The SBS radar display can be modified quite
significantly. As the changes fall into several distinct areas these will be
described under the following headings:
Adjusting BaseStation
display settings
Adding Waypoint and
Outline data files.
(Airspace, coastlines, airfields, waypoints.)
Software Changes
(Bitmaps, country data, aircraft list.)
Aircraft Details window changes
Adjusting BaseStation display
settings
The Settings menu in the BaseStation software
is extremely versatile and it allows users to adjust the default settings
considerably. Although covered in the SBS manual I will add some further
notes for users who like to tweak.
Screen Colours
The SBS display can be adjusted to an infinite level when it comes to
screen colours. Some users may like the default green display as shown at
the top of this page, some may prefer a display that looks similar to a real
radar (dark background with light aircraft data tags - also shown above)
whilst others prefer a high key display with a very light background and
dark aircraft data - the last reported to be better on laptops when
outdoors.
Every parameter on the display can be changed
- background, trails, aircraft, outlines and waypoints. Because Waypoints
and Outlines can be categorised each category can have its own colour and so
separate tabs are available to adjust the values. Below is the General tab
and this shows the current colour set I am using.
To change the colour for any option just
click on the SET box and either choose from the fixed Windows colours or
select a colour from the right hand palette and click on the Custom Colour
button. Make sure the colours you choose are quite different to that
selected for the radar background otherwise items will seem to disappear.
Waypoints
There are 30 separate Waypoint classes each
having its own colour option. I have adopted the classes below for my UK
airspace data files:
As you can see above I have used 15 of the 30
classes for various waypoint types which leaves 15 free for users to add
further waypoint files if needed. Users can also use the existing classes
for their data if the title is appropriate for their information. See the
next section for details on adding your own waypoint data.
Users who are happy with altering data in the
Basestation.INI file can change the titles for each Waypoint section. Below are the headers I have used for the UK Data Set but you can
easily add your own. The headers need to be added to the [DrawingSettings]
section in the INI file as follows:
[DrawingSettings]
WaypointTypes-1=General
WaypointTypes-2=Major Airfields
WaypointTypes-3=VOR
WaypointTypes-4=NDB
WaypointTypes-5=Intersections
WaypointTypes-6=TACAN
WaypointTypes-7=Minor Airfields
WaypointTypes-8=ANO
WaypointTypes-9=Disused A/D
WaypointTypes-10=Parachute
WaypointTypes-11=Gliding
WaypointTypes-12=Heliports
WaypointTypes-13=HangGliding
WaypointTypes-14=Microlights
WaypointTypes-15=VRP
Changing the colour of each section will
alter the colour for every waypoint using that class type.
The check box to the right of each section
will enable or disable that section in the BaseStation software. This is
very useful as a quick method of reducing the screen clutter that may
be found if all sections are flagged as active. As well as having control
over each waypoint class users can turn off all waypoints by using the icon
on the main BaseStation display. A third level of control is also available
whereby individual data files can be turned off - this is covered below.
Outlines
As with Waypoints there are 30 classes of
Outlines - 25 of which have been used for the UK data set.
For the values above the following lines
should be added to the [DrawingSettings] section in the INI file as
follows:
[DrawingSettings]
OutlineTypes-5=Final App
OutlineTypes-6=Lwr Awy C/L
OutlineTypes-7=Upr Awy C/L
OutlineTypes-8=ATZ
OutlineTypes-9=CTA / TMA
OutlineTypes-10=CTR
OutlineTypes-11=Danger Area
OutlineTypes-12=FIR
OutlineTypes-13=TACAN Rte
OutlineTypes-14=HOLD
OutlineTypes-15=IAP
OutlineTypes-16=SID
OutlineTypes-17=STAR
OutlineTypes-18=MATZ
OutlineTypes-19=Lwr Awy Bdy
OutlineTypes-20=AARA
OutlineTypes-21=AIAA
OutlineTypes-22=ARA
OutlineTypes-23=ATA
OutlineTypes-24=ATSDA
OutlineTypes-25=VOR Roses
OutlineTypes-26=Waterways (I used this value
for testing so I suggest other users do not add this)
Note that Outline types 1 to 4 are missing
from the list above as
they are already assigned in the default SBS software. Users adding their
own data can adopt the values above or create their own listing of classes.
