Mission Code Search Tips

 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 one bothered to update me..... Which is a rant for another day.....

Since we were talking about mission codes on C-Band, that's where I tried my first test...

I used a wild card ( c* ) to select all the C-Band feeds into the site.
Ticked the military box since mission codes are not sent to/from civil flights.

<bleh> Not great right? I mean, it worked, it returned exactly what I asked. But. Only one code in the first many results and its down the page. Too much scrolling.... we can do better.
Note how the Julian day is always at the end of the code and is always followed by the character /
So lets use that in the search...

Ok, now we are cooking. Way more condensed and interesting search results.

First up. Don't just slap these exact numbers into the search. Why? Because this blog is not published on the same day as I took this screenshot, the Julian day has moved on.
Also, because mission codes are often sent 0 to 7 days in advance. (Anyone seen more than 7 days?) You are going to have to adjust your search days either side of what you might be looking for.
So, the point is, use this info, process it in your brain and test some searches of your own to get a feel for how it works.

Now, last bit of fun - TwitterRando was talking about tankers, especially the 'elusive' T model and I am clueless about tankers, so let's add another wild card and see what we find....
I know the type codes on most (all?) tankers are k3 something something... so wild card yet again.

Here I have added a K3* to the type code....
At the time of this test, there were 3.3 million, yes, just over three million ACARS in the db and using the search we narrowed that down to just 3 in 0.037 seconds. 
Not bad for a scrappy alley cat and a dumpster fire? (I had a LOT of help with the search code from a very smart guy in Euro land).
My point is twofold. First, the search is a LOT more powerful than I think most people know or have thought about and second, I need to add C-Band mission codes to the main tables.

Closing fun and games... Let's switch C-Band for Iridium....
Again, with the wild card in the 'from source' so we get all our Iridium feeders.

Trying different Julian days gets different tankers, as expected.

Ok, so bottom line?
The search is more powerful than folks give it credit.

Mission codes are in more places than L-Band. Watch for them to show up on the global page from different sources soon.

I've tagged the new detection type as `tbgV2` since they don't really have an ACARS type and I wanted to have them pop out a bit more. And yes, this means you can search for them using this message type.

As I said about 3-4 years ago, the tankers are moving from Inmarsat to Iridium.
Just put `IRDM` into the satellite source box and click search to get the last months codes heard by the site feeders.
More will be said about standing up an Iridium feeder, but enough to say for now, we need more folks to pony up and build Iridium feeders if you want to get mission codes from them.

I usually end or include a rant in every blog/stream, this one is no different.... In the past I have included mission codes that don't have an Away From (AF) airport code, or destination airport code or a depart date or time... I got yelled at that the table did not look as tidy....

Stuff in the red box is often missing from the L-Band mission code messages; I was yelled at so much that I drop those messages that don't have it (you can always find them in the search!).

The C-Band and Iridium mission codes I've seen over the past few days don't always have that box of stuff included in the raw message, so I have put my earmuffs on and are going to post them to the table and get yelled at. Again.
At least for a little while or until allyaall yell so loud that I drop them.... But regardless, you know how to search for mission codes better now than you did before!

EOF.