SOFTWARE FOR ACARS RECEPTION

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ACARS is short for ' aircraft communications addressing and reporting system ' there nothing special  required for the reception of acars other than a vhf scanner receiver covering the air-bands and your computer and the software, you just need to make a connection from the scanner audio output to the soundcard mic / line input jack.

 ACARS is also used on the h.f bands and is easy to copy, but you will need the pc-hfdl programme. You will also need a decent stable ssb receiver as you need to accurately tune the receiver to within about 100 Hz of the transmission

There are probably a lot of programs out there but the four below I have used. The fairly new VDL 2 protocols can be decoded by MULITPSK (the data from this program can be passed onto plane plotter) VDL 2 can also be decoded using a Raspberry pi

The below programs are available for windows

 

planeplotter from coaa

multipsk

airnav acars  *

pc-hfdl from charles brain *

kg acars - japanese acars ( there is a h.f acars version also )

sorcerer

 

PCHFDL be downloaded from here

 

Decoding ACARS with a Raspberry pi

VHF ACARS 

A screen shot from the airnav ACARS de-coder programme Ver 2-1

 

AIRNAV AND RADAR BOX

ACARS messages can be displayed in the radar box program but you must have the AIRNAV ACARS program.

I must say that I cannot get THE AIRNAV ACARs program VERSION 1 or VERSION 2.1 to display ACARS messages in RADARBOX  anymore

Although the software is still sold its really quite old now and I can only think that there is a compatibility issue between the later version of radar box and airnav acars that never been addressed or there is an issue with the computer os. you can try changing the compatibility to vista  or xp in the airnav .exe, but it does not make any difference nor if you run it as administrator - starting  acars first then radar box or the other way around and it still will not display correctly – There are  much better software programs around and would not recommend this one now

 

 ACARSDECO2 - FOR WINDOWS 

Above is a screen shot from the acardeco2 program ( freeware )  - this shows the data screen - there is also a log screen and a flights screen

The program can be downloaded from here  - follow this link for Raspberry pi

ACARSDECO2 for windows download here

edit the .bat file -  it's flexible and can be tailored for your requirements - below is how I did things  -  run the program by clicking on the batch file and then open your browser and type 192.168.1.87:8080 ( replace this address with your own pc address ) - read the readme file that comes with the program to get the most out of it

acarsdeco2.exe --gain 49 --freq-correction 64 --freq 131550000 --freq 131725000 --freq 131825000 --freq 131525000 --http-port 8080 --vrs-url http://192.168.1.290:8081 --outconnectudp pp:192.168.1.87:9742 --pictures http://192.168.1.290:8081 --silhouettes c:\data\silhouettes --db c:\data\basestation.sqb --frdb c:\data\flightroute.sqb --banners c:\data\logos

create a folder called acarsdeco2 on your c drive and install the program there

create a folder called data on your c drive and place your logos, silhouettes folders there along with a copy of your base station.sqb file and flightroute .sqb

( i did it this way because it makes it easier to update the files from the main pc )

As I run vrs on a raspberry 24/7 on 192.168.1.290:8081 ( use your rpi ip address )   I pulled the pictures and other required vrs info from there ( you must have vrs running somewhere on your network )

view results on the main pc  192.168.1.87:8080 ( use your i.p address )

output to plane plotter 127.0.0.1:9742 ( pp running on your main pc )

or a better idea is to install the program on a raspberry and view the results in your browser across the network

this is a good update over the original program and makes acars reception a lot more interesting and all you need is a cheap SDR RTL dongle ( don't forget to install the zadig driver if its not already on the computer ) and a homemade ant - my vdl2 ant will work fine

if you do not have virtual radar server - install  acarsdeco2 as above but modify the batch file to reflect the below  and everything will be run from your pc - output will be to plane plotter running on the same pc - but you will be missing out on a lot more information that vrs could supply


acarsdeco2.exe --gain 49 --freq-correction 64 --freq 131550000 --freq 131725000 --freq 131825000 --freq 131525000 --freq 131850000 --http-port 8080 --outconnectudp pp:192.168.1.87:9742 --pictures c:\data\pictures --silhouettes c:\data\silhouettes --db c:\data\basestation.sqb --frdb c:\data\flightroute.sqb --banners c:\data\logos