However, if users wish to distribute their files then it must be kept in
mind that other users may already have a dataset loaded (such as the UK data
set) and there could be a confliction in class types.
As with Waypoints the colours can be altered
for each class and the check boxes can be used to quickly turn on or off
each individual class. As seen in the example above I have only activated 12
of the 25 classes on my display for the session.
Data Files
The Data Files section shows you a full list
of all Outline and Waypoint files that are loaded when BaseStation
starts. In effect it should be identical to all the files you have put in
your Outlines and Waypoints folders.
The files that are ticked are those that
display in BaseStation.
Note that if the BaseStation seems to be
taking a long time to load you may have too many waypoint or outline files
in your BaseStation folders. You will not get any improvement just by
turning these files off in the menu above as this will only stop those files
from displaying, not from loading.
In the example above I have the waypoint
files for the major airfields in most European countries loaded. This isn't
sensible as my aircraft detection range goes nowhere near the continent -
these files would be best moved to a storage folder. In the Outline Files
section things are better arranged as only 13 airfield plans are loaded. All
the other UK airfield outlines (a further 60 airfields) have been moved to a
spare folder ready to be copied into the Outlines folder should I ever need
them.
The efficient management of your outline and
waypoint files is worth the time and effort.
Scope Fields
This menu sets the format and content of the
aircraft's data tag on the radar display.
In the example above my data tag has three
rows of information with Callsign and Squawk on the top line, Reg and type
on the second line and Altitude and Groundspeed underneath. The result
is a data tag that looks like this:
Display Parameters
Most of the display parameters are obvious
and are covered in the documents but
one section is worth describing in a little more detail.
Under the General section there are options
for Clip Above Max Elevation and Clip Below Min Elevation.
These are related to the option in the Radar menu called Set Elevation
Upper and Lower Limits.
If you enter values for upper and lower
height bands - let's use 15000ft and 0ft - in the Set Elevation Upper and
Lower Limits menu the limits will only restrict the height band for the
Elevation display: In the example below the aircraft at FL169 does
not show on the Elevation display but it still appears on the main radar
screen.
If you check the Clip options the
height restrictions will be applied to the main radar screen too.
Clip options OFF
Clip options ON
Notice in the second screenshot that the
RYR294, RYR105S and EZY6726 aircraft are outside the filter limits and are
no longer on the display. Note that for RYR294 its trail still exists up to
the point it climbed through the cutoff level so you know it reached FL250
about 2nm short of NATKO. Clever that..
Warning 1 - Clip options and height
filtering are not readily apparent!
You must remember if you have enabled
them and that your display may not be showing all the traffic.
Warning 2
- Height filtering is saved when you save a view!
Check your existing views one at a time to see if any
height limits have been applied.
Aircraft Display
Again most of these are covered by the
documentation but a few explanations may be worth adding.
Sub Reg for Mode S - Changes the Mode
S code on screen for Registration. Although there is now a separate
Registration field in the aircraft data tag this option can be handy to use
instead. If a registration is known this will display on radar but if an
unknown aircraft appears the Mode S code will display instead - whereas the
Registration field would leave a blank tag.
Caption line spacing - reducing
spacing between the lines keeps the data tags neat. The setting should be
matched to font size otherwise you can get overlapping data tag lines. I use
10 to complement the aircraft tag Arial 14pt font.
Show Only Trail Dots - You can turn on
or off aircraft trails. I leave mine set to 3 minutes to reduce system load.
Leader lines - Don't enable this as it
is still in development. It partially works but the lines can be rather
erratic
Aircraft Field Display - Aircraft
altimeters are set to QNH (height above sea level) near airfields but
pilots change to a Standard Pressure Setting of 1013.2mb for en route
flight. This ensures pilots do not have to keep changing altimeter settings
as they fly into regions of high or low pressure. If 1013.2 is set pilots
report height as Flight Level but if QNH is set pilots report height
as Altitude. The point at which an altimeter is reset is called the
Transition Altitude.
The problem is that Transition Altitude
varies. In the USA the TA is set at 18,000ft but each country has it's own
values (it is basically relative to the the highest ground in a region). For
the UK it is slightly more complex with a generic Transition Altitude of
3000ft across the country but certain TMA's have set higher values - London
TMA for example uses a TA of 6000ft.
