AirNav Systems Forum

AirNav RadarBox and RadarBox24.com => AirNav RadarBox and RadarBox24.com Discussion => Topic started by: Brian L on February 27, 2008, 10:38:18 AM

Title: ACARS Queries
Post by: Brian L on February 27, 2008, 10:38:18 AM
I am relatively new to RB and am still finding my way around it so please forgive me if the answer to the questions that follow are obvious - because they are not to me!

It appears to me that if I want to operate ACARS with RB I have to download it from the website and then pay a recurring 6 monthly 'subscription.'

1. Have I understood this correctly?

2. I do not like recurring subscriptions! There are enough of them hitting my bank account already. Therefore is there an alternative, such as a 'once only' purchase?

Many thanks

Brian
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: DaveG on February 27, 2008, 10:56:30 AM
I maybe wrong, but I think the recurring payment is if you wish to pull networked/internet data down.  Using it for obtaining live ACARS I think is one payment.  As I said "I think"
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: AirNav Support on February 27, 2008, 11:04:47 AM
A bit of confusion:

RadarBox provides a feature which allows you to connect to ACARS Decoder.
RadarBox has a network feature which is a subscription based after the intial free year.

To purchase ACARS Decoder, you will need to take out a subscription but you can cancel at anytime. Those who bough ACARS Decoder before 2005 won't have a subscription and theres is for life.

I hope that helpss.
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: Brian L on February 27, 2008, 11:49:22 AM
Thanks for the replies so far, Dave and Support.

1. If pre-2005 purchasers have got ACARS for life why can't newcomers like me also buy it for life with one payment? From the explanation so far I cannot see any justification for a subscription, though a one-of payment would be fair enough.

This sounds a bit like Manchester Airport where they have recently put up entrance fees to the Aviation Viewing Park to finance a new hanger for Concorde and other developements, thus making the project self financing. But then they will charge the same people who have financed the project again to enter it! I think this is known as a double whammy!

2. IF I go to the website and take out a subscription how do I get it to inter act with RB - or does it do so automatically?

Brian
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: Allocator on February 27, 2008, 11:50:58 AM
A bit of confusion:

RadarBox provides a feature which allows you to connect to ACARS Decoder.
RadarBox has a network feature which is a subscription based after the intial free year.

To purchase ACARS Decoder, you will need to take out a subscription but you can cancel at anytime. Those who bough ACARS Decoder before 2005 won't have a subscription and theres is for life.

I hope that helpss.

I bought ACARS Decoder before 2005, but I purchased it again in error thinking my subcription had expired - now I'm stuck with the 6 monthly charge!
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: AirNav Support on February 27, 2008, 12:01:20 PM
Allocator contact support and we will take a look and get you a refund if posssible.

Brian L:

1.) Version 2 was released which used the AirNav Servers (pictures and acars stations etc..) It was decided that it was too much of strain on the servers (and fiancially) and that the subscription would be introduced as it was ongoing cost for us.

Obviously to those who bought before the subscriptions we did NOT force them to pay again when they had bought knowing they were buying for life.

2.) Start ACAR Decoder first, then RadarBox and then go to ACARS tab and tick the box at the bottom to start the connection.

Any further questions relating to ACARS Decoder please contact support direct as this forum is for RadarBox only.
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: Allocator on February 27, 2008, 12:04:59 PM
Allocator contact support and we will take a look and get you a refund if posssible.

Thanks, I'll dig out my original receipt :-)
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: AirNav Support on February 27, 2008, 12:07:38 PM
We will have the records just send them a mail with your details.
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: Marinus on February 27, 2008, 02:19:53 PM
@Support,

Why not sell Airnav Acars decoder without the Network and picture download
feature ?
Now users are forced to renew their subscriptions in order to be able to
decode Acars messages, and I think lots of people don't like that (including me)
and therefore revert to free acars software like Wacars\Jacars

I for one was very dissapointed to learn that the registration codes that were
handed out to me by Andre Brandao personally ( I was a beta tester) aren't valid
anymore and won't enable me to decode Acars messages thus rendering the software
unusable.....
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: Allocator on February 28, 2008, 09:42:23 PM
We will have the records just send them a mail with your details.

