[ACARS] Thoughts on the HF ACARS

[roger preston]

What I like about the "taster" free to download program is the window to
the right that lists the aircraft heard. That shows at a glance what
success one is having (VHF ACARS programs please note).

I'm not sure that the wealth of detail provided by having all the
display options clicked is necessary all the time. I've been playing at
seeing which ground stations can be picked up in the UK so would want  a
button to click that would list just the name - once I'd identified the
ground station (not difficult really as their locations are listed),
then I'd turn off the button. 
Even the text...

[HFNPDU PERFORMANCE]
16:35:42  UTC  Flight ID = LH8414  LAT 24 51 0  N  LON 67 16 24  E

1st line [HFNPDU... bit seems after a while not really necessary.
The above was picked up on 17967KHz (BAHRAIN) and I've now moved to
11312KHz and picked up...

18:01:42  UTC  Flight ID = LH8427  LAT 38 30 36  N  LON 42 47 15  E

which is heading west towards Turkey.

I suppose I'll need to try 8885KHz later on as the sun sets.

Tuning the radio (I've a Lowe HF225) requires keying in the freq. on the
key pad then a gentle nudge clockwise of the tuning knob. After that,
the program gives the information about how off the freq setting is.
I've yet to play with my Sony 2001D but it works in 50Hz steps so I'm
sure it will manage on the stronger signals. Its bandwidth is rather
wider than necessary but again I don't think that will be a problem. The
author e-mailed me saying that about 100Hz off tune is as much as the
program can recover.

Question.
VHF ACARS gives flight number and registration marks but not HF ACARS.
Any thoughts about tying up reg. and flight number? There is an
occasional uplink with a regn (as in...

[HFNPDU ACARS GND STN]
 2.D-ALCM0_ Y U  
[HFNPDU ACARS GND STN]
 2.D-ALCG5_ G  

but no immediate response from an aircraft.

Roger