dragonOS: console tool: Acarsdec w/ rtlsdr support

• Acarsdec is a console based decoder for ACARS  - the Aircraft Communication and Reporting System. Github
• ACARS is based upon the ARINC Message Standard
• ACARS Frequency Table is located here . International Tables are here

Review:  - It works!  Being able to see the information coming in in the ACARS raw format is really interesting and all kinds of raw messages come through that you won't see with other software.

Following the example:

acarsdec -A -N 192.168.1.1:5555 -o0 -r 0 131.525 131.725 131.825

acarsdec -o 1 -r 0 129.125

-o 1 : Output Level 0

-r 0 : Device 0 (First RTL-SDR found)

 129.125 Mhz looks like a very active channel and with a very poor setup to start it was able to start pulling messages.

Mode -o 2 (More Detail)

One can simply google the aircraft reg: CGFJZ to see

acarsdec options:

For RTL-SDR:

acarsdec  [-o lv] [-t time] [-A] [-b filter ] [-e] [-n|N|j ipaddr:port] [-i stationid] [-l logfile [-H|-D]] -r rtldevicenumber  f1 [f2] [... fN] | -s f1 [f2] [... fN]

For Airspy R2 / Mini:

    acarsdec [-o lv] [-t time] [-A] [-b filter ] [-e] [-n|N|j ipaddr:port] [-i stationid] [-l logfile [-H|-D]] [-g gain] -s airspydevicenumber f1 [f2] [... fN] | -s f1 [f2] [... fN]
-o lv : output format : 0 : no log, 1 : one line by msg, 2 : full (default), 3 : monitor mode, 4 : msg JSON, 5 : route JSON
-t time : set forget time (TTL) in seconds in monitor mode(default=600s)
-A : don't display uplink messages (ie : only aircraft messages)
-e : don't output empty messages (ie : _d,Q0, etc ...)
-l logfile : append log messages to logfile (Default : stdout)
-H : rotate log file once every hour
-D : rotate log file once every day
-n ipaddr:port : send acars messages to addr:port via UDP in planeplotter compatible format
-N ipaddr:port : send acars messages to addr:port via UDP in acarsdec format
-j ipaddr:port : send acars messages to addr:port via UDP in JSON format
-i station id: id use in acarsdec network format.
-b filter: filter output by label (ex: -b "H1:Q0" : only output messages with label H1 or Q0"

for the RTLSDR device

-r rtldevice f1 [f2] ... [fN] : decode from rtl dongle number or S/N "rtldevice" receiving at VHF frequencies "f1" and optionally "f2" to "fN" in Mhz (ie : -r 0 131.525 131.725 131.825 ). Frequencies must be within the same 2MHz.
-g gain : set rtl gain in db (0 to 49.6; >52 and -10 will result in AGC; default is AGC)
-p ppm : set rtl ppm frequency correction

for the AirSpy device -g gain : set airspy gain (0..21)

-s airspydevice f1 [f2] ... [fN] : decode from airspy device number or S/N "airspydevice" receiving at VHF frequencies "f1" and optionally "f2" to "fN" in Mhz (ie : -s 131.525 131.725 131.825 ). Frequencies must be within the same 2MHz.

for the SDRplay device

-s f1 [f2] ... [fN] : decode from SDRplay receiving at VHF frequencies "f1" and optionally "f2" to "fN" in Mhz (ie : -s 131.525 131.725 131.825 ). Frequencies must be within the same 2MHz.
-L lnaState: set the lnaState (depends on the selected SDRPlay hardware)
-G GRdB: set the Gain Reduction in dB's. -100 is used for agc. for the SoapySDR device
-d devicestring f1 [f2] ... [fN] : decode from a SoapySDR device at VHF frequencies f1 and optionally f2 to fN in Mhz (ie : -d driver=rtltcp 131.525 131.725 131.825 ).
-g gain : set gain in db (-10 will result in AGC; default is AGC)
-p ppm : set rtl ppm frequency correction
-c freq : set center frequency to tune to
-m rateMult : set sample rate multiplier: 160 for 2 MS/s or 192 for 2.4 MS/s (default: 160)