acars.adsbexchange

[thebaldgeek]

Hope this is the right place to post this. If not, admins, please move it or let me know.

Not really a promotion of my website, more a cry for help....

I see a few of you here use my website, thanks for that, I am in the process of rebuilding it almost from the ground up because of reasons and would love some input on what needs fixing/changing on the current site as I am not sure I should just copy/paste the current one into a new version.....

Specifically I am wanting to merge the mission code, military movements and flight plans pages into one. Yes, all three into one table/page.
Those three pages are among the most popular pages on my site so I am nervous about messing with them, but I also need to reduce the number of tables on the site.
(Don't want to get to in-the-weeds with how the site works, but the more tables the more data that moves between my site server and every user. Thus less tables is better for everyone).

So, please, if you have any thoughts on how to combine all those pages into one. Please speak up.

Lastly, again, thanks for using the site, its a mess I know, its a _lot_ of work for around 20 users (yes, really 20 people),but I get the impression that those 20ish are very passionate, so thank-you.

Ben
aka thebaldgeek
https://thebaldgeek.github.io/

[JPS]

… and would love some input on what needs fixing/changing on the current site …

Ben
aka thebaldgeek
https://thebaldgeek.github.io/

Ben, what you have created is a great add on to the spotters hobby! Nothing but compliments from my side. The ACARS data is a great source for knowing where flights go to, in my case especially with USAF transports. On numerous occasions the data on your website allowed me to catch airframes I would normally have missed.

For me personally it would be great if you could filter the lines without a value in FROM and TO in Military Movements and add DEPARTURE and ARRIVAL times which are sometimes mentioned in the ACARS data.

Keep up the good work!

[thebaldgeek]

Thanks for the kind words.

You can click on the column names at the top of the table and it will filter/sort those ones that don't have a code out (Put them at the bottom of the table).
I hope that's what you mean, if not, just let me know.

[thebaldgeek]

@Eagle130, thanks for your DM. The admins tell me that I am not allowed to reply to your DM because I have not made enough public posts yet....
Your idea of searching by aircraft type is very interesting and not one I have had a request for in the past.
I almost feel that it would require a new page/table or I need to think more about where it would make sense to filter existing tables by type and narrow existing data by aircraft type.
Let me mull that one over and I will keep it in mind as I work on the site.

[thebaldgeek]

@JPS as for your request to add arrival time (departure dates and times are already on that page/table - DD & DT columns), can you please provide 2-3 ACARS messages that include that data and point out where in the ACARS text the arrival time is.
Once I see some examples I can probably write a decoder for it and add it to the table.
I'd love to add it if I can extract it.... just not sure where to look for it.
Thanks.

[slogen51]

Acars.adsbexchange is my go to site these days

On a phone the resizing and auto shrinking of columns can be a nuisance but that might be down to my phone being at least 5 years out of date!

Please don't get rid of EMER , AMEA or RAF - I like seeing the enroute messages such as TAF and free text messages - I find them invaluable

A superb web site and also a big thanks to all the people who contribute data

Thanks
Mike

[thebaldgeek]

Thanks Mike.
Thanks also for the note about what you like... I was eyeing off those three pages to kill... They are just there for live (no search or refresh required) viewing... I often wonder about their actual use case as often messages come in quicker than can be read and all the data on them can be found else where.
But, I will give them a stay of execution for a bit longer. <grin>
At one stage I had a dedicated table for 'free text' messages. It got cut some time back. Might need to reconsider that one.

Its not your phone, its my back and front end.
Node-RED dashboard is not responsive at all. Its one of the main complaints I get about the site.
Mind you, I have to try and not contemplate the sanity of anyone that is looking at such a table heavy / data dense site like mine on a tiny phone screen <grin>

But, yes, its actually one of the main reasons for the total new site rebuild... to try and make it more variable screen size aware.
The tables are going to be a problem no matter what.... I just cant resize them on a small screen, they just have to be as wide as they are. I have never found any other website that can make a table look good on a phone and a 4K wide screen monitor, but I am going to try!

Thanks again for what you like and use, this is super important as I rebuild stuff.