Log screen

 

 

 

POSFIX

 

Maybe not so much interest shown in this program now. It shows plots from AIRNAV ACARS on a map. Also hfdl plots and info from Plane plotter can be processed. don't forget to calibrate your chart using the information in the text file

posfix can be downloaded from here  

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VHF ACARS Frequencies

131.550 mhz

 primary channel worldwide

129.125 mhz

additional channel for usa & canada

130.025 mhz

secondary channel for usa and canada

130.425 mhz

additional channel for usa

130.450 mhz

additional channel for usa & canada

131.125 mhz

additional channel for usa

131.450 mhz

primary channel for japan

131.475 mhz

air canada company channel

131.525 mhz

european secondary

131.725 mhz

primary channel in europe

136.700 mhz

additional channel for usa

136.750 mhz

additional channel for usa

136.800 mhz

additional channel for usa

 136.900 mhz

european secondary

136.925 mhz

arinc european channel

136.850 mhz

sita north american frequency

136.750 mhz

new european frequency

131.850 mhz

new european frequency

H.F ACARS

H.F ACARS GROUND STATIONS FREQUENCIES

 STATIONS

Frequencies in kHz

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

01

San Francisco 

21934

17919

13276

112378

10081

8927

6559

5508

4672

2947

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

02

Molokai,  

21937

21928

17934

17919

13324

11348

11312

10027

8936

8912

6565

5538

5529

5514

5463

3900

3019

3001

2947

2878

03

Reykjavik,

17985

15025

11184

8977

6712

5720

3900

3116

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

04

Riverhead,

21934

21931

17934

17919

13276

11387

8912

6661

5523

3428

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

05

Auckland,

21949

17916

13351

11327

10084

8921

6535

5583

3404

3016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

06

Hat Yai

21949

17928

13270

10066

8825

6535

5655

4687

3470

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

07

Shannon,

11384

10081

8942

8843

6532

5547

3455

2998

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

08

Johannesburg, 

21949

13321

8834

4681

3016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

09

Barrow, 

21937

21928

17934

17919

11354

10093

10027

8936

8928

6646

5544

5529

4687

4654

3497

3007

2992

2944

 

 

13

Santa Cruz, 

21997

21988

21973

21946

17916

13315

11318

8957

6628

5660

3467

2983

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14

Krasnoyarsk, S

13321

10087

2905

2878

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15

Al Muharraq,

21982

17967

13354

11312

10075

8885

5544

2986

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16

Agana

17934

17919

13339

13312

13276

11306

11288

8936

8927

8912

6661

6652

6634

6550

 

 

 

 

 

 

17

Telde, Canaries

21955

17928

13303

11348

8948

6529

5589

2905

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The above list is probably not 100% accurate but most frequencies are still active  but check this list out [all frequencies were active in 9th January/march 2019 (not a complete list thou)

To decode H.F ACARS you will need the PC-HFDL program, plus a good stable H.F. receiver capable of turning to within about 100 Hz of the transmission. The PC-HFDL program will also interface with plane plotter. Multipsk will decode hfdl transmissions on its own.

Download the program from here pc-hfdl from charles brain

The sorcerer program works well - it’s a multimode decoder and can be downloaded from here  -  http://www.kd0cq.com/2013/07/sorcerer-decoder-download/

Also check this site  http://hikeofyourlife.blogspot.com/2015/02/how-to-display-correct-hfdl-ground.html which is self explanatory

Always be careful when editing the registry - if things go wrong (i.e. the program not running anymore) delete all references to sorcerer in

The registry ( 1 folder) and re-install things

Numbers showing instead of frequencies? See my note here

Above is a screen shot from sorcerer

Above is a  screenshot from The HF ACARS program - PC-HDFL

 

 

 Plotting aircraft in contact with canaries ( plotted using COAA plane plotter )  - the Canary islands on 11.348 MHz and 17.928 MHz

 are quite busy ( January 2019 )

  