If you know the Transition Altitude for your
local airport you can enter the height in the Alt box and tick the Show
FL for Alt. The screen will then show Flight Levels above this height
and Altitudes below - as seen below. Perfectionists will spot the error in
that the Dublin Transition Altitude is not 3000ft - I forgot to reset the
SBS setting to 5000ft.
Text
If your screen display seems cluttered you
can reduce this by altering the display font and font size.
In the screenshots above I have used 14pt
Arial for Aircraft data tags but this may not suit all users. Experiment
freely with these settings to find a font and size that you find easy to
read but does not swamp your screen excessively.
Note that I have set Bearing and Distance to
quite a large size because this information can get buried behind aircraft
data tags.
Data Settings
The important box in this section is the checkbox
for Message Filtering. If you tick the box labelled Ignore Non ADS-B
Mode-S Messages then you lose all Mode S only data. The most obvious
effect is that you will see no Mode A/C squawks.
The Timeouts determine what happens after an
aircraft's signal is lost. These are subtle and you have to know what the
four options mean to get the values set up as you would ideally like. Higher
values retain more data but may have an impact on your system.
When an aircraft passes out of your SBS
coverage the aircraft's data is lost. Initially the aircraft target will
freeze in the last detected position on the radar screen.
If no further
signal is received from the aircraft the displays will trigger as follows:
| |
Position Lost |
AFTER the timeout
value expires |
|
Aircraft List - |
The aircraft status
icon will turn YELLOW |
|
Radar Display - |
The aircraft's data
tag will also turn YELLOW
(unless you have changed this for another colour). |
| |
| |
Signal Lost |
AFTER the timeout
value expires |
|
Aircraft List - |
The aircraft status
icon will turn RED |
|
Radar Display - |
The aircraft will
disappear |
| |
| |
Remove |
AFTER the timeout
value expires |
|
Aircraft List - |
The aircraft will
disappear |
| |
| |
Delete |
After this timeout
value is reached the aircraft will be purged from memory. |
Using my values above you should see the
following happen:
1. If aircraft data is lost the aircraft will
freeze on the radar screen. Time is T.
2. At T+10 both the data tag and the aircraft list's Status icon will turn
yellow
3. At T+20 the data tag will drop off the radar screen. The aircraft will
still appear in the listing but the Status icon will turn
red
4. At T+30 the aircraft will be removed from the Aircraft List.
5. At T+330 the aircraft data will be purged from memory.
I'd suggest that the values for Position and
Signal Lost do not exceed 120 seconds added together. On a busy approach
long timeouts will see the aircraft frozen on screen and the following
aircraft may appear to run into the stationary aircraft. Setting Position
Lost to too short a time may result in aircraft constantly changing colour
if they move into areas of intermittent contact.
The Remove value can be as long as you wish
if you like aircraft to remain in the Aircraft List after they have
disappeared on radar.
Note that some users set Delete values
extremely high - usually to 86400. This was to ensure no data was lost in
the old (Spider) software version and a full 24 hour log could be retrieved.
With the present software there is no need for such long timeouts as the
data is written to the database and can be retrieved in Reporter.
Warning - if you reduce the Delete timeout
value to a lower figure BaseStation will freeze for a minute or so. This is
because the
data in memory is being purged.
Adding Waypoint and Outline data files.
One of the most significant changes that can
be made is to add extra detail to the radar display. This can be as simple
as your house location or it can be the complexity of the whole UK airspace
system.
There are two sets of files for data
presentation:
|
Waypoint files |
(found in the Waypoint
folder with a .WPT suffix) are simple text files that add a dot to the
display with a name tag. Examples could be an airfield, a navaid or your
favourite pub. |
|
Outline files |
(found in the Outlines
folder with an .OUT suffix) are also plain text files but these create lines.
Outlines are used to create line features like coastlines, controlled airspace, airfield layouts,
roads, rivers or country boundaries. |
With both types of files the data you can add
is unlimited (towns, cities, zoos, shipping forecast areas and railway lines
if you really wanted them) but beware that the more data you add the more
the impact on loading and running the BaseStation software.
Format for each type of file is slightly
different.
