thebaldgeek

As Kevin ( airframes.io software dev) and I like to say: ADSB is there where. ACARS is the why. People track different aircraft for different reasons. But they all want to know why it is where it is. Over the past 8 years of running the site, I've seen folks track all sorts of different aircraft, from sporting coaches (to see where they are going before the draft), to celebrities (not sure exactly why here), to millionaires and billionaires (to see what they might invest in next), to dictators and other 'bad guys' (and yes, Epstein's jet leaked ACARS). I've also had my close calls with Swift and Musk fans. In one case, very soon after v1 of my site got going, a guy somehow used ACARS to track a specific cargo mover flights and somehow made quite a bit of money from understanding how ACARS and the stock market work together - he wanted to share the spoils since "it would not have happened without your site", but I dislike money - it was one of the more odd...

Warning. This is going to run long and might/will get a little ranty and have a solid dollop of Australian sarcasm, so please read it two times, take a break between reads, so it hits different each time.... Support airframes.io The fallout from shutting down the site has hit very differently than expected. What I expected does not matter, what's driving this blog is the overwhelming lash-out attitude of 'there is no point doing anything with ACARS because there are no functional/useful websites'. The website has shut down for a few weeks and there are still bots hitting the site. Bots with user-agent names like Go-http, ripTBGbot, null, MozBot, Scrapy, myDiscordBot, ddg_win, AI-BOT-TBG, TBG-Monitor, ja-tbg-acars-crawler, AISfetcher, GPTbotTBG, and some others with rather rude names. The fact that these bots are STILL hitting a website that been switched off for well over a week sort of sits with what I was expecting, you guys have built bots to scrape the site just because...

 Just a short blog for those that missed the news on social media.      After 8 years (and a small bump in March 2022) I've decided its time to close down the website.    Its a decision I've spent about a year considering, so its nothing rushed, its just time. It should be noted that there are now other ACARS websites, so its not like when I started, being one of a very few, take a look around and see what clicks with the other sites for your use case. I can think of 4 right off the top of my head. Google can guide you. (Plus I hear that quite a few folks are building other/new ACARS websites, so there will be many more to chose from soon). To those of you reading this that had AI bots stealing data from my site, take pride in knowing that yes, you were a part of the reason I closed the site. To the 3-4 people that helped me build the site. Thank-you, it would have never happened with out your detailed break down of what was in the ACARS messages. To the ha...

 I've been forced to make some changes in how I use X. I was 'happy' (not really - but) to pay the $8 per month to get two key features: 1. Longer tweets. I do tend to go on but I try and pack as much actual content and knowledge into the longer tweets as possible. Once you add a link, the longer option was very useful. 2. Tweetdeck (x Pro). Man, this was my lifeblood to using the platform. I had lists setup in it - this cannot be understated just how CRITIAL lists are to using the platform even without Tweetdeck - but most important, x Pro updated with chats, DM's and comments in real time much much much better than the native website browser or Android phone app. (Both of which are a glitchy mess). Early April, X decided to lock X Pro behind the next level of subscription. A jump from eight bucks a month to $40. Nope. That's it. I'm out. Since my $8 a month now only gives me long tweets and a blue blob, I've canceled that as well. It will end in a few week...

 tl;dr I've mostly fixed this - but take a read just the same. (Spoiler - Tankers are on Iridium). I happen to be DMing with one of the #TwitterRandos about some C-Band stuff and they mentioned that KC-135T tankers don't show up on the global mission code table very often (if at all).  Now, I would not know a T tanker from a Q tanker, but the observation was interesting, so I poked at my search a bit... The first thing to note is that before this DM exchange, my site only looked for mission codes on L-Band. See, they are all from L-Band, granted, they are from the different satellites as they come in live. But yeah, my site only looked for mission codes on the L-Band. But why thebaldgeeek? WHY only L-Band? History lesson. Many years ago, back when mission codes where first filtered automatically on the site, someone told me they only come from the ground dispatch side of things - they are a 'go fly this mission' sort of thing so they can't come FROM the aircraft. No...

 This blog tries to explain the 'logon' table located here:  https://tbg.airframes.io/dashboard/logon Intro Before an aircraft can send any messages through any of the usual Inmarsat satellites, it has to initiate a log on handshake. A sort of formal introduction. This table, and the Node-RED low-code behind it, attempts to catch those introductions and records the time it takes place and via which satellite. I then add to this 'logon ping' message a lookup on the aircraft HEX used for the log on and see if we have any callsigns or past ACARS for the handshake ICAO. ICAO HEX Did you read those last 6 words carefully? Go back and read them again. Did it sink in? Did a dark light come on? avgeeks using this table along with the other tables on my site have found that when the aircraft logs on to the satellite, more often than not it logs on with its 'real' HEX. Once the connection is approved, the aircraft will sometimes switch to its TACHEX (Tactical or dynamic o...

Quick ‘mini review’ of the Discovery Dish with L-Band ACARS feed. You can see the Crowdsupply campaign here. Crowd Supply Discovery Dish A system for weather satellite reception and hydrogen line radio astronomy Myself and a few others backed it from day zero (or close to it). Took a few more months than expected for it to ship, but turns out, it was worth the wait. Make sure you get the right feed for your end goal. There are two L-Bandish mounts, so take your time and think about what you want to cover. The dish and the feed come really well boxed. image 1669×1017 211 KB On first unboxing its very impressive. Just a really well packed and well-presented unit. Nice multi language instruction book with loads of diagrams and pictures walking you through the assembly and tuning of the dish. Also the feed has some swag in the form of three pretty sweet stickers. image 1812×1024 279 KB The dish is equally well packed with protection foam and booklet. No issues getting it all out and layin...