Using VHF FlightStick in the UK? ACARS?

[GlynH]

Hi there,

I'm left wondering what to do (if anything) with the VHF FlightStick I purchased recently?

As I am based in the UK it is illegal to listen in or broadcast ATC although I have been listening on many different radios over the last 45 years or so!

I was hoping that I would be able to listen in to my own stream privately via MyStation but this doesn't seem possible.

So is there any way I can listen in across the network from the RPi running rbfeeder24?

Failing that is ACARS still a thing and if so how might I tune the VHF FlightStick to a suitable frequency and setup AirNav ACARS Decoder to pick that up?

Asking before I send the VHF FlightStick back if I can't use it for its intended purpose...

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[EK01]

Glyn,

Like you I have been listening in to many over the air broadcasts of ATC, police, etc for many years. As far as I am aware, it is not illegal to listen in but it is illegal to act upon anything that you hear.
Then again, in this day and age, who knows !

Ian

[Runway 31]

As far as I am aware the stick like any suitable stick can be used for ACARS but I have no idea how it is set up but would not think that it would be any different to setting up for VHF

I believe there is Software Defined Radio software available to enable you to listen to the ATC VHF you can pick up and google should be able to help help you find something suitable see as an example https://github.com/szpajder/RTLSDR-Airband and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BNj8-muP2o and https://oneguyoneblog.com/2016/09/15/sdrsharp-sdr-installing-windows-10/

Alan

[GlynH]

Well I was hoping to set it up using the instructions about halfway down the page here;

https://www.radarbox.com/vhf-airband-flightstick

And after reading the last line on this page;

https://www.radarbox.com/sharing-vhf

I was hoping there might be an option to not be approved so the stream would be unavailable to other users but that when I logged on I could still listen to my own ATC on my own page.

Seems not to be the case...real pity.

-=Glyn=-

[Runway 31]

Item 4 on  https://www.radarbox.com/vhf-airband-flightstick

4. Sharing & listening to your airband audio feed.
By default, we’ve enabled sharing VHF audio feed via your Airband FlightStick to www.radarbox.com, so that thousands of other Radarbox users can share in the excitement and fun. Similarly, you’ll be able to listen in to other Radarbox users’ VHF audio feed. Should you wish to opt-out of sharing your feed publicly via Radarbox.com, please email support for assistance. 

Have you tried per last sentence

Alan

[GlynH]

Errm...I don’t want to opt out of sharing my RadarBox VHF ATC audio feed publicly!

My point was about sharing/not sharing the VHF ATC audio feed.

As posted above being in the UK it becomes a little murky about listening to ATC but as someone who has listened on a variety of radios over the last 45 years or so I wondered if there might be a way for me to listen privately to my own audio feed using my own VHF FlightStick via my own Raspberry Pi on my own MyStation page...

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[GlynH]

Well after reading Item 3 on the second link https://www.radarbox.com/sharing-vhf

3. Check station and wait for approval

Once you've setup and started broadcasting, you can head over to your VHF station page at https://www.radarbox.com/stations/EXTVHFXXXXXX, where you can define your station's location and listen to your audio feed.

After your station is approved, this page will become visible to other users. All done!

I read this to mean two distinct steps;

a. Once you've setup and started broadcasting, you can head over to your VHF station page where you can define your station's location and listen to your audio feed.

b. Then and only then after your station is approved, this page will become visible to other users.

So if I completed only a. above then only I could listen to it by being logged in?

Then and only then after being approved would it be available to others?

In other words I want to continue to publicly share my station data as I do now but not VHF ATC.

Clear as mud obviously! :)

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[Runway 31]

As we were discussing VHF I though you were meaning the VHF feed not the ADSB feed. As always I can only suggest you ask Airnav if you can listen privately to the VHF feed but personally as Radarbox is an online app i dont know if it would be possible for you to hear the VHF feed privately on a publically available page.

The SDR options that I mentioned previously would be a good bet

Alan