes though, only picked up one aircraft.

Great that can decode this from my scanner....although one of those AirNav boxes * Drools *

It can get a bit quiet late at night. During the day you should pick up quite a few hits.

liamcarbin wrote:Thank you very much, just been trying it out with plane plotter. Seems to work great

That's good to hear! I've also tried plane plotter and it works great, however I it seems to be reporting incorrect
speed - altitude - course - squawk.

I've made a print screen

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/836/jepge.jpg/

Does anyone else have this problem

kiwi272 wrote:

liamcarbin wrote:Thank you very much, just been trying it out with plane plotter. Seems to work great

That's good to hear! I've also tried plane plotter and it works great, however I it seems to be reporting incorrect
speed - altitude - course - squawk.

I've made a print screen

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/836/jepge.jpg/

Does anyone else have this problem

That how it appears on mine as well.

also what freq did you use?

liamcarbin wrote:

kiwi272 wrote:

liamcarbin wrote:Thank you very much, just been trying it out with plane plotter. Seems to work great

That's good to hear! I've also tried plane plotter and it works great, however I it seems to be reporting incorrect
speed - altitude - course - squawk.

I've made a print screen

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/836/jepge.jpg/

Does anyone else have this problem

That how it appears on mine as well.

also what freq did you use?

You will find that with acars a lot of the data that is transmitted such as airspeed and altitude is not included in the data burst whether it some sort of security thing I do not know but you will get the occasional data burst that transmits altitude,speed and direction.

73s
Graham