acars decoder

Can someone explain exactly what an acars decoder does? What is needed and what information is given?
Thanks

I think that there have been threads in this forum that discuss this, but I'll try and give you a quick synopsis.

ACARS is the digital message transmission between aircraft and their company operations. To listen in, you need to have a scanner tuned to the appropriate frequency. The scanner then needs to feed into a computer that has the decoding software. I have used acarsd in the past, it is free. The info tends to be mundane position reports and ETAs, but each transmission also carries the registration number of the aircraft which is useful for people that are interested in a specific aircraft (special schemes etc).

Hope this is helpful,
Dan

Thanks Dan,
Which scanner would you recommend and which ACARS software would I need to download?

Please, please, please....USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION!
Mods please lock this thread to stop the insanity.

acars-decoder-t19565.html-st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=ACARS

Honestly I DONT see why you care.If you DONT like it DONT read it I asked for a little help I did not ask for SASS from you.
One thing I did find out is that there is jerks like you and there is very nice and helpful people like Dan.
God forbid I make one mistake