Waypoint Creation
Waypoint files can contain one or many
waypoints. For your house it would be best to put this in one file but if
you are adding several points of similar type (like airfields) then it makes
sense to put all these in a single file. For my UK airfields file a sample
of the data is shown below:
Tatenhill,EGBM,7,2,52.8147,-1.761125,450
Ternhill,EGOE,7,2,52.87111111,-2.533333333,272
Thorne,EGCP,7,2,53.62222,-0.92806,0
Thruxton,EGHO,7,2,51.21043333,-1.599875,330
Tilstock,EGCT,7,2,52.93222,-2.64722,301
There are seven parameters for each data
line. These are:
Name, ID, Waypoint Class, Zoom Level,
Latitude, Longitude, Altitude AMSL
|
Name |
- This is a simple description of
the waypoint. |
|
ID |
- Is for a code if the point has one - like EGCP above for Thorne.
Otherwise leave this parameter empty (but include the comma separator e.g.
Leeds,,7,2, etc) |
|
Waypoint Class |
- is one of the 30 Waypoint sub sections available. In
the example above 7 is used for Minor Airfields - see the Waypoint
screenshot above. |
|
Zoom Factor |
- You can use either 1 or 2 here. 1 will permanently
display the point but 2 will only show the waypoint if zoom level is below
150nm. |
|
Latitude |
- In Degrees and decimal Degrees, not Degrees and Minutes.
Negative values for the southern hemisphere. |
|
Longitude |
- In Degrees and decimal degrees. Negative values for
points West of Greenwich. |
|
Altitude |
- Height in feet above sea level or 0 if not known. |
Outline creation
Outlines can also be grouped in one file but
format is slightly different. The example below shows the data for Danger
Area EGD001 in the UK:
{Danger Areas}
$TYPE=11
; EGD001
50.32167+-5.51167
50.40000+-5.65000
50.53333+-5.56667
50.65833+-5.40000
50.71667+-5.20833
50.64167+-5.07500
50.32167+-5.51167
-1
The first line in curly brackets describes
the outline data - any text can be put here. The second line sets the
Outline Class - in this case Outline Class 11 which is reserved for Danger
Areas. Comment lines can be added if you use a semi colon like I have used
in the third line. After that there is a succession of Latitude and
Longitude values to define the lines being drawn. As with Waypoints the
values are in Degrees and decimal degrees with positive values for North and
Eastern hemispheres and negative values for Southern and Western
hemispheres. Note the plus sign between the Lat and Long values or, in the
case above, plus and minus signs as the Longitudes are westerly.
The final
-1 is to stop the lines
being drawn (basically a pen up command before moving on to the next point).
If you create your own outline or waypoint
files check that these load correctly (no faults are found) by using the
Debug tools in BaseStation - see below for more information on the Debug
option. Should a file fail to load the debug screen will
identify which OUT or WPT file has failed. You may also notice that upon
failure further waypoint/outline loading is halted and the screen may be
missing many points or lines.
Importing waypoint and outline data
Creating waypoint and outline files is time
consuming and errors in any large file are hard to track down. For some
users it would be preferable to download existing sets of data and several
are now available.
UK data - A full set of UK waypoints
and outlines are available from
here. Note that the data covers almost
all
the airspace and waypoint information available for the UK. Although you
can install and display the whole lot it is far better for SBS performance to pick
out the files you think
suit your display needs best. If you live in Surrey for example it is not of
much use installing detailed airfield layouts for Belfast or Glasgow (unless
you are a long distance lorry driver who takes the SBS on tour).
Manchester airport and surrounding area
showing airfield layouts, VOR, runway centrelines, fixes,
control zone, prohibited areas, minor airfields and VRP's.
European data - For these detailed
sets we are indebted to
Andy (threemiles) for his wide selection of European data.
Unlike the UK data set Andy has
created file sets that are centred on a 200nm radius of European
cities - they are not limited by country boundaries. For further details go to
http://jetvision.de/sbs/
Software Changes
I have to state that this section involves
making changes to some of the default files installed with the SBS software.
Although safe (that is to say for those users happy with file manipulation) Kinetic quite
rightly say these are unsupported tweaks and will not provide help or advice
in the forums for users who step out of their depth and, to put it bluntly,
screw things up .