[slogen51]

The military movements grid built I think from ini messages contains the DD and DT of the planned departure but often after a delay or slip there is a new init message containing the original time plus a field for the new time thus :

An example from 16/04/2023

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=230895&p=1495362&hi ... s#p1495362

RCH 061 returning to Mildenhall this morning

16-04-2023 AE04CC GES:C1 2 .23499S INI/ID23499S,RCH061,8PH006E11101/M
R0,1/AFLGSA,EGUN/TD160148,05405180

This is good example of why you have to be careful with acars Init messages: the original time 01:48Z ( appears in the movements grid) has been updated with a 05:40Z ETD which although in the raw data is not reflected in the movements grid.

Thus
16-04-2023AE04CCRCH06123499SK35RLGSA,SOUDA/KHANIA MILDENHALL RAF 16 0148* 8PH *should be 0540

[slogen51]

Thanks Mike.
Thanks also for the note about what you like... I was eyeing off those three pages to kill... They are just there for live (no search or refresh required) viewing... I often wonder about their actual use case as often messages come in quicker than can be read and all the data on them can be found else where.
But, I will give them a stay of execution for a bit longer. <grin>
At one stage I had a dedicated table for 'free text' messages. It got cut some time back. Might need to reconsider that one.

Its not your phone, its my back and front end.
Node-RED dashboard is not responsive at all. Its one of the main complaints I get about the site.
Mind you, I have to try and not contemplate the sanity of anyone that is looking at such a table heavy / data dense site like mine on a tiny phone screen <grin>

But, yes, its actually one of the main reasons for the total new site rebuild... to try and make it more variable screen size aware.
The tables are going to be a problem no matter what.... I just cant resize them on a small screen, they just have to be as wide as they are. I have never found any other website that can make a table look good on a phone and a 4K wide screen monitor, but I am going to try!

Thanks again for what you like and use, this is super important as I rebuild stuff.

PS as a new user on FC your posts are being approved - I think when you reach 5 posts they will automatically submit - ironic really

Please don't kill AMEA/EMEA I and I am sure others use them because they provide real time position reports etc - super useful

Paradoxically I only look at military movements occasionally as I like to focus on a particular flight of interest ( number crunching) and that is why I use EMEA most. The RAF section was brilliant for following the recent Ascot 9250 trail of RAF F-35B from Eielson to Marham

Your website is a game changer in my opinion - fantastic

[thebaldgeek]

the original time 01:48Z ( appears in the movements grid) has been updated with a 05:40Z ETD which although in the raw data is not reflected in the movements grid.

Thus
16-04-2023AE04CCRCH06123499SK35RLGSA,SOUDA/KHANIA MILDENHALL RAF 16 0148* 8PH *should be 0540

I know it is going to sound odd, but I don't actually use my site to track stuff, just too busy running it... so, feedback like this is beyond valuable.
I simply cant fix what I don't know is broken.
Sounds like I log the first ACARS and then don't update ALL the stuff when another comes in... legacy code biting me and you it would seem... let me dig and see if I can fix that.

[thebaldgeek]

Seems I am not allowed to post any images... so here is a list of the L-Band ACARS messages that make up the Military Movements table:
INITIALIZE, INI/, #MDFTX/, /MC/, MDWXR, WXR/I, MDREQPOS/ID, MDFPN/ID, M2BPOS, #M1BPOS/, #MDFPN, FPN/I

All those msg types have data that I can exact table information to use on that page.

[thebaldgeek]

Ah... Ok... Understanding better now @slogen51....
You said...

"RCH 061 returning to Mildenhall this morning

16-04-2023 AE04CC GES:C1 2 .23499S INI/ID23499S,RCH061,8PH006E11101/M
R0,1/AFLGSA,EGUN/TD160148,05405180

This is good example of why you have to be careful with acars Init messages: the original time 01:48Z ( appears in the movements grid) has been updated with a 05:40Z ETD which although in the raw data is not reflected in the movements grid."

No one told me that the new updated time was after the ,
So now that I know that, I can decode it and add a new column to the table....
(BTW, I found this out by not understanding where you got the updated time from so did a site search for 'INI/' on my site and found all those message types and can see that most times the TD date time is the same before the , as after.
But in a few cases, the day is dropped and the time seems to be a few or many minutes changed. For those ACARS with , after the TD, I will have to code a 'null' and leave the new table column blank.

