Hi all,
For all those still interested in acars, it appears that here in SE England that frequency 136.750MHz is no longer used for conventional acars transmissions.
This leaves 3 frequencies; 131.525, 131.725 and 131.825MHz.
Although there appears to be a decline in conventional acars transmissions, there has been a considerable increase in VDL2 digital transmissions which also include acars messages.
Here in SE England there are now 3 VDL2 frequencies - 136.725, 136.875 and 136.975MHz.
Stuart
Hi Stuart,
Can the Kinetic SDR Puck receive and translate these VDL2 digital transmissions ?
As you can tell from my question, I'm not very savvy about ACARS, etc.
Charlie
Hi Charlie,
I haven't got an SDR Puck, but the SBS-3, and I assume the SDR Puck, can only decode the conventional analogue acars transmissions on 131.525, 131.725 and 131.825MHz. The output is displayed via the Basestation AcarsWindow and also is available on a TCP/IP port.
The digital VDL2 transmissions can
NOT be decoded directly by either the SBS-3 nor the SDR Puck.
I have suggested to Kinetic / Chris Taylor on a number of occasions, going back to May 2012, the possibility of decoding VDL2, but alas nothing has happened.
It could be that Kinetic believe that enhancing the SBS-3 and SDR Puck firmware / software doesn't increase financial profit.
QuoteCan the Kinetic SDR Puck receive and translate these VDL2 digital transmissions ?
But you can use the IQ Data feed from the SBS-3 (and SDR Puck?) as a digital source to feed SDRSharp and then VDL2 decoding software (MultiPSK) [not free]. It's not straightforward.
Regards
Stuart
Hi Stuart,
Thanks for that.
I think I'll just leave SDRSharp, etc alone for now.
Regards,
Charlie