A "simple" demonstration software for decoding ACARS, a low-bandwidth communication protocol used by airplanes to communicate with airports. Detailed description of the operating principles is available at http://jmfriedt.free.fr/lm_sdr.pdf (French) and http://jmfriedt.free.fr/en_sdr.pdf (English). The latest 2022 release for GNU Radio 3.9 and 3,10, following 3.8 named ng for New Generation, aims at adding bitrate clock tracking + removes the external dependence with libfftw by using the GNU Radio FFT wrapper. Doing so, multiple ACARS decoding blocks can run in parallel.

Compile for x86 PC with:

cd 3.10ng
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=/usr ..
make -j4
sudo make install

(developed and tested on Debian GNU/Linux)

Compile for RaspberryPi4/Buildroot (located in BR_PATH):
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=$BR_PATH/output/target/usr -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$BR_PATH/output/host/share/buildroot/toolchainfile.cmake ../
make -j4
make install

Features

  • RTL2832U based receivers, tuned to 131.725 MHz in western Europe (main ACARS channel)
  • gnuradio-companion compatible block

Project Samples

Project Activity

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License

Creative Commons Attribution License

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Additional Project Details

Operating Systems

Linux

Languages

English, French

Intended Audience

Developers, Education, Science/Research

User Interface

Plugins

Programming Language

C

Related Categories

C Ham Radio Software, C Test and Measurement Software

Registered

2015-05-09