AirNav vs ACARSD

[invergordon]

Hi All,

I've just finished a trial by comparing the entries in my database from two decoders and the results were quite astonishing.

For some time I've always thought that AirNav 1.1 was a good, fast and sensitive decoder and was loathe to abandon it in favour of acarsd whose attraction was the MySQL database (I can upload data to a website to keep an eye on my region while I'm away from home).

I decided after playing around with different aerials that I should also do a comparison but wasn't sure how to set this up fairly.  So I ended up with one antenna, one receiver, one soundcard and two decoders.  But databasing the decodes for later analysis proved the sticking point as both decoders stored the records slightly differently.  The I twigged on the idea of using acarsdS to port the AirNav decodes into acarsd but isolating them by having them earmarked from the acarsdS channel.

The result from a full 24 hour comparison showed that AirNav decoded 133 distinct regs/flights while acarsd decoded 119 distinct regs/flights (we don't get too much traffic here in my part of NZ!).  It's difficult to compare the number of decodes because AirNav has no CRC or parity check and will allow any rubbish captured to be recorded as a decode so I had to look at distinct registrations and flights.

For acarsd to totally miss 14 flights throughout a day lends me to believe that I may have missed may unique flights during the years that I've been using it so I'm now going to have to rethink my acars/web strategy.  Doh! 

Cheers,

Mike
http://www.nzacars.com/todaysflights.php

[chrisg0wtz]

How are you feeding audio??

Best way is via a line isolator.

Also You need to have a good sound card to get the best from it.

I used to run Skymaster years ago and chaged to WACARS and the difference was staggering so I played with the audio settings on Skymaster and the hits went up

What radio are you using?

Regards

[Keith D]

Hi Mike

couple of points for ACARSD

1] have you set your passes to 10
assuming you have a good soundcard there

a] acarsd
b] change settings

set the decoder passes to 10

reload .INI file

also it is easy to overload acarsd with too much volums input

i still have a set of volume meters here from the acarsd days
no idea where i got them from but as a .ZIP i they are 178KB
so if you wish send me a PM with your e-mail address i can send them over
just unzip to your desktop and run from there

it will show 2 bars left and right and on a scale of -30   thru -0
the 2 bars flicker across on a hit and change colour
trick is to set volume so it doesnt turn red when you get a hit

let me know if you want a copy of them

cheers for now

Keith D.