PlanePlotter

PlanePlotter is a Windows program that receives and decodes real-time digital position reports from aircraft, graphically displaying them on a navigation chart. It processes signals from multiple protocols such as ACARS, ADS-B, and HFDL, enabling detailed monitoring of surrounding air traffic.

★★★★★

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• Message Display. Displays a table with all received and decoded messages from live aircraft transmissions. The table presents raw and processed data, allowing analysis of digital communication between aircraft and ground stations.
• Data Logging. Stores all received and decoded digital data in a log file. This file allows for subsequent analysis, historical flight review, and the preservation of evidence from captured transmissions.
• Chart Display. Plots decoded aircraft positions, altitudes, and times from message traffic. Overlays these symbols on user-prepared aeronautical charts or downloaded satellite images. Filters the display by altitude band to distinguish between high and low-level traffic.
• Google Earth Server. Interfaces with Google Earth to display aircraft positions on its base map, when ADS-B position reports are received. Provides a dynamic real-time view that can simulate the perspective from the cockpit of a designated aircraft.
• Radio Direction Finding. Determines and displays the direction of any transmission using a passive antenna switch. Locates aircraft even if they are not equipped with digital positioning systems like ACARS or ADS-B.
• Signal Decoding. Decodes ACARS messages by displaying their content and plotting positions. Processes and displays Mode-S/ADS-B position reports captured by receivers such as Kinetic SBS1, AirNav Systems RadarBox, RxControl, PlaneGadget Radar, miniADSB, microADSB, and FPGA Beast.
• GPX Overlays. Displays waypoints, tracks, or routes on the current chart using data from a user-defined GPX format file. Integrates flight plans or custom reference points into the display.
• Alerts. Generates visible and audible alerts upon detecting a specific registration, flight number, or ADS identifier, a new aircraft, or an aircraft whose position is within a user-defined alert zone polygon.
• Memory-Map Navigator Support. Directs the Memory-Map Navigator program to display dynamic aircraft position symbols on its proprietary maps, using data from ACARS or Mode-S ADS-B.
• OLE/COM Interface. Allows accessing position data and other information for each aircraft known to PlanePlotter via VB scripts or other OLE/COM compatible programs. The same interface can update data within PlanePlotter and control its user interface.
• DDE Access. Allows accessing ACARS, HFDL, and Mode-S messages received by PlanePlotter using Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). Turns PlanePlotter into a front-end for other ACARS processing software.
• Peer-to-Peer Output. Sends its message data to another remote instance of PlanePlotter using UDP/IP datagrams. Shares ACARS, HFDL, Mode-S (ADS-B) messages, and radio direction finding measurements so another computer displays the same information.
• Peer-to-Peer Audio. Transmits audio to another remote instance of PlanePlotter using UDP/IP datagrams. A remote user can listen to Air Traffic Control (ATC) instructions picked up by the local air band receiver.
• Internet Sharing. Sends its message data to a shared server. Locally received messages (ACARS, HFDL, or ADS-B) can be viewed by other PlanePlotter users in different areas, thus combining the reception coverage of all cooperating users.
• HF SELCAL Decoding. Decodes SELCAL tones on High Frequency (HF) that identify aircraft communicating on HF air bands. Although they do not contain position reports, they provide an additional monitoring method.
• Report Generator. Generates a text file containing user-defined data fields for aircraft received during the session. Creates customized summaries of aerial activity.
• Automatic Multilateration. Determines the position of aircraft transmitting Mode-S messages without ADS-B formats that include position, using the time of arrival of transmissions at multiple users. The aircraft symbol is plotted on the map by calculating the intersection of hyperbolic curves based on time differences.
• MySky View. Displays a perspective view of the sky, as seen from the user's home location. Facilitates positive identification of condensation trails during the day and aircraft strobe lights at night. The daytime view shows the position of the Sun and Moon, and the night view shows the Moon, bright stars, and planets as a reference.
• Beamfinder and Beamfinder Plus. Uses pulses from known radar stations to calibrate the rotating beam and uses that information to locate aircraft that are not transmitting position. Beamfinder Plus can locate an aircraft even without a Mode-S transponder, using Mode-A/C radar returns.
• Custom Data Display. Displays aircraft data in a floating window using a user-defined layout. Configures what information is displayed and its arrangement for each aircraft symbol on the map.

PlanePlotter was created and is developed by COAA (Coomber Electronic Design). The program has been under active development since the early 2000s. It is written primarily in the Delphi programming language for the Microsoft Windows platform.