Massive shoutout and huge heaps of THANK-YOU to airframes.io for hosting my site!
Post updated 6th Jan 2025.
Updated the Site Search page section.
Starting with the home page:
Quick overview of site health. tbg has email alerts for zeros, so no need to ‘report’ any odd or zero numbers that you see. (But any numbers you see and don’t understand, be sure and ask about).
The home page tables are just there to help you understand the data ‘freshness’ on the rest of the site.
Of course if you are one of the feeders to the site, it will let you know if your data is making it to the site.
TIP: If db table ‘ACARS in 7 day search db’ is north of 2.5 million and the ‘ACARS insert rate (mpm)’ is upwards of 300 message’s per minute, things are working.
Site Search. Most popular page on the site:
Search ACARS messages from all sources from the past 7 days.
For msg, OR, AND, NOT text entry areas, only * wildcard is allowed.
Also no regex (yet).
TIP: Leave all 8 boxes blank, tick ‘just military’ and click search to see latest 100 messages from military aircraft.
8 search text boxes:
msg text is any word or phrase you are looking for to be in the main ACARS message. Usually you should start with this keyword.
OR text with msg text allows you to search for two different phrases in the database. (Most useful with used with an ICAO or Reg).
AND text is a word or phrase that you want to have in the msg body along with your msg text.
NOT text is text you DONT WANT in the msg body. If the NOT text is in the message, drop that entire message from the search results.
You can combine all eight msg options to really powerful effect. Good way to thin down your initial search.
TIP: If you are getting 100 results, search smarter with AND and NOT etc.
TIP: Use your browser find (ctrl + f) to highlight text on the page.
ICAO, Reg, Type and Source support the * wildcard.
From icao 6 character aircraft ICAO. Using a hex and no msg text options is Ok. You will get the last 100 heard messages from that airframe.
From Rego Registration code. For now, include - if its expected.
From Type ADSB standard type codes.
From Source. As per the home page labels. Helps narrow down a region or uplink / downlink messages. ie all VDL use vdl-, but you can use the full feed name, eg, irdm-nzhn. You can leave all text forms bank, put in a source name and click search to get latest 100 messages that were heard from just that feed.
No need to check mil or civ boxes when using a full ICAO.
Partial ICAO is Ok. For example, to see Australian Air Force, put 7CF* in and check just military.
type must use the exact type code in the db. If you don’t know the airframe type, search till you find the aircraft you want, then note its type code in the search result. Type codes are powerful for all types of civil or military airframes, ie E3TF & just military really narrows results down.
reg must use the exact registration number in the db. For example, if you are searching for icao: AE0270 type: K35R reg: 63-8038 Desc: BOEING KC-135R/T Stratotanker, you must use 63-8038 since that is what’s in the db for that airframe. If you use ‘638038’ or any other combination, you will get zero hits. ie, you must have an exact registration match.
TIP: For all pages that are table based, you can try to shrink or expand your browser view to change the text size. Hold ctrl and tap + or - to zoom in or out. This has helped almost everyone I have mentioned it to.
MMC: Global. EMEA. AOR. AMER. APAC
mmc is tbg shorthand for military movement and mission code.
All ACARS msgs from military tagged aircraft are filtered to check for ‘fpn’ (flight plan) or mission codes. If found, extract data and put it on these tables.
Often these tables show what’s going to fly where before they fly.
Live pages. Auto updates.
PDC - Pre-Departure Clearance:
A specific type of ACARS message that is detected and decoded for military and civil pages. You might be able to use the mmc page to see when an aircraft is going to fly the next day, then on that day use the PDC page to see exactly when its given its pre-departure clearance for more information about the flight.
Live pages. Auto updates.
OOOI. Out. Off. On. In.
Out from gate. Off runway. On runway. In at gate.
The whole reason ACARS exists. Airlines wanted a more accurate and automatic way to track these 4 key parts of every flight, ACARS was invented to fill this need.
OOOI times are UTC. fob = fuel on board. Yes, some are in liters. That’s not a tbg mistake. The FOB burn rates can be very powerful #osint information in interesting ways. Nuf said.
Live pages. Auto updates.
TIP: Use in conjunction with pdc and mmc pages.
Live page. Auto updates
Mil: usaf. raf. Pacific. apac. amer. emea.
Live streaming view of all msg that match the filter shown at the top of the page. (Regex filters used for some tables, Google how they work if you want to understand better).
Impossible for tbg to set a history time span on these tables as the volume of traffic varies by global events.
Live page. Auto updates.
Aircraft and airport search. Open-Sky Data.
Enter the aircraft ICAO on its page, the 4 character airport ICAO on either of those two pages, press enter and just wait a minute.
E6 / E4:
Specific type of aircraft of interest to some avgeeks.
tbg does not really understand what is of use on this page, so tips on how to lay out the page better are welcome.
All the aircraft ICAOs are listed on the left. If the row is blank, no data for that aircraft is in the system.
Live page. Auto updates.
vip:
Specific type of aircraft of interest to some avgeeks.
tbg does not really understand what is of use on this page, so tips on how to lay out the page better are welcome.
All the aircraft ICAOs are listed on the left. If the row is blank, no data for that aircraft is in the system.
Live page. Auto updates.
hf voice cpdlc:
X power user @thenewarea51 personal page < grin >
It was a great idea that he well described and then he (and others) gave me a lot of help over a spaces session to categorize the data.
Pilots are told what HF frequency to contact that region’s ATC. Use it to listen in. (Or so tbg is told).
All ACARS messages for this page are checked for CPDLC ATC frequencies and filtered for use on this page.
Live page. Auto updates.
cpdlcAT1.
X power user @thenewarea51 personal second page < grin >
It was a great idea that he well described.