Thanks for your help Support, all sorted now :-)

All the best

Allocator
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: cruiser01 on July 16, 2009, 11:07:40 AM
Dear all,

I'm newbie of this forum.
Im' not expert about ACARS, but today I bought my new AirNav radar box and ACARS decoder interface program.
I read something about ACARS so my question is:
if I want to use my ACARS decoder I need to connect the laptop to the Radio Scanner receiver on the audio input. Ok for the real ACARS receiving.
In this case, which frequencies I need to set up on my scanner?
Otherwise I can use the internet connection with the 6 months subscription and I have the ACARS messages from the net. It's ok, but I wish to improve also my real scanning receiver with the ACARS decoder interface, directly from my laptop and/or through the radar box.
Thank you very much for patient and courtesy.
Ciao
Andrea
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: Allocator on July 16, 2009, 11:35:58 AM
Andrea,

Check out the ACARS Decoder Help file, I'm sure that the VHF frequencies are listed there along with instructions for connecting your radio.
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: nortonbeak on July 16, 2009, 01:34:32 PM
The ACARS Decoder help file may not be up to date.

It does not list these "new" frequencies, for instance

136.750   New European frequency
131.850   New European frequency

which are shown at the ACARSD web site.
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: cruiser01 on July 16, 2009, 03:27:28 PM
Hi Gents,

thank you very much for your prompt answers and information.
So how is the best method to receive the ACARS? Is better to set the frequencies and activate the scanning mode or select a specific frequency and keep under monitoring only the selected freq.?
Furthermore, wich method is applied from the aircrafts using a specific freq.?
By the company rules, international laws or what?
I.e. living in the north of Italy which freq. are available for this? If i select the 136.750 and/or 131.850 I should be able to receive something?
Tnks again
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: nortonbeak on July 16, 2009, 04:34:08 PM
I get a lot of traffic in UK using 131.725.

My receiver is ICOM PCR1000 which is a little slow to scan all the frequencies.

I suggest that you experiment to find which gives you the best results.
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: bearcat on July 17, 2009, 03:21:29 PM
You maybe able to scan 2  frequencies provided that your scanner does not have too much of a delay after a message has been received. My Yupiteru has a built in delay of a second or two, but my good old Sony Air 7 hasn't and scans 2 fequencies quite well.

I have used

131.725
131.525
131.850
136.750

All european frequencies

Stewart
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: GlynH on July 17, 2009, 04:11:40 PM
I'm surprised that you are able to scan two different frequencies for ACARS information as I would have thought the chances of having the leading edge of the transmission clipped by the scanner only pausing on a channel when it actually hears a signal would be quite high?

Does this not cause an issue on your scanner Stewart?

I haven't tried this on my WinRadio but I would expect the scanner to pause only when the signal was already present which by definition would mean it had missed the first part of the ACARS transmission?

I have the AirNav ACARS Decoder that feeds nicely into RB2009 but the WinRadio Advanced Digital Suite  also comes with its own ACARS decoder (and a host of other indespensible plug-ins) which I have to say works better than the AirNav version which has always been a bit hit & miss for me...no pictures or RB2009 integration though...:-(

I would recommend picking one of your countries listed frequencies, listening for the short data bursts to ensure you have activity on that channel (maybe comparing that to an alternative listed frequency to find which has the most & clearest traffic) before setting your scanner on the busiest frequency and just leave it there.

Regards,
-=Glyn=-
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: cruiser01 on July 17, 2009, 08:17:02 PM
Thank you very much. More or less now I'm getting to understand what I must to do and how I can do it. Can you reccomend pls some good receiver but no expensive? At the moment I'm unable to put the antenna outside on the roof... I have available only my terrace... maybe in the future when I change home...
if I use the portable scan receiver with the external antenna should be ok or not?
Tnks for your help and ciao
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: cruiser01 on July 19, 2009, 08:49:08 PM
Hi Nortonbeak,

tnks for your answer.
Pls can you give me more details about your ICOM PCR1000?
I saw through the internet, it's an receiver interfaced with the p.c. connected with the usb cable like the radar box? Can you confirm it? Anyway, If I buy this kind of receiver I'm also able to receive the voice frequencies like a normal air band receiver? How is the sensitivity, the signal gain? Which antenna expected for this receiver? BNC connectors or something else...
Tnks again for your help and suggestions
Bye
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: bearcat on July 20, 2009, 08:06:33 AM
Hi Glyn

Sorry for the late reply, been at Fairford this weekend. Yes you are correct about clipped messages where there is a delay and thats where I find the Sony, scanning 2 frequencies, is better than the Yupiteru as is does not have a built in delay, although one can be selected if required.

With my ACARS only set up I have received 6250 messages, 972 flights and 570 aircraft based near EGNM using another decoder.

Regards

Stewart
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: bearcat on July 20, 2009, 08:08:42 AM
Sorry sould have said a delay after a message is received.