Either way, this is a great example of how my site works, people take the time to explain what they need on the site and I try and make it happen... I did not come up with a single table on the entire site, its all others work (two people in particular - one who is on this forum and one not)... And no, I'm not kidding, I have about 20 daily users of the site and the whole site has been built by two avgeeks that took the time to explain to me what they needed. (Sorry if it sounds like a rant, its not, I just need to make it clear that I don't spot/track or use the site like that - I built it by request of others).

[thebaldgeek]

@slogen51. Thanks to your input, I have now added the updated departure time column to the Initial Reports table on the Military Movements page.

@Eagle130 Sorry, but it looks like I don't think I am ever going to be able to reply to your DM, seems these forums are very very locked down. (Which is not a bad thing, we can all be glad you all have such hard working admins keeping this site running tip-top).
Just know that you asked an extremely important question and one that is taking up a TON of my time to prepare for, and yes, it really is a very hot and contentious topic, one that has caused me a great deal of stress... Thanks for your support.

[POL]

Hey TBG, nice to see you here! (POL from the Airframes.io Discord )

I think Mike has hit upon the main thing; the initialisation messages (INI/) as these are the most useful for identifying movements for this community. However merging the three tables in to one I'd suggest some columns along the lines of

ICAO address
Registration
Callsign
Mission code
MR number
Departure AD
Destination AD
Departure date
Departure time (replaced if updated, or a second column?)
Route

I think that covers all the info from all three tables, but I may be wrong!

[Eagle130]

@slogen51. Thanks to your input, I have now added the updated departure time column to the Initial Reports table on the Military Movements page.

@Eagle130 Sorry, but it looks like I don't think I am ever going to be able to reply to your DM, seems these forums are very very locked down. (Which is not a bad thing, we can all be glad you all have such hard working admins keeping this site running tip-top).
Just know that you asked an extremely important question and one that is taking up a TON of my time to prepare for, and yes, it really is a very hot and contentious topic, one that has caused me a great deal of stress... Thanks for your support.

No worries at all, thanks for your initial response too!

I wish you all the best with your preparation for the coming months and the new site, very excited to see how it all comes together

[thebaldgeek]

Some of you here might know of the Twitter user TheIntelFrog.... He did a 40 minute video that walks through each page on my site.
You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic2voUAQ-u4

Also another Twitter user: USAF_VIP_LGX just now pointed out MDWXR messages have accurate TAF location and arrival times in them.
Going from this, I have just now added Arv, AD, AT (for Arrival airport, Arrive Date and Arrive Time) for those message types to the Initial Reports table on the Military Movements page.

[slogen51]

Cool

Enroute TAF messages as you know are often just upcoming diversion airfield weather. Often you see the weather for three airfields in a request or automatic reply the last of which is usually the planned destination.

I used to look at Acars messages a long time ago for civil spotting - you could buy a dongle type creature that you plugged into the serial port of a lap top and also into the ear piece connector of any VHF radio tuned to a specific frequency 136.2? can't remember the Freq , then ran some software on the laptop and bingo - ACARS messages from trails over Heathrow or 'up the park' would magically appear on the screen with the all important registration

The messages were mostly engine parameters or statistics, fuel burn , temperature etc but every message included the registration. From a spotting point of view acars receivers were superceded by SBS boxes. However SatCom seems to have changed it all again

[thebaldgeek]

Update.
Since no-one had anything to say about merging the three tables into one, I am moving ahead with it.
You can start to see some C-Band on/off/out/in messages show up in the top table and as such I am almost confident in deleting that middle table from that page.
The bottom table merge is also underway but will take a little longer.
I am in for about 5 hours of coding thus far. It was a lot harder to merge C-Band ACARS with the existing L-Band than expected. (As usual).
While in there I have touched the ID code and they are now more accurate.
Also major update to the callsign code.
Moved the to/from expanded location to the very right as per a Twitter request.

Input always apricated and considered. (Even if its bad, just use small words for me so I know what you are needing <grin>).

[POL]

I said something!

[slogen51]

I don't even understand the question