tbg.airframes.io

[Eagle130]

Is anyone using the 'search' at the top of the table?
I wonder if any one has even noticed it?
If no one is using that search option then I can change table types and should be able to have a column selection option as @eagle130 is requesting.
If a bunch are using the table search then I will need to re-think my options.

Looks like folks have figured out how to scrape the site vs use it.... More backend code required it seems.

I should clarify i am frequently using the search functionality on the new mission code table, I realise re-reading my post that wasn’t clear. The mission code search is immensely helpful, I often look at aircraft type and destination/ arrival to group them nicely into sections to look through. I find it makes it alot easier to understand what’s happening.

My question would be whether the only addition to that page could be a box to toggle between showing and not showing the final column (assuming that others are sometimes wanting to see the full text in that column- if not then i suppose it’s simple enough to go into the main site search page and search for the message, with the other information provided in the mission code table I would think that’s quite a simple task)

Hope that makes sense - very happy with the 7 days search results, even better than 5!

[thebaldgeek]

.... Some 11 hours of code later.. Things are slightly less broken than when I started....

I spent a few hours trying to coax some AI bots to write some regex that would more consistently pull mission codes ect out of the L-Band stream.
I pitted grock, deepseek, o3-mini, o1-pro, chatGPT and some qwqne thing against my hand written 'get substring' stuff that the site has been running on for years.
I even gave most of them 4 tries ("Oh, Your right, Im sorry, yes, I see how my last code failed, here is some that will work").
Gave up, went back to my code.
Other changes to the site flow meant that I saw some new message types that had mission codes and or call signs that I had not been getting.
Added decoders to them.
Then went to bed. Big mistake.
Woke up to a few complaints about the new call sign formatting on mobile phones (but it was fine on PC).
The issue was not the decoder code, but the way I was adding the call signs to the ACARS messages. I was appending rather than replacing.

Anyway, no one cares about the process, just the end result.
The end result is the same. The dumpster fire is burning bright as ever. Even has some new mission codes and call signs to keep the flames leaping high.

[thebaldgeek]

Forgot to add... It will take 7 days for the new calls to work all the way through the site search and 30 days for the mission code search.

[thebaldgeek]

While picking at the mission code decoder code I found there were some duplicate messages from both L and C bands, have seen these over the years and some folks have complained about them but I was never in the frame of mind to figure out how to deduplicat them.....
Now have a 30 second window around each message, if any exact messages come in within that 30 second window, they are reduced down to 1 ACARS entry in the site database.
Can change the 30 second window, but I had to start somewhere.

Probably not going to make a huge difference to the total number in the site search db, but should clean up your search results a little.

[thebaldgeek]

Call sign tagging.
Currently only the mission code page, but will be rolling it out side wide as i can.
We have 4 options...
L = L-Band
C = C-Band
V = VDL (ACARS)
F = Flight. Any source.
If you see a source grouped, that means the same call was heard from every member of that group.

[thebaldgeek]

https://tbgacarshub.airframes.io/adsb

Not my code, just my data.
But another option for viewing ACARS messages to/from military aircraft

[thebaldgeek]

Significant changes to the tbgacarshub data feed.
When I posted about it a few days ago, I was firehosing the entire dataset of the site to the map.
BOTH civil and military messages. Since its a military only map, no need for the civil, so its now filtered out.
Im also formatting the VDL messages better.
Not happy with the way acarshub uses/decodes Iridium messages, so consider that a work in progress.

Really nothing on the map has changed, what has changed is the https://tbgacarshub.airframes.io/stats page.
Its interesting as its now the single place (that I know of) where you can find the modes, data rates and frequencies in use by global military aircraft.

[thebaldgeek]

Website is down.
Very odd Node-RED crash.
Been working on it for a few hours now.
No ETA.

[thebaldgeek]

Site is back up. Mostly.
A lot of the tables got cleared. I have code in place to protect them, but fixing this took some extra brute force.
Iridium needs some more time to fully restore. Some messages are making it to the site search but not everything, will work on that when I can.
22 hours of pretty rough going....

(For the tech folks. It was the Base64 node: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/53426 )

[thebaldgeek]

My question would be whether the only addition to that page could be a box to toggle between showing and not showing the final column

I've spent a solid 8+ hours over a few days trying to get this sensible feature implemented and just cant get the tables to play nice (I really really really really hate the new Node-RED dashboard v2 - and the tables all the more so).
So for now I have turned off the last row. Lets see how many complaints I get.

tbg.

[Eagle130]

Thanks for that, sounds like that is frustrating but very much appreciate the effort!

Had a quick look and the page looks excellent without the last column - thank you

[thebaldgeek]

A site user pointed out that the HF VOICE CPDLC page was broken.
All the frequencies were showing 'undefined'.
Found and fixed the issue. It will fill out in real time as ACARS messages come in.

Been doing a ton of backend work and so there has been a few blips, but more than worth the tradeoff in site stability and speed.

Also doing a lot of work with Iridium. Onboarded 3 new stations, Estonia, Ireland and Central North America.

[thebaldgeek]

I've tweaked the mission code formatting based on input from @Eagle130 (and others).
tl;dr if the third digit is a number, group the mission code differently.
You can see it in the mmc global page and the mc search results.

I've also had a slug of 21 KC135 Iridium reg to ADSB Hex code tie ups.
Have added them to the site.
There is so much more value in Iridium that I am working hard to bring to the site. No ETA. Its complicated (for me).

[thebaldgeek]

Everyone here has access to me for comments and feedback. so this is just to let you know more than 'need to know'...
I've started an ACARS blog so i can break down some of the things I'm working through on the site.

https://k6thebaldgeek.blogspot.com/

I hope to blog now and then on longer form topics than I might post here.
Yes, yet another thing you probably wana check now and then if you want to get more into ACARS.

[thebaldgeek]

Please review the "Airframes Database + 4" Blog and either DM me here or comment on the blog.
I could really use a sanity check on this.
Thanks all.
https://k6thebaldgeek.blogspot.com/

[thebaldgeek]

New blog about a forgotten registration issue. (reg with + in them).
Please take a read and share you thoughts.

https://k6thebaldgeek.blogspot.com/2025 ... ation.html

[Eagle130]

New blog about a forgotten registration issue. (reg with + in them).
Please take a read and share you thoughts.

https://k6thebaldgeek.blogspot.com/2025 ... ation.html

Thanks, I see your logic and would be inclined to agree that keeping that “+” in the reg would be important - from my experience it is only German airforce aircraft that have it (happy to be corrected).

The site search doubling as an airframe lookup is something I use often so have noticed it and it’s been very helpful!

[thebaldgeek]

https://k6thebaldgeek.blogspot.com/

Just added a quick blog about the site being down.