Belux vACC

ATC Software manual ___________________ June 2007 Xavier Van Nieuwenhuyse

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Content

1.

THE DIFFERENT ATC SOFTWARE AVAILABLE TO PROVIDE ATC ON VATSIM ............................. 3 1.1. ASRC ................................................................................................................................................................... 3 1.2. VRC...................................................................................................................................................................... 3 1.3. EUROSCOPE ........................................................................................................................................................... 3

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CONFIGURE THE SOFTWARE ......................................................................................................................... 3 2.1. 2.2. 2.3. 2.4. 2.5. 2.6. 2.7. 2.8. 2.9. 2.10. 2.11.

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COLOURS .............................................................................................................................................................. 3 SOUNDS ................................................................................................................................................................. 3 VISIBILITY RANGE ................................................................................................................................................. 4 POSITION FILE ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 ALIAS FILE ............................................................................................................................................................ 4 SPECIAL KEYS ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 SQUAWK RANGE .................................................................................................................................................... 5 TRANSITION ALTITUDE .......................................................................................................................................... 5 DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL LIST ............................................................................................................................ 5 RADAR MODES ................................................................................................................................................. 5 OPENING A SECTOR FILE ................................................................................................................................... 5

CONNECTING TO VATSIM................................................................................................................................ 5 3.1. CONNECTION TIME ................................................................................................................................................ 6 3.2. VOICE CONNECTION .............................................................................................................................................. 6

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THE OTHER CONTROLLERS ONLINE........................................................................................................... 7 4.1. CONTROLLERS LIST ............................................................................................................................................... 7

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THE AIRCRAFT .................................................................................................................................................... 7 5.1. DATATAG .............................................................................................................................................................. 7 5.2. FLIGHTSTRIP ......................................................................................................................................................... 8

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METAR.................................................................................................................................................................... 8

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ATIS ......................................................................................................................................................................... 8 7.1. AUTOMATED TERMINAL INFORMATION SERVICE .................................................................................................. 8

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ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE ................................................................................................................................. 8 8.1. SERVINFO .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 8.2. VROUTE ................................................................................................................................................................. 8

________________________________________________________________________ ATC Software 2 © Belux vACC 2007

1. The different ATC Software available to provide ATC on Vatsim This manual introduces the main functions of the ATC software and will help you to do a basic setup. The most examples are given for VRC. The detailed subjects can be found in the respective Software manuals. 1.1. ASRC ASRC is a simulation of an American Radar. Most of the operations are done with the keyboard and the main functions are operated via function keys. A neat Radar, where all the toolboxes are transparent. 1.2. VRC One of the initial enhancements of VRC were multiple screens, both on the same monitor with float around screens, and on different monitors. With Version 1.1 the right-click on a selected target allows to do all operations on an aircraft. Version 1.2 brought voice ATIS, that let you record ATIS by voice on a separate ATIS frequency just like in the real world. VRC also proposes various pre-configured and hardcoded radar types. Different positionprofiles can be saved and even shared with others. Keyboard-shortcuts, function keys, pof files, and aliases are compatible with ASRC. 1.3. Euroscope A new promising radar client that will simulate a European ATC radar. Strengths will be to see traffic even if you are not connected to Vatsim; Preview aircraft paths and vertical profiles; See other active sectors on the radar; A separation for overflights in the aircraft list.

2. Configure the software 2.1. Colours The best will be to look in the corresponding software manual, on how to configure the colours. To start, you can leave the colours as they come with the software, and than later when you are more familiarised with the software, experiment and choose the colours that you find the most efficient. 2.2. Sounds The sounds, however, have some importance, even if you start as an observer. VRC comes with a set of sounds related to events. e.g. a sound going off when you are connected, and another sound when you (are) disconnect(ed). The event where it is important to have a sound configured as observer is the Chat Message. Other events where you, at least later, will want a sound going off: Handoff request; Handoff accepted; Pointout; Conflict Alert; Radio Message; ATC Message; Broadcast message; Guard Message; Intercom Call; Override; Reminder; Error; Flightstrip Received

