What is MIDS A/B?

[Harker]

So this is fully implemented?  Shame on this long-time Hornet flier, first Ive heard of  this.

It works fine with SRS, for MP. It has no functionality in DCS, however, since none of the AI will use MIDS radio, they all use the regular UHF/VHF radio.

[Foka]

I doubt if you can use MIDS to communicate with AWACS. I don't know how it workw IRL, but in DCS MIDS has ~40 nm range. So you can use MIDS for flight/package comms or flight/element comms and COM1 and COM2 radios for AWACS/Tanker/ATC etc.

 

(Previously someone said to use one of the radios for guard channel but IMO it's waste of the radio. You can set listening of guard freq (GRCV option) on one of the radios and when someone talks on it, switch to G channel)

[HoBGoBLiNzx3]

bumping this for people who are unaware of it. Make sure you have your KY 58 set to the on position the panel as well, and set to either P for Plain or C for encryption. I believe that if you are in C mode, and other are in P you will only get static as the channel needs to be encrypted in both ends.

[Chain_1]

6 hours ago, HoBGoBLiNzx3 said:

bumping this for people who are unaware of it. Make sure you have your KY 58 set to the on position the panel as well, and set to either P for Plain or C for encryption. I believe that if you are in C mode, and other are in P you will only get static as the channel needs to be encrypted in both ends.

That's for the ARC-210s, not MIDS A/B.  You're correct that if you are in P you will get only static from someone who is in C, since your radio isn't set up to decrypt the transmission until you also are in C.  The C stands for "cipher" if you were wondering.

[HoBGoBLiNzx3]

On 5/6/2022 at 2:57 PM, Chain_1 said:

That's for the ARC-210s, not MIDS A/B.  You're correct that if you are in P you will get only static from someone who is in C, since your radio isn't set up to decrypt the transmission until you also are in C.  The C stands for "cipher" if you were wondering.

Could you explain? I know the KY-58 is just a encryption device, I was unaware it didn't encrypt VOCA/VOCB channels. Granted it's not a UHF frequency but it should still also encrypt the Datalink channels no?

[Tholozor]

The nature of MIDS radios and Link16 itself is already encrypted, it doesn't require a separate module.

Edited May 8, 2022 by Tholozor

[HoBGoBLiNzx3]

14 minutes ago, Tholozor said:

The nature of MIDS radios and Link16 itself is already encrypted, it doesn't require a separate module.

 

ahhh okay thanks! I was under the impression that all encryption ran through it. My apologies! 

VOCA/VOCB is a game changer in MP.... lol

[Dragon1-1]

Think of it as a sort of VOIP over datalink network. It's a digital transmission over Link 16, as opposed to an analog radio like an ARC-210.

[Foka]

MIDS (VOCA & VOCB) are not radios per se. It's more like, forgive me simplification, Messenger or WhatsUp voice call. It's vocal communication via digital wireless network - Data Link.

KY-58 scrambles communication via radio waves, using "regular" radio.

[HoBGoBLiNzx3]

On 5/8/2022 at 5:00 AM, Foka said:

MIDS (VOCA & VOCB) are not radios per se. It's more like, forgive me simplification, Messenger or WhatsUp voice call. It's vocal communication via digital wireless network - Data Link.

KY-58 scrambles communication via radio waves, using "regular" radio.

Thanks for clarifying. It's a feature most DCS SRS users do not know about and the comms channels get flooded with jargon, didn't meant to post any wrong information, I must have misinterpreted it from the pilots that went over it on a tutorial.