AT1 messages from C & L Band, Iridium and VDL are filtered and displayed here in the two tables.
Live page. Auto updates.
equipment list:
Flight plan ACARS msgs have a lot of interesting data in them.
tbg is specifically looking to know what each airframe is equipped with for future pages that filter for some modes.
selcal is another ID used by avgeeks, tbg is looking to build a page/table for selcal codes.
Live page. Auto updates.
OHMA - 737 MAX Diagnostics:
dumpVDL2 decodes the OHMA messages from this aircraft.
On Board Network carries a lot of different information.
This page (Sept 2024) is not mobile friendly for the time.
There is a LOT of different information that can be in these messages, its hard to squish it down to a small phone screen. Working on it.
Live page. Auto updates from all of the VHF VDL2 feeds. No search or recall at the moment, so if you see something interesting, take a screenshot quick!
Looking for any feedback on this page.
iridium:
Somewhat new ACARS mode. tbg seems to be the only website in the world that is showing this data. Tough to filter and decode. A work in progress.
Live page. Auto updates.
hfdl:
Cheaper than satcom ACARS. Very popular mode. In use by military and civil airframes.
Impacted by space weather.
Live table of current frequencies in use by ground stations around the world - useful for avgeeks that listen / decode HFDL ACARS.
Live page. Auto updates.
vdl:
VHF (short range) ACARS. In use by both mil and civ.
Some msg include position data, if found, plotted on tbgmap.airframes.io. Some msg include ground station data and if found, are displayed on GS tables on this page.
All military are auto filtered for this page.
Live page. Auto updates.
stdc:
Marine broadcast to ships at sea. Ships and aircraft often work together.
tbg needs to give this page some layout love and figure out how to tie in its messages with other tables on the site.
Table on the left is live. Auto updates. Search is past week.
Queued messages update every 15 seconds till zero.
trackmap:
You can enter a single ICAO or a comma separated list of ICAOs and hit enter to show on 6 tracking sites.
You can also click the buttons to show the current (if any) locations of the button labels. More groups or button ideas are aways welcome. Be sure and submit the list of ICAOs you want assigned to the button and tell me the name you want displayed.
Tip: click the floating ‘close’ on the top left map to be able to pan and zoom that map.
Live page. Auto updates.
map:
avgeeks seem to really (really really) like seeing aircraft on a map, so here is your dumpster fire page.
Plots all ADSC messages from the 4 ground stations.
Every ACARS msg from any data source that has a lat/lon position from an aircraft gets plotted on this map.
Read the notes on this page, they are important!!!
Wont say too much, but squawk type 17 can be very very interesting at times.
about:
Need to flesh out this page, not with ‘how to use the site’ because as noted, no one reads or uses those notes, but perhaps with how the ACARS messages are filtered to help #osint types understand how the data ends up on each of the pages. Not sure anyone cares or needs to know?
Chat: If you want to reach thebaldgeek with any comments or questions about the site, this page is one way.
For an audio version of this page, ie thebaldgeek talks through every page on the website, download the hour and a bit fireside chat stream here:
To help jump to points of interest in the audio file:
00:00 tbg.airframes.io
00:20 Hosted by airframes.io - thanks guys
00:43 Home page.
01:07 C-band
01:56 C-Band satellite descriptions
02:36 L-Band
03:32 C & L Band working together
03:56 Database stats
04:52 ADSB community db details
05:37 Dual hex ICAO codes
08:14 Null ICAO codes
9:56 Jet fuel for flight costs
10:53 Iridium feed table on home page
11:10 Costs of setting up Iridium station
11:42 Why setup an Iridium station
12:20 HFDL
13:04 More stations of some types is redundent
13:54 STDC
14:36 VDL
16:42 More VDL feeders?
17:50 What I look for in an ACARS feed
18:57 Site Search Page
22:08 Last search box and database implications
24:04 Mil / Civ search box options
24:46 Zero ACARS results from specific ICAO or Reg returns aircraft details
26:10 Callsigns (not rant)
26:33 MMC pages - all of them
30:14 PDC Pre-Departure Clearence page
32:24 OOOI page - The reason for ACARS. Out, Off, On, In
34:50 FOB Fuel On Board
36:36 OOOI and PDC and MMC value add. OSINT gold
38:34 Just military aircraft pages (by the sources listed)
40:43 Aircraft arrive depart airport pages
41:49 E6/E4 page
43:54 VIP page
44:21 CPDLC AT1 Page - explained by thenewarea51
46:00 HF Voice CPDLC Page
48:15 Equipment List Page - Including small rant about ADSB community database (again)
51:15 Small rant about SelCal
52:15 Iridium Page - Total game changer!
53:42 Small rant about the Raspberry Pi 5
55:10 Whats on the page and Iridium rego
56:12 HFDL Page
57:11 VDL Page
57:56 VDL station tuning tips
1:01:00 STDC Page
1:03:14 Trackmap page
1:05:30 Map Page - Some cool plots here
1:07:05 About Page - This is the gold mine
1:10:25 Chat Page
1:10:55 thebaldgeek and thenewarea51 talk ACARS for the remainder
1:11:25 Iridium is now is amazing
1:12:00 MMC global history like the old site
1:15:09 The power of the site search page
1:17:08 acarsHUB map and other cool mapping stuff
1:21:25 I don’t use my site
1:21:42 This is YOUR website - I need your help
1:22:07 Give me a good reason for your new feature
1:22:24 “A problem well stated is a problem half solved”
1:25:40 Why I don’t run ads or a paywall
1:26:38 We do this because we love it
1:27:40 Not the only weirdo out there
1:28:20 Mum, there are 4 people in the world that care about this stuff