Help troubleshooting swift not squawking code to ATC

[Sud Ramasamy]

I'm running FSX (steam edition) with the latest stable Swift client. As requested by ATC for VFR flight following I use the ".x <squawkcode>"  command in Swift to set my squawk code. The command updates the squawk code on the radio panel in my default Cessna 172 Skyhawk. (Side note: I noticed that this default Cessna 172 has the squawk  mode set to Alt and the knob cannot be changed. Nor can the ident button be pushed).

But Vatsim ATC reports that they cannot see my aircraft squawking on their radar. I'm lost as to how to fix this. And the only way I know to even reproduce the issue it to connect to Vatsim, request flight following and get up in the air. 

I would appreciate any help with pointers to troubleshoot this.

 

[Robert Shearman Jr]

if they can't see you, it may be because you're not squawking mode-C (aka "squawk normal" aka "squawk altitude").  some radar clients handle this differently than others depending on the individual controller's realism level preferences. 

[Sud Ramasamy]

I looked in the Swift manual and there is no mention of how to change the squawk mode.

[Robert Shearman Jr]

On the Cockpit tab there appears to be a dropdown box in the upper right corner indicating current Transponder mode. 

[Andreas Fuchs]

The screenshot posted by Rob is of a rather antique version of swift 🙂 I know, you got it from swift's website, so the fault is on our side.

Here is a more recent screenshot of swift 0.9.4

I have inserted two large arrows to make it really obvious: users have two ways of checking and (possibly) changing the operating mode of their transponder. In the top line, which is visible at all times, you can click on the "red S" (=Standby) to cycle it to become a "green C" (=Mode Charlie). The other way of changing your transponder mode is to proceed to your Cockpit Widget and click on the transponder mode. This will cause a drop down menu to open and you can now select the desired mode. Ident is also available on the Widgets.

Now, if you change the mode from S to C and it immediately jumps back to S, it means that the transponder in your aircraft is actually working and overwriting the mode in swift.

[Sud Ramasamy]

Awesome. Thanks for the help. I was able to Squawk C successfully using Swift today on VATSIM with these instructions.

[Andreas Fuchs]

5 hours ago, Sud Ramasamy said:

Awesome. Thanks for the help. I was able to Squawk C successfully using Swift today on VATSIM with these instructions.

What exactly was the solution to your problem? Use the swiftGUI to change the mode or through instrument panel in your SIM?

[Sud Ramasamy]

The default C172 in FSX steam edition has the squawk knob set to Alt and is not operable. 

But Vatsim ATC doesn't see the squawk. So the solution was to set the squawk mode in the swift client.

[Andreas Fuchs]

6 hours ago, Sud Ramasamy said:

So the solution was to set the squawk mode in the swift client.

Super, thanks a lot for your valuable feedback!