Bitmap Changes
The default software rather nicely show
country flags against each aircraft but these can be altered to show
alternative bitmaps. Dave Reid was the first to experiment with this and
changed his flags to show registration prefixes instead - something I
quickly adopted myself.
For my own bitmaps I went one stage further and
colour coded them to highlight the regions (Far East, Africa, Europe etc) for the
country of origin.
More recent changes have involved adding
bitmaps for military aircraft but this is rather more complex. Not all
military aircraft have been assigned specific Mode S allocation blocks and
so it is not possible to segregate such aircraft within each country. Where
the Mode S allocations have been discovered to be issued separately
(examples being USA, UK and France) users have attempted to
modify the SBS files to allow these
groups to display. The screenshot above shows Canadian Mil, USAF, Irish Mil,
Belgian Mil, NATO, French Mil and Luftwaffe aircraft being picked up on my
SBS. I must add not all at once - the shot is real, but a composite.
The process of adding these blocks involves
adding new bitmaps to the Kinetic/Bitmaps folder and modifying the
countries.dat file to recognise the military allocated blocks. This is
not a simple matter as you must understand the binary code allocation
process before trying to add new lines to the file.
For further guidance I would refer users to
the ongoing posts in the Kinetic forum. At the moment not all military
blocks are known so these modifications are to be considered ongoing (and
experimental) until a more definitive listing becomes clear.
Resorting the Aircraft List order
You may have noticed from the screenshot
above that my aircraft list is in a different order to the default settings.
On the default display the aircraft list will produce the following order (from
left to right) if all columns are turned on:
Status - State - Show Trail - Flag -
Interested - Mode S - Callsign - Registration - User Tag - ICAO Type -
Country - Altitude - Lat - Long - Speed - Track - Vertical Rate -
Squawk - Last Update Time - Time Tracked
For my own display I swapped the order around
to give:
Status - Flag - Mode S -
Callsign - Registration - ICAO Type - Interested - User Tag - Altitude -
Speed - Squawk - Track - Vertical Rate - State - Show Trail - Country - Lat
- Long - Last Update Time - Time Tracked
which would give a display like:
However I do not have all columns active and
my actual display is much smaller:
Before I go any further I must emphasize that
the changes to be made are not difficult but they require a methodical
approach and should not be attempted on the working INI file. Don't touch
this file if you do not have a backup and aren't prepared to read the rest
of this section completely.
The list order is not adjustable via any menu
settings (yet) so the only method for changing these is by editing the
basestation.ini file. The values for the aircraft list are contained in the
[AircraftListFieldManager] section of the INI file. For a default
installation they will be something like this (not necessarily in the same
order though):
[AircraftListFieldManager]
18=1,1,-1,0,-1,45
19=1,2,0,0,-1,15
20=1,3,0,0,0,15
21=1,4,-1,0,-1,36
17=1,5,0,0,-1,15
0=1,6,-1,0,-1,50
4=1,7,-1,0,-1,58
1=1,8,-1,0,-1,55
16=1,9,0,0,-1,15
3=1,10,-1,0,-1,36
22=1,11,-1,0,-1,70
8=1,12,-1,0,0,45
23=1,13,0,0,-1,15
24=1,14,-1,0,-1,60
7=1,15,-1,0,0,60
6=1,16,-1,0,-1,50
9=1,17,-1,0,0,50
5=1,18,-1,0,-1,50
2=1,19,0,0,-1,15
10=1,20,0,0,-1,15
11=1,21,0,0,-1,15
12=1,22,0,0,-1,15
13=1,23,0,0,-1,15
14=1,24,0,0,-1,15
15=1,25,0,0,-1,15
25=1,26,-1,0,0,70
26=1,27,-1,0,0,75
27=1,28,0,0,0,15
28=1,29,0,0,0,15
29=1,30,0,0,0,15
30=1,31,0,0,0,15
31=1,32,0,0,0,15
32=1,33,0,0,0,15
33=1,34,0,0,0,15
34=1,35,0,0,0,15
35=1,36,0,0,0,15
36=1,37,0,0,0,15
37=1,38,0,0,0,15
38=1,39,0,0,0,15
39=1,40,0,0,0,15
40=1,41,0,0,0,15
41=1,42,0,0,0,15
42=1,43,0,0,0,15
43=1,44,0,0,0,15
44=1,45,0,0,0,15
45=1,46,0,0,0,15 |
Each line of the section has the following
parameters:
FieldID = Row - RowPos - Show - ShowStyle
- SortAscending - ColumnWidth
...so the first line in the list above decodes as:
| Field ID |
Row |
RowPos |
Show |
ShowStyle |
SortAscending |
ColumnWidth |
| 18 |
1 |
1 |
-1 |
0 |
-1 |
29 |
Field ID's
The Field ID's are as shown in the table.