If your Target receiver signal 'jumps' around and basically has become un-usable for decoding even RTTY and H.F ACARS is absolutely impossible, before you  bin it or start to get to involved in trying to fix it, the first thing to do is pull out the 'clarifier' 3 pin connector, clean it and reseat it, maybe it will be fixed with just doing this

 If this does not fix the problem, you could re-solder the connections to the 3 pin connector on the main PCB and replace the clarifier control itself after that check voltages are stable and  maybe replace D3 ,but as its a real old model maybe at this stage do the below and except the limitations or bin the receiver. Down load the receiver diagram by clicking on the receiver picture above

One sure way of getting the receiver stable again  is to disconnect the 3 pin connector completely, the clarifier control is now redundant  and your receiver will now tune in 1 Khz steps. The receiver was never really suitable for receiving C.W and whereas I have successfully used it for  decoding H.F ACARS it was very fiddly to tune the signal in, but it will now be  totally ok for decoding RTTY and FAX signals using a program like FLDIGI. However resolving SSB will also become a problem and maybe some A.M stations, maybe its time to buy a new receiver ?

 

Display launcher will make it easier to view the data received by PC-HFDL - it also has a separate window to view ACARS messages

it will display logs from jaero, multipsk and acarsdeco2 etc and also plot positions using the dx atlas program

if running display launcher and plane plotter together  and plane plotter fails to display positions then run two instances of PC-HFDL and set the log file path up appropriately for both programs

 

pp data grid is a bit out of date now but does the job - see the above screen grab displaying HFDL info from PC-HFDL/PLANEPLOTTER   - it only interfaces with plane plotter to download pp data grid click here

VOLMET FREQUENCIES

( WEATHER FORECASTS FOR AIRCRAFT )

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SHANNON VOLMET

3.413 MHZ

5.505 MHZ

8.957  MHZ

13.264  MHZ

RAF VOLMET

5.450 MHZ

11.253 MHZ

 

 

ARCHITECT

4.540 MHZ

4.742 MHZ

5.714 MHZ

6.739 MHZ

ARCHITECT

8.190 MHZ

9.031 MHZ

11.205 MHZ

13.257 MHZ

ARCHITECT

15.031 MHZ

18.018 MHZ

 

 

NEW YORK

3.485 MHZ

6.604 MHZ

10.051 MHZ

13.270 MHZ

UN-ASSIGNED

2.998  MHZ

6.580 MHZ

11.378 MHZ

 

 


 

H.F AIRLINE COMPANY R/T FREQUENCIES

 

3007  3010  3013  3494  3497  4654  4687   5529  5532  5535  5538  5541  5544  6637  6640 6643  6646  8921  8924  8927  8930  8933  8936   10027  10030  10033  10069  10072  10075  10078   11342  11345  11348  11351  11354  13324  13327   13330  13333  13336  13339  13342  13345  13348   13351  17916  17919  17922  17925  17928  17931   17934  17937  17940  21940  21943  21946  21949   21952  21955  21958  21961  21964  21967  21970   21973  21976  21979  21982  21985  21988  21994   21997 KHZ

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL FOR THE ATLANTIC ETC

SANTA MARIA

8.825 MHZ

SANTA MARIA

11.336 MHZ

SANTA MARIA

13.354 MHZ

NORTH ATLANTIC

6.628 MHZ

NORTH ATLANTIC

8.831 MHZ

NORTH ATLANTIC

8.891 MHZ

NORTH ATLANTIC

11.309 MHZ

NORTH ATLANTIC

13.306 MHZ

NORTH ATLANTIC

13.291 MHZ

NORTH ATLANTIC

17.946 MHZ

LUTON / BRITANNIA

5.610 MHZ

EUROPE

5.661 MHZ

EUROPE

17.961 MHZ

S.AMERICA

17.907 MHZ

SHANWICK

4.675 MHZ

SHANWICK

5.616 MHZ

SHANWICK

5.598 MHZ

SHANWICK

5.649 MHZ

SHANWICK

6.622 MHZ

SHANWICK

8.864 MHZ

SHANWICK

8.879 MHZ

SHANWICK

8.906 MHZ

SHANWICK

11.279 MHZ

These frequencies can be quite busy at times - you will hear aircraft as well as the ground station