Following a suggestion from one of the guys on the SBS forum who also use SquawkBox I've added filters and alerts to the program. This means that you can now get SquawkBox to display just those codes you are interested in e.g. military. In addition individual squawk codes or groups of squawk codes can be defined as alerts so that the program issues an alert (e.g. sound, flashing window) when a squawk code within that group is detected. Note that RadarBox also does alerts on individual Squawk codes. Usual download at http://www.gfrost.co.uk/SquawkBox/ (http://www.gfrost.co.uk/SquawkBox/)
Andy...
I already have your Squawkbox from a couple of weeks ago so do I uninstall the previous Squawkbox and install the newer one?
Thanks.
EDIT..
Ok, just simply re-installed. My sincere thanks to you Andy for these added features.
Regards.
yes, Tailwinds, It's just a case of unzipping to overwrite the existing files.
How can I get Squawkbox to alert me on certain aircraft such as registration ZF573 and ZE701? I typed in the two squawk codes for the above mentioned aircraft and chose the flashing window. However, I didn't get the alert from Squawkbox because the Squawk codes had changed which I found out from looking at "My Flights" in ANRB 2009. I'm obviously not doing something right.
Thanks.
Tailwinds,
Squawk codes are not unique to aircraft. They are associated with airspace areas and other things. It's the Mode-S hex code that is unique to an aircraft.
Tom
One of the drivers behind the development of Mode S was the shortage of Mode A ("squawk") codes. There are only 4096 of the latter available, far too few even for the number of aircraft in the UK, let alone worldwide. Mode S gets round that limitation by providing for 16.7 million codes which can therefore be assigned to specific aircraft rather than continually being re-allocated on an ad hoc basis.
Tailwinds, SquawkBox only provides alerts on particular squawk codes or groups of squawk codes. If you want an alert on an aircraft registration or a ModeS value you can set this up in the Alerts section of the RadarBox Interface Panel.
Does anyone have any information on where to find squawk code allocation info for the US? There's FAA Order 7110.65, but it is very general in nature with a few exceptions.
thanks,
Mark
At the request of one of the guys on the SBS forum I have today added a facility for SquawkBox to remember where it was put and have it startup in that position on the next start. This means that you don't have to accept the default startup position which was between the RadarBox "File...Help" menu and the RadarBox logo. This is set via a menu option, details in the ReadMe file. This new version can be unzipped over any previous version to install it.
Andy,
Thanks for all your work with SquawkBox. I've got it up and running OK, but I'm having trouble with the "Include Flights without a Flight Number" - although I've got this box ticked in options, I'm not seeing any flights in the SquawkBox window other than those with Flight ID's.
This means that I'm not getting the military flights showing as many of these don't have callsigns/Flight ID. Am I missing something?
I've just got my radarbox back and I'm having the same trouble as Allocator with the squawkbox not showing non callsign flights. Hope it's something simple.
Allocator, you won't see any aircraft without ADS/B, as they're not output on port 30003. Try using a recording file instead, although that's 5-minute delayed of course :(
That would explain it, shame, I was hoping for a quick way of reading the mil squawks :-(
I know. That's why I asked Andy to include reading a recording file, but because of the 5-minute delay, it's not that useful. Of course, v2.1 will make port 30003 less useful as well :(
What I do with military aircraft is still use port 30003, and manually type the military squawk codes into the "Look up a squawk code" box.
I just wish Airnav would include squawk code lookup in Radarbox!! It's obviously a useful feature, given how popular Andy's Squawkbox is.
Yes tarbat, delaying the Port 30003 data by 5 minutes will make SquawkBox less interesting. The best solution from the point of view of SquawkBox and any other third party add-on programs that want to get flight data from RadarBox would be to have RadarBox output the contents of the MyFlights table but without the positional information. This as I understand it would not be a security issue because the positional data is not present and so would not need to be delayed.
Oh, by the way, at the request of one of the guys on the SBS forum I've updated SquawkBox to provide the possibility to scroll flights vertically as well as horizontally.
Intresting point allowing the output of live data except the position details. We will think about that.
