Mission 1 comms and datalink issues

[JethroTundra]

Excited for this campaign but having some issues in the first mission. 

I followed all the instructions for comms - easy comms turned off, making sure to press enter on UFC after switching channels so the F10 menu would work. This worked fine up until my takeoff. I proceeded on runway heading at 1500 as directed by tower, then when told to switch to departure, my comms menu would no longer come up, either with key command or HOTAS command. No comms menu at all.

Couple other oddities. Since I couldn't reach departure, I just headed for waypoint 1 to find Poodle. Partway there, my pilot said a voice line along the lines of "I'm heading into restricted airspace. I should change my course." At the time I was very close to the flight path line between base and waypoint 1.

Is datalink expected to work in this campaign? Tried to use it with the SA page to find Poodle. I could see his symbol off and on (yellow 1 with a flight path arrow) but his location on SA page was way off from his actual location when I was able to find him with radar or visually.

Would appreciate any tips. Thanks.

[ChillNG]

3 hours ago, JethroTundra said:

Excited for this campaign but having some issues in the first mission. 

I followed all the instructions for comms - easy comms turned off, making sure to press enter on UFC after switching channels so the F10 menu would work. This worked fine up until my takeoff. I proceeded on runway heading at 1500 as directed by tower, then when told to switch to departure, my comms menu would no longer come up, either with key command or HOTAS command. No comms menu at all.

Couple other oddities. Since I couldn't reach departure, I just headed for waypoint 1 to find Poodle. Partway there, my pilot said a voice line along the lines of "I'm heading into restricted airspace. I should change my course." At the time I was very close to the flight path line between base and waypoint 1.

Is datalink expected to work in this campaign? Tried to use it with the SA page to find Poodle. I could see his symbol off and on (yellow 1 with a flight path arrow) but his location on SA page was way off from his actual location when I was able to find him with radar or visually.

Would appreciate any tips. Thanks.

Hi thanks for trying the campaign, regarding data link it should just work as normal (unless the update has affected DL but I not aware of any issues).  ID on SA/HMD for Poodle is DE11 if that helps.

The comms enroute to WP1 are correct, you must have strayed into the restricted flight area at the oil terminal (LTD 19 I think).  Problem you had here is no departure comms, you don't take a direct route to WP1 and departure would have guided you out.

As for why you had no comms menu I'm not sure, there's nothing in the campaign that would stop this working.  From what you've said the F10 menu worked fine up to this point but after that you couldn't access any comms options (eg F5 ATC) at all?

[JethroTundra]

4 hours ago, ChillNG said:

As for why you had no comms menu I'm not sure, there's nothing in the campaign that would stop this working.  From what you've said the F10 menu worked fine up to this point but after that you couldn't access any comms options (eg F5 ATC) at all?

That's correct. No comms menu at all following clearance for takeoff. I got as far as joining up with Poodle and him asking me to contact ATC into Syria. I couldn't do this either because the comms menu wouldn't come up. Quit the mission at that point.

[ChillNG]

2 hours ago, JethroTundra said:

That's correct. No comms menu at all following clearance for takeoff. I got as far as joining up with Poodle and him asking me to contact ATC into Syria. I couldn't do this either because the comms menu wouldn't come up. Quit the mission at that point.

Ok thanks, well it won't be a campaign issue as there is nothing in the campaign that is able to interfere with aircraft systems in this way, to be sure I just tested and all worked fine for me.  That said I'll help where I can, the only things I can think of are either;

- the radio being powered off/damaged for some reason (the comm menu isn't accessible when the aircraft is cold and dark on the ramp for example).  Worth a check if you have random failures enabled in your DCS settings?

- a keybind issue, possible with an update (some keybinds on the Hornet were affected this patch), but very unlikely as it sounds like it worked ok at the start of the mission.

- a mod/program you're running that is interfering with the Hornet's radio (eg. VAICOM can cause trouble some times).

I'd suggest trying the mission again and if it happens again we might have to seek additional help unless anyone reading this has any further input.

 

 

 

[BeerNfrites]

I played through this today and found that you have to use the comm1 or 2 switch to open the comm menu rather than ‘/‘.

 Also had trouble at the start and couldn’t find Poodle until around wp7. He didn’t show on data link until I was on approach. 

[ChillNG]

Also worth noting that the DL settings have changed on the latest update, I've not used it myself yet but I'm hearing that you select either link 4 or link 16 now.  I'm thinking that if you're on link 4 by mistake it will mess with the datalink.

Edit.  Just checked the Hornet sub forum, you need to press the DL button twice to get to link 16, just once and you're on the ACLS data link.  Other users reporting no contacts on the SA page unless using link 16.

Edited April 30, 2022 by ChillNG

[ChillNG]

Just checked myself over a couple of different missions and DL all working correctly, Poodle showing on both SA page and HMD.  

[JethroTundra]

Thanks BeerNfrites - binding a HOTAS to comm1 instead of Communications Menu solved my issue. Also appreciated the tip on datalink, no problem finding Poodle this time. Finished the mission with an 88, probably due to being slow to getting my FLIR onto the Fishbeds. Looking forward to the rest of the campaign.

[BeerNfrites]

On 4/30/2022 at 11:38 PM, ChillNG said:

Also worth noting that the DL settings have changed on the latest update, I've not used it myself yet but I'm hearing that you select either link 4 or link 16 now.  I'm thinking that if you're on link 4 by mistake it will mess with the datalink.

Edit.  Just checked the Hornet sub forum, you need to press the DL button twice to get to link 16, just once and you're on the ACLS data link.  Other users reporting no contacts on the SA page unless using link 16.

 

Yeah that was it, working perfectly now. Just finished mission 3 and really enjoying the campaign, each mission has taught me a new skill as well. 

[ChillNG]

7 hours ago, BeerNfrites said:

Yeah that was it, working perfectly now. Just finished mission 3 and really enjoying the campaign, each mission has taught me a new skill as well. 

Awesome, great to hear! 

[Hillman]

Struggled with the same problem; could not get datalink to work (except when I also enabled TCN).
This video also explains the D/L issue: