?How to use the radios?

[JEFX]

Can someone help in using the radios properly?

I understand that you have to tune to a specifiec frequency in order to speak to any entity in this marvelous world. For example, I tune my VHF 1 (AM) to 131.00 and I can speak to Batumi ATC, fine...

 

But I tried to setup an AWACS, gave it a frequency in the ME (I gave anything, 135 I think) and in game, when I tune to this frequency, not only I cannot talk to it, but the comms menu does not allow me to use the AWACS functions???? (same for the Tanker)???

 

Are there specific frequencies ranges that one should know of to tune to different assets? For example, it seems as if one uses UHF (in the 200s) to talk to one's flight right???

 

Is there anything like this for AWACS, etc?

 

Is there a list of all airports frequencies somewhere?

 

thanks!

 

JEFX

[WarriorX]

Maybe this will help. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=61349

Give it a look and report back if you have any more questions. I will be glad to help.

I highly suggest doing a search for Shu's Airport Diagrams. They are a wealth of information, and have the tower frequency for each airfield. Or you can hit the F10 key in game and left click on the map over an airfield and a text box will appear showing the tower frequency.

Edit...here is the link to Shu's Airport Diagrams:http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=60370&highlight=airfield+diagram

Edited December 11, 2010 by WarriorX

[JEFX]

Thanks Warrior!

 

You know, it is right after reading this very post of yours and studying your very well done radio tutorial that I fired up my new A-10 and tried to put your info in practice.

 

I understand that the ATCs are given when clicked, and I do have Shu's airport diagrams. Thanks

 

But what about the tanker and the AWACS???

 

thanks

 

(also, what I am eager to learn, is proper Real Life usage of VHF AM, UHF and VHF FM, how do pilot use them for real???)

 

cheers

 

 

JEFX

[nomdeplume]

Firstly, check in the Options / Gameplay screen to see if you have "Easy Communication" enabled. If it is, it works slightly differently to 'realistic' radios.

 

With Easy comms: use \ to open the radio menu. When you select an option, if the appropriate radio is not tuned to the required frequency, it will automatically be re-tuned and your message sent.

 

With realistic comms: tune the radio manually, then use the 'HOTAS MIC SWITCH' to select the radio to transmit with. All options are always available no matter which radio switch you use; but if you send the message using the wrong radio/wrong frequency, you'll get no response.

 

If you don't have tanker/AWACS options even present and you're using realistic comms, then it's a mission creation problem, i.e. they haven't been properly set up in order to be recognised as an available asset by the game. I don't know what the problem there could be though, so long as its task is set to AWACS or Tanker and it has a frequency assigned it should appear in the menu.

 

Frequency ranges don't matter in the game; I don't know what's done in real life. The only thing that's "hard-coded" in the game is the airport frequencies in the AM band.

[WarriorX]

JEFX you are welcome pal.

Regarding tanker and AWACS freq's:

If the mission designer gives a tanker and/or AWACS freq in the mission brief or via radio in game, make sure to write them down. Tune the proper radio and try to make contact. If you feel you did it all by the book, and still had problems, you can always try to open the mission up in the mission editor and check the freq's in there, just to make sure they match.

[JEFX]

Good morning Warrior,

 

After finding you tutorial, yesterday, I made a mission myself with several flights to experiment with the radios. I put myself with 3 wingmen and the program assigned us an automatic freq of 251. I added another A-10 for AFAC, one KC-135 with refuelling task (I assigned myself another VHF freq.) and one AWACS E-2 with a freq.

 

When I posted this message last night, I couldnt communicate with AWACS or TANKER:(

 

THis morning I tried again : I put an E-3C instead as AWACS and gave it a VHF freq of 124, and I gave the same freq to AFAC and indeed, I could communicate with both on VHF1 at 124:)

 

My problem is the Tanker : I put a KC-135 with task refuelling and I tried several frequencies (both VHF and UHF) and when in game, on both radios, when I summon the radio menu with the HOTAS switch, the Tanker option is inert (disabled), I cannot use it to communicate??? Is there something I am missing?

 

For now, it is easy to communicate on UHF with wingman, second element, flight, with VHF with ATC of different airfields, with AWACS and with AFAC aircrafts. Somehow I am missing the Tanker (unless I did somthing wrong with setting it up in the mission design, but I did it very simple with all default).

 

Is there other assets with which we can communicate in this world? If we put other flights doing things, will we hear them communicate among each other, and what do we need to set up to hear that?

 

Even though I am an old veteran of Simulators, somehow I am new to the world of radios and I am wondering what is the normal procedure? How do we use all those frequencies? what is Guard? do we normally tune something by default and switchto other for needs, and how is the best way to use radios 1-2-3? obviously I understand that UHF primary use is among one's flight, yes? then, ATC on VHF AM?, then what is the typical usage of VHF FM?

 

THanks a lot!

 

 

Jean-Francois

[WarriorX]

Hi JEFX,

 

Glad you got things working. As for the Tanker, I would suggest creating a mission with the Tanker alone. Assign it a frequency, and see if it works.

 

There are some great tutorials and pre made refueling missions that I have seen on the boards, but if they were made in a previous Beta version, they probably will not work in a current Beta version. But, if you can find one, load it up and practice communicating with the tanker.

 

I have not created or designed any missions yet so I am not sure if it is correct procedure to give the same freq to 2 separate entities (AWACS & AFAC) Try giving each entity a unique frequency.