Quote from: Andy Frost on December 05, 2008, 10:17:25 AM
Yes tarbat, delaying the Port 30003 data by 5 minutes will make SquawkBox less interesting. The best solution from the point of view of SquawkBox and any other third party add-on programs that want to get flight data from RadarBox would be to have RadarBox output the contents of the MyFlights table but without the positional information. This as I understand it would not be a security issue because the positional data is not present and so would not need to be delayed.
I understand that the RadarBox port 30003 output is still a work-in-progress, but for full compatibility with the SBS-1 (which it's supposed to be emulating) AIR (new hex code) and ID (new callsign) messages should be output in real-time.
Neither of these, unfortunately, contains the squawk - this is in the MSG Type 6 output, together with altitude and the flag fields. If RadarBox V2.1 were to output the Type 6 MSG in real-time, that would be a useful precedent to set.
Quote from: Andy Frost on December 05, 2008, 10:17:25 AM
Oh, by the way, at the request of one of the guys on the SBS forum I've updated SquawkBox to provide the possibility to scroll flights vertically as well as horizontally.
Nice Andy, I prefer the vertical scrolling and that's how I'm using SquawkBox now.
Complete trivia, but is it possible to line up the columns in the vertical scrolling display. I think that the maximum number of characters in the Flight ID should be 7(?), but many are 5 or 6 characters. SSR codes are always going to be 4 characters etc.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3270/3083905713_9702f85be6_o.jpg)
Yes that's possible. Done and uploaded!
(http://www.gfrost.co.uk/SquawkBox/squawkbox_in_columns.gif)
The positions of the columns will depend on the fonts chosen and the length of the longest flight number.
You're a star Andy :-)
Thanks for that!
hi there, I downloaded and installed SquawkBox but the program when I try to run it gives errors, the installation was easy and completed. any help?
Airnav, could you incorporate this program into V2.1? that will be awsome! I will post my error tonight with Squawkbok
rgs M
Quote from: marcdeklerk on December 06, 2008, 11:38:49 AMAirnav, could you incorporate this program into V2.1? that will be awsome!
Unfortunately, Airnav have already rejected the idea - see http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=1284
At the request of one of the guys on the SBS forum (I seemed to have used that sentence before!) I've added an option to force SquawkBox to display the ModeS, even if it has the flight number or aircraft registration, normally flight number and aircraft registration take precedence over ModeS if it they are available.
Marc, let me know what your error(s) are, please describe what you are seeing.
Quote from: tarbat on December 04, 2008, 10:43:43 PM
Allocator, you won't see any aircraft without ADS/B, as they're not output on port 30003. Try using a recording file instead, although that's 5-minute delayed of course :(
OK, I'm with it now. I misunderstood the reading of the recorded file as an "after the event" off-line type function.
I've got RB and SquawkBox running and I've selected RB Recording. I've selected "Load a Recorded File" in SquawkBox and now I'm seeing the data (5 minutes delayed) as advertised, including the aircraft without position data (see ZH537) - excellent.
I've got all my military code blocks set up in the SquawkBox Alerts to give me red text so that it shows up well. I've also got 7700, 7600, 7500 set to give a colour change and an audio alarm.
Of course, it would be better if it was live, so a RB option to output data live but without position information, would be very good here.
I'm liking SquawkBox more and more :-)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/3087434924_a9f36cc287_o.jpg)
Hi Andy, herewith the error:
Microsoft .NET Framework V2.0 installed
When starting the application a box pop up saying the following when I click on details:
------------
See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.
************** Exception Text **************
System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: 'System.String System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog.get_SafeFileName()'.
at SquawkBox.SquawkForm.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
SquawkBox
Assembly Version: 2.1.3257.20788
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/AirNav%20Systems/AirNav%20RadarBox%202009/squawkbox/SquawkBox.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
SQLite.NET
Assembly Version: 0.21.1869.3794
Win32 Version: 0.21.1869.3794
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/AirNav%20Systems/AirNav%20RadarBox%202009/squawkbox/SQLite.NET.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Data
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_32/System.Data/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Data.dll
----------------------------------------
************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.
For example:
<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>
When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.