Stewart
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: malc41 on July 20, 2009, 09:01:07 AM
cruiser01

What info are you after with reference to the PCR1000, i wasn't sure if you can still buy them?
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: GlynH on July 20, 2009, 11:09:36 AM
There are quite a few that pop up on eBay but the current models are the IC-PCR1500 and its bigger brother the twin tuner IC-PCR2500

There are also two models that come with remote heads that are known as IC-R1500 & IC-R2500 respectively.

I was going to get one until I discovered the advantages of the WinRadio but these are more expensive than the Icom ones...bloody good though!

Just Google Icom PCR1000 - there are many, many resources out there that will tell you all you need to know and then some.

Just remember this has been obsolete for some time now and was replaced by the IC-PCR1500.

And it doesn't have to be an expensive scanner either - a cheap receiver as long as it has Air Band (118-138MHz AM generally or @ 131-137MHz AM specifically) you can connect the audio output from the radio to the soundcard line or mic in and using AirNav ACARS decoder you can get the info appear directly in the ANRB software.

The ANAD can be fussy as to which sound card you use but any 3rd party program ought to decode the transmission bursts albeit not appear within the main RadarBox 2009 software.

AirNav - if you are listening I don't suppose it would it be possible to incorporate some sort of 'hook' so I could drive the ANRB ACARS tab of RadarBox 2009 directly from my WinRadio?

Unlikely as you would be spending time & resources on a feature which could impact sales of your own ACARS decoder but I had to ask...:-)

It might also be a good idea if you were able to display the number of Messages / Number of Flights that ACARS Decoder receives directly in the ANRB 2009 ACARS window and the ACARS tab - this information does already appear in ANAD anyway...

Actually while I'm at it the whole ANAD program could do with an update but not until ANRB v3 is finalised please! ;^)

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=-
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: malc41 on July 20, 2009, 11:21:07 AM
Yes have one myself, but it gathers more dust now than time being listened to.
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: GlynH on July 20, 2009, 11:54:35 AM
Yes have one myself, but it gathers more dust now than time being listened to.

Hi Malc,

What...PCR1000, 1500, 2500 or WinRadio?

Just curious...

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=-
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: John Racars on July 20, 2009, 12:52:29 PM
I have used

131.725
131.525
131.850
136.750

All european frequencies

Hi All,

I did the same for years with my "good-old" Yupiteru 7400.

For a short while I runned (AirNav) ACARS 2.0 in combination with Radarbox succesfully; after reading this topic I am seriously consider to re-install my ACARS-configuration in the short term.
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: malc41 on July 20, 2009, 02:34:55 PM
Glyn

sorry about that a PCR1000 :-0
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: GlynH on July 20, 2009, 02:49:41 PM
Glyn

sorry about that a PCR1000 :-0

No worries...reading about the PCR-1000 was what got me interested in computer controlled receivers in the first instance...

I was all set to get the PCR-1500 or maybe a 2500 with twin tuners as I could have left one tuner set to ACARS and still used it to monitor anything else.

Having seen and played with the WinRadio though I went with that.

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=-
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: GlynH on July 20, 2009, 03:10:16 PM
First screenshot showing ANAD integration in the MyFlights window.

For each aircraft that receives a decoded transmission the ACARS logo appears in the left hand column.

Regards,
-=Glyn=-

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: GlynH on July 20, 2009, 03:11:06 PM
Second screenshot showing the ACARS tab in ANRB2009 showing details of decoded transmissions

Regards,
-=Glyn=-

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: GlynH on July 20, 2009, 03:12:38 PM
Third screenshot showing the ANAD screen itself.

Apologies for the three separate posts but there is a 300KB filesize limit per post.

I tried for 10 minuutes thinking it was 300KB per picture!

Regards,
-=Glyn=-
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: nortonbeak on July 20, 2009, 05:09:40 PM
Hi Nortonbeak,

tnks for your answer.
Pls can you give me more details about your ICOM PCR1000?
I saw through the internet, it's an receiver interfaced with the p.c. connected with the usb cable like the radar box? Can you confirm it? Anyway, If I buy this kind of receiver I'm also able to receive the voice frequencies like a normal air band receiver? How is the sensitivity, the signal gain? Which antenna expected for this receiver? BNC connectors or something else...
Tnks again for your help and suggestions
Bye

The review here may well answer most of your questions.

http://www.strongsignals.net/access/reviews/reviews.cgi?type=display&rtype=rev&class=recv&num=017 (http://www.strongsignals.net/access/reviews/reviews.cgi?type=display&rtype=rev&class=recv&num=017)
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: cruiser01 on July 20, 2009, 06:58:38 PM
Hi Nortonbeak,

thank you very much for the link.
For Glyn pls some more info: which difference are between the green, red and blue aircraft targets on the map?
In the 3rd picture where you post the Acars decode, are receiving through the internet connection or in the real time by radio?

