Lockdown-ACARS: The Old Way, and The New

With the number of flights over Lancashire appreciably increasing over the last few days, I played ACARS today, putting my old Signal Communications Corp. R-535 next to my 'shack-guest' ICOM IC-R30, both tuned to the main European ACARS frequency of 131.725MHz. The aerial was a Moonraker DBAB VHF/UHF Civil & Military Antenna Civil Airband ‘white stick’ on my roof. I still use the AirNav ACARS Decoder for this kind of experiment, although the picture-functionality has long ceased (does anyone know how to get this back?) Both receivers did very well, and the ICOM had the edge –as might well be I expected – in terms of sensitivity. Pulled in signals even with just my Diamond RHS1000 on top. How do you receive ACARS? Write in to me and let me know...

GW 17 May 2020

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