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2.3. Visibility range General rule: 10-20 nm for DEL/GND 30-50 nm for TWR 100-150 nm for APP/DEP 300-600 nm for CTR 2.4. Position file To have a quick overview of who are the other active controllers online, with whom we may need to contact regarding air traffic, there is a so called POF file (position file). Once this file is installed, you can than limit the controller list to those positions present in this POF file. You will find the POF file for Brussels FIR/UIR here: http://www.beluxvacc.org/index.php?section=controller&page=sector ebbu_pof.zip. Download this file, unzip the ebbu.pof file and place in the directory of your choice. Next, in VRC/ASRC, in one of the settings, you need to specify where your POF file is located. 2.5. Alias File Voice has become the main communication way between controllers and pilots on Vatsim. There are still pilots, however, that for one or other reason do not or can not use voice. As controller you can not ignore those pilots. This means that you have to type all communications and that can be time consuming. Therefore the software developers invented a system where you can only type a short code, with maybe some variable that you fill in, you select the aircraft, push enter and the whole sentence is typed automatically. You can download such a file here: http://www.beluxvacc.org/index.php?section=controller&page=sector alias_Belgium_3.2.zip. Place the file, that you will find in the zip, in a folder of your choice on your PC, and tell your software where it is located. As vATCO (virtual air traffic controller) you will have to be able to work with alias. More on alias later in the training. 2.6. Special keys Another thing you can specify in the settings, is a key to select an aircraft or a controller. This is more important in ASRC than in VRC, because in VRC you can do almost everything with the mouse. By default, the aircraft select key is "+ num. pad"; the default controller select key is "\". You can change the key to "*" if that is easier or to another key of your choice that is easily available. The third key is your PTT-key or Push-to-talk-key. By default it is set to Right-Ctrl. You can change this if you wish. • • • •

ATC Air Traffic Control Handoff This is the procedure called when an aircraft is owned or tracked by a controller and given (handed off) to another controller. FIR Flight information region. Brussels FIR covers the airspace of Belgium and Luxembourg up to FL 195. It is also called the lower airspace. In this airspace you find the lower airways like L607, L608 UIR Upper Flight information Region. Brussels UIR starts at FL 195. This is not the same in all the countries. e.g. in Germany, and in some other countries, the separation between FIR and UIR is situated at FL 245. In the UIR, called upper airspace, you find the upper airways like UL607 and UL608. No VFR is allowed in the UIR.

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2.7. Squawk range To every aircraft who departs in controlled airspace, a unique squawk code is attributed. This allows to identify the aircraft with the data we see on the radar. In real life in Brussels, there are different set's of squawk ranges, depending on e.g. destination. In Vatsim in general it is more difficult to do, and in the European division (VATEUD) it is agreed that we limit our squawk codes to only one range. For Belux that is: 7101-7177. In ASRC you need to set this extra, in VRC you this is set in the POF file. The only thing you need to set in VRC is the VFR code: 7000 2.8. Transition altitude In Brussels FIR: 4500 feet 2.9. Departure and Arrival list In ASRC and VRC can automatically display arrivals and departures of airports that you set in the settings. To see departures and arrivals for EBBR, you need to add EBBR in both your departure and arrival list. You can add different airports in these lists. With Euroscope it will also be possible to have an list of aircraft that will transit through your airspace. 2.10. Radar modes There are different radar modes available in the ATC software's, according the position that you staff. Ground and Tower modes, allows you to see datatags even if the pilots are in standby mode, while ARTS and DSR (two American radar modes) allows to see only datatags of aircraft transmitting in mode C. 2.11. Opening a sector file To see air traffic of a an area displayed on your radar client, you will have to open a sector file of that area. e.g. to see the traffic of Brussels tower, you will need to open the file ebbr_twr.sct

3. Connecting to Vatsim Here is an example of a connection screen on VRC. I will only cover the part where you connect as an observer. The callsign of an observer always has to end with "_OBS", the facility is that of "Observer", the rating that of your current rating.

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3.1. Connection time As observer on Vatsim, you are not allowed to stay connected longer than 30 minutes. If you are not sure how long you are connected, use vroute or Servinfo (see chapter 8) to see how long you are connected to Vatsim. If you are connected for longer than 30 minutes, you may be approached by a supervisor, who will kindly ask you to disconnect. 3.2. Voice connection The first thing you will want to do when you are connected is speak to your mentor. So far we do not have a Team Speak server for Belux, so we try to talk on some separate channel for the first training sessions. The diffrent elements you must provide when you want to communicate on voice with an ATC software: - Position name: something that is clear to you. e.g. ebbr_twr; ebbr_obs; ebbr_gnd - Frequency: the frequency of the station you will staff. e.g. ebbr twr = 118.600. For a full list of frequency's used in Brussels FIR/UIR: http://www.beluxvacc.org/index.php?section=con troller&page=frequencies - Vox (Voice) Server: for a full list of voice servers: http://www.vatsim.net/data/who_vatsim.html You will find the information you need in the "IP address" column. e.g. voice2.vacc-sag.org - Vox (Voice) Channel: there you type the facility you are (will) staff. The most common is to use your callsign. e.g. If you want to staff Brussels Ground, your callsign will be: EBBR_GND, as voice channel you type ebbr_gnd Remark In case you will have a training session, probably your mentor will indicate you on what server and channel you will communicate. For training, it is better to add a distinctive entry in the voice channel: e.g. ebbr_t_twr, where the t stands for training. If you would use ebbr_twr for training, and it happens that on the same server, the operational tower for EBBR is active, there will be a conflict, and we do not want this. The ceckboxes - PRIM: the primary frequency. It is used when you are staffing an active position. Do not use it if you are an logged on as an observer. You can check it before you are connected to Vatsim. TX and RX will be set for this frequency. - TX: Transmit. If you check this, you will transmit on this frequency. It will be set automatically if the primary frequency is checked for this frequency. You can check it before you are connected to Vatsim. - RX: Receive. You will receive communications on this frequency. It will be set automatically if the primary frequency is checked for this frequency. You can check it before you are connected to Vatsim.

