ICP / UFC

[Caldera]

Hey All,

After getting more or less proficient in the A-10C I have taken on the F-16C.  This is the "other" aircraft I have romanced all these years.

The ICP / UFC DED can be a bit confusing to start.  Let's start with trying to learn the radios.

 

This is how the DED looks after engine start-up.

I select override button COM 1.

I press the number three button (evenutally...) to select preset frequency 3.

I go back the the C&I page.

Now my question is, other than SRS in MP or going back to the COM 1 menu page, how would I know what the actual frequency is? 

Or in this respect is it like the A-10C, where after selecting PRESET, all you can see is the just the preset number on the dash and no longer the actual frequency?

Once I change to another preset, can I ever see any frequency displayed on the C&I page?  For example, in the A-10C going back to MNL I can see preset 1 frequency once again on the dash.

Thanks in advance,

Caldera

[WHOGX5]

13 minutes ago, Caldera said:

Hey All,

After getting more or less proficient in the A-10C I have taken on the F-16C.  This is the "other" aircraft I have romanced all these years.

The ICP / UFC DED can be a bit confusing to start.  Let's start with trying to learn the radios.

 

This is how the DED looks after engine start-up.

I select override button COM 1.

I press the number three button (evenutally...) to select preset frequency 3.

I go back the the C&I page.

Now my question is, other than SRS in MP or going back to the COM 1 menu page, how would I know what the actual frequency is? 

Or in this respect is it like the A-10C, where after selecting PRESET, all you can see is the just the preset number on the dash and no longer the actual frequency?

Once I change to another preset, can I ever see any frequency displayed on the C&I page?  For example, in the A-10C going back to MNL I can see preset 1 frequency once again on the dash.

Thanks in advance,

Caldera

The beauty of radio presets is that you don't need to know what the actual frequency is. IRL they use what's called a Comms Ladder where each preset channel corresponds to a specific agency. Here's an example of how it was setup in the sim that shalt not be mentioned by name:
 

U1:   Base Ops
U2:   Departure, Ground
U3:   Departure, Tower
U4:   Departure, Approach/Departure
U5:   AWACS, Check-in
U6:   AWACS, Tactical Frequency
U7:   Arrival, Approach/Departure
U8:   Arrival, Tower
U9:   Arrival, Ground
U10:  Alternate, Approach/Departure
U11:  Alternate, Tower
U12:  Alternate, Ground
U13:  Tanker
U14:  Guard
U15:  Flight 1
U16:  Flight 2
U17:  Flight 3
U18:  Flight 4
U19:  Flight 5
U20:  OPEN

So with a Comms Ladder like this you always know that Channel 6 is your Tac Freq and channel 15 is the intra-flight for the first flight in the package. All you need to worry about is making sure that the correct frequencies are loaded onto the DTC before mission start.

If you need to know what the actual frequency of the preset is there are only two ways:

1. If the radio frequencies for COM 1 are set in the mission editor the frequencies for all the UHF presets will appear on the paper that is attached to the backup UHF radio.

2. Go into COM 1 and cycle through to the desired preset channel using the ICP controls.

[Caldera]

GX5,

Thanks!

In DCS MP, it seems that every server operator has a different idea what those frequencies should be.  For even in the A-10C it becomes a real shuffle to load all of the presets that I might need for the flight.

Quick question, what do you mean by this? 

18 minutes ago, WHOGX5 said:

1. If the radio frequencies for COM 1 are set in the mission editor the frequencies for all the UHF presets will appear on the paper that is attached to the backup UHF radio.

I am missing the meaning of "will appear on the paper".  The flip up that covers the load button?

Caldera

Edited January 7, 2022 by Caldera

[WHOGX5]

2 hours ago, Caldera said:

GX5,

Thanks!

In DCS MP, it seems that every server operator has a different idea what those frequencies should be.  For even in the A-10C it becomes a real shuffle to load all of the presets that I might need for the flight.

Quick question, what do you mean by this? 

I am missing the meaning of "will appear on the paper".  The flip up that covers the load button?

Caldera

 

 

First of all, I want to recommend this software called DCS-DTC which will automatically input various settings that would be set by the DTC if we had one natively, stuff like radio presets, MFD setup, countermeasure programs, etc. What I suggest you do is create one cartridge for each server that you fly on regularly and then you can simply choose to load the comms ladder for whichever server you decide to join. It doesn't break integrity check or anything so it can be used on all servers.

Regarding the paper the answer is yes, it's on the flip up cover on the backup UHF radio. I don't know if it updates if you change the presets in-game, but I know for a fact that it displays the frequencies that were set for COM 1 in the mission editor.

[AstonMartinDBS]

6 hours ago, Caldera said:

I am missing the meaning of "will appear on the paper".  The flip up that covers the load button?

