ACARS assistance needed

[n6opv]

Hello all,

I recently picked up an AOR ARD-2 ACARS decoder for the specific purpose of interfacing it with the AirNav ACARS program. It comes with a nice piece of software written to provide this link. Unfortunately, I can't figure out what to click in the AirNav software to get it to connect to the live data. The documentation says to pick the ARD-2 as a source and connect to the log file through the File Write Detect feature of the AirNav software. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Can anyone help with this? I can't find how to do this and I'd really like to get my new system going! Thanks,

Jason

[nortonbeak]

I presume that the AirNav software that you are referring to is AirNav Suite 4.

In the ACARS Realtime Interface, select Sources - Live Data from Other Decoder - ARD2, then select the place where your ARD2 Log is being written.

[n6opv]

Thanks for the reply. I am actually running the AirNav ACARS Decoder. When trying to pick which one to buy, I wasn't sure of the difference between this and the Suite, except that the Suite seems to have alot more features than I really need. I got the impression that the Suite included the ACARS decoder anyway, so I just went with that alone.

I see you mention the ACARS Realtime Interface and that sounds different than the Decoder. Is that correct? I don't have any of those options to select in the Decoder software and they sure do look alot like what the ARD-2 documentation is referring to! It looks like I may have chosen the wrong program...

Please confirm and provide any other insight you may have on this issue. I don't want to buy another program if it's not going to suit my needs, although it looks like we're on the right track :) Thanks for you help,

Jason

[nortonbeak]

The AirNav ACARS Decoder performs a very similar function to the AOR ARD-2 in that they collect the messgaes from the aircraft, decode them and display the text that results. AirNav Suite4 goes a little further in that it displays on a map the positional information (when it is sent) and also, via a lookup table will convert the flight number into departure and destination. Suite4 will then place the aircraft into a database. There are other packages available that do something similar.

I think that AirNav Suite4 may be available to download as a demonstration for no payment. It certainly used to be available in that way. I'm not sure if AirNav continue to offer that facility.

You would get under demonstration mode, 30 minutes per day for one month.

[n6opv]

The software decoders have all worked poorly with my laptop soundcard, so I decided to go with the ARD-2. If it can hear it, it decodes it, almost 100% of the time! I just wanted a little more than the scrolling text display that the software offers without being linked to a more feature rich program.

It looks like I need to give Suite4 a try. There is no way (that I can see) to download it without buying it, so I'll just bite the bullet again. I was able to get a refund on the ACARS Decoder so at least some good news there.

Jason