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- HDST: Headset. If this box is checked, you will be able to communicate by voice on the checked frequency's PRIM, TX, RX. You will only be able to check this box, once you are connected to Vatsim.

4. The other controllers online 4.1. Controllers list The controller list allows you to see all the controllers and observers online, or only controllers defined in a so-called pof-file. ASRC has some additional filters. In VRC 1.2 There is now a nice separation in the controller list between different type of controllers: ATIS, Delivery, Ground, Towers, Approaches, Centres, Observers, ... The POF file you downloaded will allow you to quickly select an active sector with a two letter code. e.g. In the belux.pof file, EBBR_APP has BA as code; EBBR_TWR -> BT, EBBU_CTR -> BW To open a chat window with EBBR_APP, just type "ba ". Those codes can also be used to handoff a target to another controller. To see the text ATIS of a given controller, e.g. to see on what voice frequency he is connected, in VRC just double-click in the chat window of that controller. In ASRC you will need to type ".atis ba ". In VRC, you can as observer, monitor the radio communications, voice and text, of a given controller by typing ".mon ba" (if you want to monitor EBBR_APP). The other option to monitor, is to right-click on the controller line in the controller list, and select monitor. When you monitor a controller, in VRC a box will appear like the image on the right. To stop monitoring, just click on this box, it will disappear and the monitoring will stop.

5. The aircraft 5.1. Datatag This piece of information is attached to the aircraft blip, and contains the information concerning that aircraft. The data-tag can be moved around and further away, by keyboard with ASRC, and with the mouse in VRC and Euroscope. The data will only be complete if the pilot submitted a flightplan. If the pilot did not submit a flightplan only a few zero's and a squawkcode 1200 will appear. Where and how the information of the datatag is placed, depends on the different software's and radarmode's. Follow the link to find examples of the different datatags and how the information is displayed: http://www.metacraft.com/VRC/docs/doc.php?page=the_various_radar_modes •

Squawk / transmit in mode C An aircraft that will fly on Vatsim in controlled airspace needs a transponder, capable to transmit in mode C. When transmitting in mode C, the transponder sends some data of the aircraft: It's callsign, it's route, it's current altitude, whether it is stable, descending or climbing. The other possibility for an aircraft on Vatsim is to squawk standby. At that moment, the transponder will not send any data, and the controller will know nothing about this aircraft. He will only see a cross or a dot without any information.

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5.2. Flightstrip To see a detailed flightstrip, you select an aircraft and press F6 , alternatively in VRC, Ctrl-click on the target. When you will be an active controller, you will be able to amend a flightplan or strip.

6. METAR The short METAR contains only winds and QNH. In VRC, the full METAR can be seen by clicking on the short METRAR-box. The full METAR will be discussed in the Tower study guide. Or you can look up the explanation of the METAR here: http://www.vateudtd.org/handbooks/manual/6_meteology.asp##6.2

7. ATIS 7.1. Automated Terminal Information Service Before VRC 1.2, the ATIS was only available as text. Now a controller can record an ATIS for an airport, and put in online available for the pilots on a special attributed frequency by airport. More on this in the Tower Study Guide.

8. Additional Software 8.1. Servinfo http://www.avsim.com/hangar/utils/servinfo/ 8.2. vroute http://www.vroute.net/ •

Callsign The name by what an aircraft is called by ATC. If the aircraft belongs to an airline company, the first three letters will be the ICAO code of that airline. It is followed by numbers, or a combination of numbers and letters. e.g. DAT55XV will be pronounced: ESTAIL Five Five X-ray Victor IATA SN FQ JF LG BA LH

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ICAO DAT TCW JAF LGL BAW DLH

Airline Brussels Airlines Thomas Cook Jetairfly Luxair British Airways Lufthansa

Voice Callsign Estail Thomas Cook Beauty Luxair Speed Bird Lufthansa

ICAO International Civil Aviation Organisation IATA International Air Transport Association

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