Exactly. Here you can find an overview of the 20 UHF presets:

 

3 hours ago, WHOGX5 said:

I don't know if it updates if you change the presets in-game

Yes, the presets will be updated as soon as you change them via UFC/DED.

 

6 hours ago, Caldera said:

Now my question is, other than SRS in MP or going back to the COM 1 menu page, how would I know what the actual frequency is? 

Or in this respect is it like the A-10C, where after selecting PRESET, all you can see is the just the preset number on the dash and no longer the actual frequency?

Once I change to another preset, can I ever see any frequency displayed on the C&I page?  For example, in the A-10C going back to MNL I can see preset 1 frequency once again on the dash.

 

You can view and edit every single UHF and VHF frequency preset via UFC/DED:

1. Enter the COM1 (UHF) or COM2 (VHF) DED page
2. Select the desired preset by pressing the DED ICP increment/decrement switch
3. the frequency assigned to the selected preset is displayed in the DED in the lower left area, below PRE #

 

I've attached a simple F-16C mission. The UHF presets are populated from 301 to 320 MHz and the VHF presets from 121 to 140 MHz, so you can test the above described procedures easily: F-16C RadioPresetTest.miz

Edited January 7, 2022 by AstonMartinDBS

[Frederf]

On 1/7/2022 at 9:47 AM, Caldera said:

other than SRS in MP or going back to the COM 1 menu page, how would I know what the actual frequency is? 

Repeating what's been said very well above: The COM override page lists every frequency for every channel preset but you can only read one at a time. You see lines 4 and 5 that say "PRE 2 (arrows) / 327.00"? That means that preset channel 2 is frequency 327.00 MHz. If you inc-dec the arrows you'll change to PRE 3, PRE 4, PRE 5, PRE 6 display on line four. As a result on line five the frequency listed there will be the XXX.XX MHz of that channel 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. You change the preset channel frequency of a channel by editing it on lines 4 and 5 of the COM override page. E.g. if you want to make channel 17 to 266 MHz then the actions are:

• Inc-dec until it says "PRE 17"
• DCS the *____* asterisks around the frequency on line five
• ICP 2 6 6 ENTR

The CNI DED page will show what the radio is tuned to either as a channel number or as a manual frequency. So no, if you tune a channel number it will only display that channel number on the CNI page. If for whatever reason you wanted to display the frequency you'd have to type in the frequency manually on the COM override page even if it was identical to the frequency of a particular channel preset. But most pilots think in channel numbers because a channel preset as a particular function. "Flight, switch to channel 8." Everyone's channel 8 is the same and who channel 8 talks to (e.g. tanker) has always done that. You could look up the freq if you had to (kneeboard or through the lines 4/5 on COM page) but really you don't care. Tanker is 8 and 8 is tanker, whatever the freq. And as was stated, if you expect a certain order of radio use (ground, tower, departure, center, AWACS, approach, tower, ground) then why not make all those channels in that order so you can just inc-dec arrow increasing by one channel every phase of the mission? It's a bit of a rarity for an MP mission to be constructed with this concept. Such is the benefit of a data cartridge that lets you make all your adjustments in an air conditioned building and not sitting in the ejection seat on a sweltering ramp.

The backup UHF load cover label is a good source for the mission file-defined channel presets but be aware that obviously it doesn't update in real time and there's no requirement physically that the BU UHF presets have anything to do with the UFC UHF presets. They're often set the same but they are actually independent and can be set entirely different. Don't expect that if you change preset on the BU radio that UFC will match and vice versa.

Edited January 8, 2022 by Frederf

[jaylw314]

FWIW, the easiest way to see what frequency your preset radio is actually set to is to keep the SRS overlay up, at least while in a MP server.  joining a MP server and using SRS is a good quick way to check that you have your radio preset frequencies set correctly.

[Raptor9]

@Caldera In the A-10C, on the UHF control head, you can see what the frequency is of your current preset by pressing the little gray STATUS button below the preset select knob.  This only works if you have the radio in PRESET mode, not MNL.  The freq of that preset will be displayed in the frequency window.  It's been a while since I messed with the F-16's control head while on battery power, but it worked in the same manner as the A-10C's last time I checked.  So whether you look up the frequency on the DED or on the little placard on the UHF backup control head as other's explained above, there is plenty of places to see what freq you are up at the moment.

[AstonMartinDBS]

21 hours ago, Raptor9 said:

In the A-10C, on the UHF control head, you can see what the frequency is of your current preset by pressing the little gray STATUS button below the preset select knob.  This only works if you have the radio in PRESET mode, not MNL.  The freq of that preset will be displayed in the frequency window.  It's been a while since I messed with the F-16's control head while on battery power, but it worked in the same manner as the A-10C's

Good to know, this works in the F-16C as well (I've tested it just now)! I didn't know about this function so far.