0 = ModeS
1 = Registration
2 = SerialNo
3 = ICAOType
4 = Callsign
5 = Squawk
6 = Track
7 = Groundspeed
8 = Altitude
9 = VerticalRate
10 = Manufacturer
11 = PopularName
12 = Type
13 = GenericName
14 = YearBuilt
15 = Owner
16 = UserTag
17 = Interested
18 = Status
19 = State
20 = ShowTrail
21 = Flag
22 = Country
23 = Latitude
24 = Longitude
25 = LastUpdateTime
26 = TimeTracked |
In the example above we can see that Field 18
is the STATUS field showing the aircraft symbol or four dots etc. Note that
Field ID's for 27 up to 45 exist in the list but are for future values.
Leave these fields as they are when making other changes.
Now we know what the field descriptors are
let us have a look at the parameters that need to be applied.
Altering the values
This is where you must have a clear mind and
think carefully before making any changes. I strongly suggest that you do
not directly edit the existing values in your INI file as you will
reach a point where old and new settings become confused as you try to
remember the Field and Row ID's.
Before you start any editing think clearly
about the new order you want to use for the list and, when you are sure
about your intended changes, write the Field ID's down on paper (or
spreadsheet or Notepad) in the order you want to use.
Add to each Field ID the parameters you
require. These are:
|
FieldID
=
|
As listed above |
|
Row
-
|
1
(do not alter) |
|
RowPos
-
|
This is the column sort order with 1 as
your first column, 2 as the second and so on.. |
|
Show
-
|
Use -1 for Visible
Use 0 for hidden.
Note: This value will vary if you enable/disable the columns via the
menus. |
|
ShowStyle
-
|
0
(do not alter) |
|
SortAscending
-
|
-1
(do not alter).
Note that future Fields 27 to 45 are set to 0. |
|
ColumnWidth
|
As you wish. I suggest you look up
your existing INI Field ID and copy the value over. |
As an example, if you want your first three
visible columns to be Flag, Country and then Mode S code your first three
lines will be:
21=1,1,-1,0,-1,36
22=1,2,-1,0,-1,70
0= 1,3,-1,0,-1,50
Although it looks easy I can only
suggest again that you don't try editing the existing INI files directly.
That way lies torture.
Aircraft Details changes
Again I will start this section by saying
that, as with the countries.dat file above, any changes to the Aircraft
Details box requires adding code to the Kinetic default files. Users must
accept that if any tweaking goes awry they cannot ask software support to
help them out.
Aircraft detail changes have evolved over
several versions of the BaseStation software. The original popup window had
too many items in it and users wanted a slimmer version. Dave Reid produces
a rewrite that had a very small footprint:
With later software releases it was found
that additional information could be included and various rewrites to the
basestation.xsl file have been made. In my version below I have eight fields
under the Aircraft Data section for the more significant items.
An additional tweak was introduced to this
panel to allow links to aircraft photographs - a neat touch which is quite
useful. Again I will not describe this in depth here as there are several
user variants. In my own case the XSL code links to photos that are on my
computer. Other users have inserted links to photographs from online sources
- this saves storing thousands of images on your hard drive but the source
for the link must be chosen carefully - one that is likely to be around for
a long time is better. Of course the latter only works if you have a valid
internet connection so mobile SBS users may find it limiting.
Other users have simply added URL's to the
display rather than put photographs up -
Because of the variety of codes used to
achieve the above displays I will not describe them here but suggest users
look at the forum posts on the subject. A search for Basestation.XSL
will probably do the trick.
It need not be said but if you decide to
tweak the XSL file on your system MAKE A BACKUP FIRST.