Marc, there only two places in the program where OpenFileDialog (which appears in your error log) is called; when a recorded file is opened or when you select a wav file for an alert sound, but it seems you are not getting this far. I'll pm you with a Debug version which logs what it does and we'll see if we can sort this out.
hi Andy, pm sent with the files as requested
Marc
The debug file contains the following:
21:01:44 See if C:\Program Files\AirNav Systems\AirNav RadarBox 2009\squawkbox\NavData.db3 exists on startup directory
21:01:44 File doesn't exist, read registry to get RadarBox install dir
21:01:44 Got dir, use path C:\Program Files\AirNav Systems\AirNav RadarBox 2009\Data\
21:01:44 Delete the file: C:\Program Files\AirNav Systems\AirNav RadarBox 2009\squawkbox\NavDataCopy.db3
21:01:44 Copy NavData.db3 from C:\Program Files\AirNav Systems\AirNav RadarBox 2009\Data\NavData.db3 to C:\Program Files\AirNav Systems\AirNav RadarBox 2009\squawkbox\NavDataCopy.db3
21:02:32 See if C:\Program Files\AirNav Systems\AirNav RadarBox 2009\squawkbox\NavData.db3 exists on startup directory
21:02:32 It exists, open db3 file at C:\Program Files\AirNav Systems\AirNav RadarBox 2009\squawkbox\
21:02:32 Delete the file: C:\Program Files\AirNav Systems\AirNav RadarBox 2009\squawkbox\NavDataCopy.db3
21:02:32 Copy NavData.db3 from C:\Program Files\AirNav Systems\AirNav RadarBox 2009\squawkbox\NavData.db3 to C:\Program Files\AirNav Systems\AirNav RadarBox 2009\squawkbox\NavDataCopy.db3
just installed Squawkbox, so i still have to learn how to use it properly, but i noticed the squawk codes for a flight are not always the same on RB and SqB : for example, just had flight CYP358 / 5B-DBB with squawk 4115 on Radarbox and 1736 on squawkbox, .... how come ???
i also just beginning to use RB, so i still have to learne a lot :-)
SquawkBox uses whatever data is given to it on port 30003 by RadarBox to build its list of squawk codes. At the end of scrolling each block of text the program rebuilds the text it scrolls with the data it received from port 30003 while it was scrolling. There is a small chance that a flight squawk code could change, be displayed by RadarBox, but not be updated by SquawkBox until the next scroll. Having said that, I have never seen this happen in practice nor noticed any differences between the two programs when testing.
i have lots of differences, in fact not many matches ; just 3 more from the last list i checked (out of 4, the 4th was not showing on RB )
BAW393 RB 4427 in SB 3370
EIN33E RB 5266 in SB 2212
SOX774 RB 2757 in SB 2471.
have to say i'm in Belgium, not UK, could this explaine the differences ?
BAW816 say's 0567 squawk on RB, G-EUOC A319, while squawkbox gives me : BAW816 2414 NATO-CAOC 9 Exercises ?????
The text description of the squawk code output by SquawkBox is country dependent, the default list supplied with the program is the UK squawk codes. Unfortunately that means that you will have to try and find a list of squawk codes for Belgium yourself I'm afraid (we've got the Netherlands and Turkey already).
As I mentioned earlier, SquawkBox displays the data it receives from RadarBox on Port 30003. You can see this data yourself if you run a program called telnet.exe (on \WINDOWS\system32 under WindowsXP).
If you start SquawkBox then then RadarBox and then telnet at the prompt type 'open localhost 30003' (without the quotes), you should see the squawk codes that SquawkBox is receiving in the telnet window. The squawk codes are the fifth to last field (fields are separated by commas) on the telnet lines. These codes should correspond to the codes that RadarBox is displaying in the MyFlights section of its interface panel and also to those that SquawkBox is displaying.
You can pause SquawkBox scrolling by clicking on its window if that makes it any easier to read. The display should look something like the attached gif file.
ok, thanks for the info, will try to find a Belgian squawk list
The problem reported by marcdeklerk above has now been fixed (caused by using a function call special to .Net Framework version 3.5). SquawkBox should now work with the following versions of the .Net Framework; 2.0, 3.0 & 3.5. The corrected version has been uploaded to the website.