Some small questions (Newbie) (thanks)

[Lukas Kulik 917478]

hi,

 

---puuh,i finally i got a connection to vatsim and there are no errors coming up first,thank you to everyone who answered my posts and helped me

now i've got some questions depending on flying and atc....well i went today the first time onto a server trying it out...and my question is...how can i now who (ATC) is on my airport i want to leave? when i look into the "Who is online page" i see the Atc Controllers,and i see in which part of the region they are,for example "Europe"...but i don't know on which airport. That's the same with the "Center", i don't know where they exactly are. Can somebody give me a clue,or how to do it best? Maybe also where i can find (on which server) the most ATC - people?

---Another question is about the pilots.how can i make a test to see one of them. only to know if i installed everything right. For example,is there a possibility to know or to see when they are at an airport? Only for "Visual Contact"

 

Because now for the first time it looked likei was jumping from server to server

 

-----ahh,and something else,..is it right,that if I'm standing on an airport and what to ask for clearence,i had to open the pull down menu of Squawkbox and then go to "ATC - DIrectory" and look for someone in the list? And then only click on him so that i hear a funny "ping - pong" ? I thought i have to change my frequency in the cockpit,i mean at com1 or 2?

 

 

---..and i was missing the Virtual planes of PAI which i installed...didn't they work when i'm online?

 

Thanks for your replies,

 

Lukas

[Marc Sykes 852946]

First, get Servinfo:

 

http://www.avsim.com/hangar/utils/servinfo/

 

This will tell you precisely which controllers are online and which airspace they're covering. You can see your aircraft and then see if a center, approach, tower etc. is active in that area. It will also provide you with the current VATSIM weather, info on what other pilots are doing, and so on. It's really a must-have in my opinion. One caution: unless your computer is pretty powerful, you might want to set the data update interval to a while (10 or 15 minutes) -- you can set it as low as 2 minutes but if your computer is not very powerful you will notice a visible stutter/jerkiness in FS while Servinfo is updating. An update usually takes less than five seconds (at least on my PC) but if you're hand-flying a tricky final approach you don't really want your sim to suddenly become a slide show. Another alternative is to shut down Servinfo when you get onto final.

 

You can't make "visual contact" with ATC on VATSIM (we have no visual presence in the sim) but what you can do is ask the controller, if there's one in your area, if he/she sees you on the radar scope. You can also make visual contact with other aircraft if they're within your multiplayer range (which I believe defaults to OFF in Squawkbox options; you want to reset it to at least 10 miles).

 

Double-clicking a controller in the SB directory will auto-tune your COM radios (for text) and your voice channel (for voice). If you just set COM1 to the controller's frequency, that'll work for text, not for voice. If you would prefer just to tune the radios (more realistic), there's a program called AVC Tuner that you can install and that will set AVC to the appropriate voice channel just by tuning COM1. Squawkbox 3 has this feature integrated, so you'll be able to choose -- just tune the radio, or use the double-click on a controller function.

 

AI traffic is disabled in multiplayer mode.

 

Hope this helps.

[Lukas Kulik 917478]

cool,thanks for help

i love that online flying

[Matt Stagg 900323]

Hi Lukas

There is a very easy soloution for your problem.. Do you always going to fly in the one region? if so thats a good thing like I only fly in Australia and I know a few things and I got used to it all it doesnt mean you can't vist other regions your question should be still easy solved... since I have no idea where your flying I'll just use some Australian ideas. Melbourne = ML Sydney =SY Brisbane = BN Hobart = HB see the pattern? now if I was on Melbourne ground ready for a clearence I'll go to my ATC directory and look for ML_GND that would be the one. but if that isnt there look for ML_TWR is if thats not there look for ML_APP if thats not there look for Melbourne Center ML-SNO_CTR or ML-BIK_CTR but here in Australiaa on VATSIM our centers are devided up into sectors I believe in europe maybe I am not sure they might use something like this ML_V_CTR of theres only 1 ATC in range other thrn UNICOM tune to that one... Well thats the way I do it and it takes me half then a second to tune to the right ATC trust me you get used to whats what and do it automatically. If theres only UNICOM there is no present ATC in your area. I hope that anwsers your question

Cheers,

[Lukas Kulik 917478]

sure,thanks

[Marcin Sekita 919833]

 

Double-clicking a controller in the SB directory will auto-tune your COM radios (for text) and your voice channel (for voice). If you just set COM1 to the controller's frequency, that'll work for text, not for voice. If you would prefer just to tune the radios (more realistic), there's a program called AVC Tuner that you can install and that will set AVC to the appropriate voice channel just by tuning COM1. Squawkbox 3 has this feature integrated, so you'll be able to choose -- just tune the radio, or use the double-click on a controller function.

 

Hope this helps.

 

So, you're saynig that:

- if I use AVC I can change voice channel (to other controller) just by setting the proper freq. on the radio stack on my airplane? Using the Squawkbox for channel changing will not be necessary?

- if not using AVC, the only way to change the channel is use ATC directory in SB menu? This would change both voice, and text modes?

 

I'm a newbie if you didn't noticed yet.

 

And one more thing: Is the text bar in the upper part of the SB, channel called the UNICOM? If not where is it??? What is the range of that channel? Is this all VATSIM users, just users connected to that Voice Server, or something else?

 

Thanks, Marcin

[Benjamin Becker 835554]

Hi Marcin,

 

good questions.

 

1) Make a difference between AVC and AVC Tuner. AVC (Advanced Voice Client) is your voice communication programme. It transmits your voice over the channel and receives the voice of the ATC operator and the other pilots.

Of course, AVC needs to be tuned to the voice channel that you want to listen to. Traditionally, this is done by requesting the ATC's ATIS (that is, by double-clicking his callsign in the ATC drop-down list). This is quite unrealistic, actually. It should be done by setting the right frequency in your airplane's radio. So there is another little programme, called AVC Tuner. If you have it running, all you need to do is change the frequency in the radio, and your voice channel will automatically be tuned.

 

Here are links:

AVC: http://www.vatsim.net/voice/avc

AVC Tuner: http://www.simhardware.co.nz/

 

2) No. The text bar in the SB upper part is the main text bar by which you can transmit on your current frequency by text. So if you stand in Frankfurt and are on 119.9 for Frankfurt Tower, and type something in that text bar, it will transmit to everybody in the vicinity on that frequency, including tower. If you don't use voice, that's your main way to communicate with others.

UNICOM is a special frequency (120.8) that it always used when there is no ATC available. Then pilots switch to 120.8 and communicate there. Your range when on UNICOM is something around 200 nm, I believe, I don't know exactly.

 

Hope that helps. I'm available anytime for further clarification.

 

Greetings

BEn

[Marcin Sekita 919833]

Thankx a lot, finally a good explenation! One more question: How can I transmit private mesages to other users online? I know it's basics bt I didn't find the answer on any of the VATSIM forums.

 

Marcin

[Martin Georg 811874]

Hi Marcin,

 

for private text messages use the ".msg " command. To chat via voice you need a separate third-party voice software like Teamspeak. Private voice messages are not possible with the VATSIM voice software.