ACARS

Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS)

ACARS data is used to send messages to and from commercial airlines' aircraft. A good explanation can be found here.
The frequencies used in the US for ACARS are:

129.125  United States
130.025  United States
130.450  United States
131.125  United States
131.550  United States
136.800  United States
136.850  United States

For ACARS questions, please post them on the Aircraft forum.

Operating Tips

• In general, all that is necessary to hook up a receiver and PC to receive ACARS is a good shielded connection from the speaker or earphone of the scanner to the soundcard. A discriminator tap is not required, since it is not involved in AM reception
• There's a brief sync tone sent before each transmission; if the software doesn't receive it, no decoding will occur. Most scanners' squelch cannot open up fast enough, so keep the squelch off. There are, however, a few scanners that do open up fast enough; these include:
  • Win108
  • Yupiteru VT-125/150
  • Yupiteru VT-225/MVT-3100
  • Yupiteru MVT-7100/7200

Decoding Solutions

With the exception of PC-ALE, packages listed on the ALE page can also copy ACARS

Hardware Decoders

• AOR ARD-2 (discontinued)
• Hoka Code 3 Gold
• Hoka Code 3 Gold Professional

Discontinued Decoders from Universal Radio

• ACT-1
• M400
• M450
• M1200
• M8000 Vers 7.5

Software Decoders

• Airnav
• acarsd
• MultiMode (MAC systems)
• PDW
• PlanePlotter
• RadioRaft Site 1
• RadioRaft Site 2
• KG-ACARS
• SkySpy
• SkySweeper (discontinued)
• Winradio Digital Suite
• Winradio Advanced Digital Suite

Mailing Lists

• acarsd Yahoo group
• ACARS on QTH.Net
• ACARSlogs on QTH.Net