General information about sending messages

This page describes basic syntax rules when sending messages.

Three kind of messages

There are three kinds of messages which can be passed via text field at the bottom of the radar:

• messages for airplanes,
• messages for ATCs,
• system messages.

Messages for airplanes are commands for airplanes advising e.g. altitude, speed, navigation changes or other requests. Messages for airplanes begins allways with the full callsign, or the callsign number of addressed airplane, e.g.:

 
EZY5403 ....
5403 ....

For more information about sending messages to airplanes see Plane communication.

Messages for ATCs are represented by communication with other ATCs about airplanes responsibility switching, runway info and other requests. Messages for ATCs begins with:

• - (minus char) immediatelly followed by the message, if message is for the Tower ATC, or
• + (plus char) immediatelly followed by the message, if message is for the Center ATC, e.g.:

+7539
-1039

For more information about sending messages to ATCs see ATC communication.

System messages are messages processed by system typically used to adjust the view or the simulation run, like simulation speed, pausing/resuming run, a definition of command shortcuts or other. System messages always begin with ? (question mark char) immediately followed by the message text, e.g.:

?METAR
?TICK 500

For more information about sending system messages see System communication.

Entering messages

Messages are entered via text field at the bottom of the radar screen.

All messages are case-insensitive and automatically converted to upper case if necessary. Therefore, if there is a documented message like "Enter the command PD, you may also enter pd, pD or Pd.

Messages are trimmed from the left and right, so you may enter any number of spaces before or after the commands. Moreover, sequencies of two or more spaces are converted into single space if necessary. So if you enter       548   PD     VOZUM    DM     170   , it will be converted to 548 PD VOZUM DM 170. However, if command requests a space delimiter in its syntax, the space is (obviously) not added. So you cannot shorten command DM 170 to DM170.