Then my question is:
I wish to have the radar box interfaced with the acars decoder program, using the acars decoder program on the p.c. directly connected to the radio receiver set on the acars frequency and to have another radio receiver multiband in scanning mode for the voice ATC frequencies listening, what do you think about that? Is it possibile, in this case which kind of radio is better to use for? Considering also the future listening in HF freqs for the acars too... any suggestion will be appreciated.
Tnks again to everybody
Bye
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: GlynH on July 20, 2009, 07:15:56 PM
Hi Cruiser01,

Red = Take Off, Departure or Climb
Blue = Cruise or Levelled
Green =Approach, Descend or Landing

I am receiving everything realtime through my own external antenna/WinRadio receiver and into ANAD mainly because my subscription has expired and I cannot receive via the Internet.

With ANAD you don't even need a receiver!

In the four hours sInce I started ANAD this afternoon it has received 2071 messages from 231 flights!

If you wish to receive what ACARS you can 'hear' from your home location (which is what I prefer) and monitor ATC then you will need either two receivers or one of the Icom 2500 Series receivers which have two tuners.

As I said above you can use ANAD without a receiver (leaving your chosen receiver free for ATC) by using the subscription feature (I believe it comes with a 6 month subscription for the price) and choose a station on the Internet who is broadcasting ACARS data.

ANAD comes with a predefined list of these stations although I don't know how current they are...

Hope that helps.

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=-
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: cruiser01 on July 20, 2009, 08:48:37 PM
Hi Glyn,

loud and clear :)
Thank you very much. I'm still waiting the ANRB and ANAD coming from UK on-line shop... I hope for the next week.
Ok via Internet 6 months subscription without receiver, I think will be my first choice but then I will choose for the real time listening through the airband receiver, so the Icom 2500 series should be a good chance also for the HF freqs, but I think when I will find a good opportunity to buy it and a good antenna too.
Anyway you have a very good receiver :) good job.
Tnks again and kind regards
Cruiser01
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: John Racars on July 31, 2009, 01:00:21 PM
I have used

131.725
131.525
131.850
136.750

Hi Stewart and All,

What is on 131.850? With me there is nothing. Maybe another tip for European ACARS-listeners: ARINC-freq 131.825. Allmost all NorthWest, Easyjet, Air Canada and SAS flights are on that freq. Verry usefull freq.
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: bearcat on July 31, 2009, 07:02:53 PM
Sorry John I should have types 131.825

Stewart
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: John Racars on August 01, 2009, 07:24:01 AM
That is no problem Stewart! It is good that we keep each other informed.
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: perezoso on August 02, 2009, 12:04:00 AM
I doubt it will integrate with the RadarBox; but if what you want is to receive ACARS, there are lower cost solutions. 

There are some cheap (~ US$20-25) used scanners on ebay with the right band.  These can be hooked up to a piece of copper and freeware that will decode the transmissions.  The freeware display looks, well, just about identical to the AirNav product.  The system takes a little tweaking; but you can be in business for very little investment.

AirNav, I love you; but you are a little too proprietary and Microsoft-oriented....
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: John Racars on August 02, 2009, 08:55:24 AM
I doubt it will integrate with the RadarBox;

Hi Perezoso,

See picture below. In the left column you can see the marks that will say ANAD has recieved an ACARS-message from the aircraft on that line.

(http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp18/Bierboum/AirNav/Acars.png)
Title: Re: ACARS Queries
Post by: John Racars on August 02, 2009, 08:17:38 PM
Hi All,

Below an exemple of a technical ACARS-message sent by the cockpitcrew to ground:

ACARS mode: 2  Aircraft reg: .G-EZPG [A319]
Message label: 82  Block id: 7  Msg. no: M92A
Flight id: U25418 [EGKK-EDDB]
Message content:-
HI. HAVE A FAULT LIGHT
IN THE CKPT DOOR SWT DUE
MID STRIKE INOP + LDG LG
T INDICATION IN GREEN ON
ECAM MEMO DUE RIGHT LDG
LGT SWITCH NOT WORKING.
TECH LOG ENTRY MADE.THX
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