dedicated to VDL2 Ground Stations monitoring
  to support maintaining a VDL2 Ground Stations list.

About VDL2

  • VDL(VHF Data Link) Mode 2 is a communication protocol between Aircraft and a network of Ground Stations.
  • The fundamental mission in VDL2 system is messaging  from/to  the Aircraft,
    the Flight Company and Air Traffic Controllers, through the Ground Stations.
  • It has a higher capacity than [ACARS] and a lot more applications that improve aviation surveillance.
  • More information can be found at [Wikipedia] or at [SigIdWiki]
  • There exists a corresponding group [acars-vdl2] with very valuable information.

VDL2 decoding software

  • [dumpvdl2] (Linux, open-source)  The most complete and updated.
  • [vdlm2dec] (Linux, open-source)  A basic decoder.
  • [MultiPSK] (Windows) The Swiss Army knife of HAM Radio software includes a basic VDL2 decoder.
      A simple receiver hardware for Linux is a [RaspBerry Pi] together with an [RTL-SDR] dongle.

About VDL2info.net

  • Each VDL2 Ground Station is identified with a unique hexadecimal number. But there is no public official list.
    Anyone running the above decoding software can cooperate to feed and maintain an informative VDL2 GS list,
    which is used in the decoding software to log VDL2 Ground Stations details. Primarily its location.

  • VDL2info.net supports the above collaboration.
    For each decoding software, a ready made companion program forwards the receiver's log file to this server.
    Aggregated data is then "processed" by the "VDL2 GS maintainer", who maintains the "VDL2_Ground_Stations" list.
    The list is published at groups.io [acars-vdl2] and [multipsk]

  • VDL2info.net offers participating station's Log file Live Streaming with enriched information and message filters,
    together with a feature for station owner to Download station's enriched log files. Additionally, for stations running
    dumpvdl2 decoder it offers Automatic Updating of the station's VDL2 GS list and BaseStation database.
    For MultiPSK stations it offers Automatic Updating of the station's VDL2 GS list.

  • To participate install the corresponding to the decoding software companion program. Go to [Downloads] for How-to.
    'dumpvdl2' and 'vdlm2dec' programs are compiled for 'ARM and x86_64' Processors [e.g. RaspBerry Pi and Intel Nucs]
    and a Debian derivative Operating System. 'MultiPSK' program is compatible with both 32bit and 64bit Windows versions.