 

Regarding immersive radio chatter and a Guard Freq, I do not know if it is planned as a feature of DCS A-10C. But as of now this is the extent of radio comms.

 

From the DCS A-10C Flight Manual (located in your Program Files/Eagle Dynamics/DCS A-10C Beta/Doc) Page 647:

 

Radio Frequencies

In order to receive radio communications from other mission entities and have your transmitted

messages received, it is vital that you have your radios set up properly! If not, you will be essentially

talking to yourself.

When a mission is created, each friendly flight and airfield is provided a VHF AM and UHF frequency.

These are generally noted in the mission briefing and should be set to your radios at the start of the

missions. Generally, the following rules apply:

 Your flight is most often assigned a UHF frequency. You will use this channel for inter-flight

communications.

 Other friendly flights operate on a common VHF AM frequency assigned to the operating

area. When set correctly, you will hear radio communications from other flight operating in

the area.

 AWACS is assigned a unique VHF AM frequency.

 The JTAC is most often assigned a unique VHF FM frequency.

 Each airbase ATC is assigned a unique VHF AM frequency.

As such, you may have to juggle multiple frequencies during the course of a mission and the

frequency preset features on the radio will become a big help.

This is the template from which the mission designers should work from. It may not be uniform in the beginning, but I think most all of the Community will conform to a set standard of radio frequency assignments in their mission like those described above.

 

Keep up the good work, and let me know if there is anything else I can help with. There are a lot of great people on these forums, and they have been very instrumental in my understanding of this Simulation, hopefully they will be able to answer the questions that I cannot.

[JEFX]

Hi! Warrior,

 

Lets continue this discussion!

I did some experiments with the radios this morning and probably found a BUG !

 

I know for sure, now, that I do set up my radios properly.

I made a specific mission to test comms with 3 different AFAC flights, 3 different tankers and 3 different AWACSs, all with different VHF AM frequencies that I assigned in the mission editor.

 

I got some problems... So I did some investigation and it appears that :

 

1) I cannot communicate over VHF AM to an AWACS that is 450 km away, is that possible? AWACS will always be quite far, by nature,is there another strategy of radio settings and frequencies that would help to broadcast from afar? I quit the mission, changed the Awacs to a closer distance, fired up the mission again, and LO: I could talk to them.

 

2) The BUG is that the software changes my frequency settings on its own sometimes... I made a flight of one KC-135 tanker, named automatically by the program TEXACO and it had an automatically assigned frequency of 150. I decided to change it to 130 and fired up the program... :( couldnt talk to it (therefore the subject of this post in the first place)... I got out of the simulation, entered the ME and to my greatest surprise... The frequency of my tanker was back to 150 (the usual default)...

 

I changed it again, and this time it held and I could communicate with it in flight...

 

It appears that all flights of all nature (even HELOS) are assigned a frequency of 124 by default by the program, except the tankers that have all a frequency of 150 assigned automatically by the program... I even had the same problem with my AWACS to which I had assigned different frequencies and after not being able to communicate with them, I stopped the sim and I saw in the ME that their frequencies were back to 124...

 

That seems like a bug to me?

 

 

On the other hand, it is very very immersive to tune to a frequency where many flights are assigned (124 for example, if you let them like the default) and you can hear all sorts of communications from them, and when you tune to ATC (say 131 for Batumi) you can hear some flights asking for takeoff or for landing, etc... Very immersive, wow!

 

Now, one question : what is VHF FM used for? and how do you assign a frequency of 73000 in the ME???

 

 

thanks

 

 

JEFX

[JEFX]

***interesting***

 

OK, found some other stuff :

 

I realized that my AWACS were at a mere 2000m altitude (default when inputing a new aircraft in flight without changing its altitude) and raising them to 10000m and I was able to communicate with them from 450km!

 

I also found that if you want to assign a VHF-FM (radio3) frequency of, say, 30000, you have to input 30 in the Mission editor.

 

So, everything is great, except that potential BUG that the radio frequencies can revert themselves to the default 124 or 150...

 

This is such a great sim!!! :smilewink:

[Scabbers]

JEFX to understand freq's you have to understand purpose of each radio frequency.

 

UHF and VHF are your standard Line of sight radios. If you can not see the target you can not communicate... Unless a repeater is set up.

 

HF is Over the horizion communications. You can communicate all over the world.

 

Now frequencies fall in to ranges -

 

HF 2.999 - 29.999 Mhz

VHF 30-299.975 Mhz

UHF 300 Mhz to 3 Ghz

 

Now for guard. Guard is the international and tactical depending on frequency, distress frequencies. International Guard is 243.000 Mhz. So if you tune gaurd your radio will go straight to that frequency. You can use it to send a distress call, or to monitor for a friendly distress call.

 

The emergency radio in the pilots vest will transmit voice on 243 Mhz and beacon on 243 Mhz. Tactical is 282.8 Mhz.

 

Normally. you set all desired mission freq's as presets and then can just change to presets on the desired radio.

 

A repeater is set of radios normally at the max ranges of two staions (in the middle). I receives the signal from one radio and retransmits the signal on another frequency to the next station effectively doubling the range.

[WarriorX]

Well put Scabbers.

 

JEFX check out this thread, they are discussing something similar and maybe it will shed some light on your frequency issues in the Mission Editor. (Check out Geskes post #4)

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=63409

 

Let me know what you think.