Hi Team,

 

I recently purchased this great program and thoroughly enjoy it. By way of this forum and the manual I am getting the most out of the product.

 

I particularly like the Australian .wav files, as they were recorded in an era before Australian domestic airlines moved to flight number call signs, and Ansett still existed!

 

The one thing I would like to do is change the reference to Melbourne Control and Brisbane Control to Melbourne Centre and Brisbane Centre. So when I am handed off by Melbourne Departures, the controller says contact Melbourne Centre, rather than Melbourne Control. Australia moved to Centre from Control around 1999.

 

Is this easily done by finding the appropriate .text file in scripts and editing out control and replacing it with center ( I assume U.S spelling ). Or is there more to it, or not possible?

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

Hi Mark,

It can be done but it will have some (possibly) unwanted side effects.

 

The first thing to understand is that call signs such as "Melbourne Control" are not recorded as such but are 2 separate sound files  - "Melbourne" and "Control" - played in sequence. Each ATC unit's name is recorded individually - Melbourne, London, Gatwick, Brest and so on  - and then a separate sound file for its function - Delivery, Ground, Tower, Approach and Center/Control - is added as appropriate. What triggers the use of "Center" or "Control" for a control centre is whether it's classed as' FAA' or 'ICAO'.

 

When we set up the ATC world in Radar Contact, we decided to split it into just two jurisdictions known to the team as 'FAA' and 'ICAO'.  Under this system, FAA Radar Contact ATC units (the USA and any country known to use a US-style ATC such as Canada) use US procedures and phraseology and the rest of the world uses ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices for its phraseology and procedures.

 

To keep things as simple as possible, the policy was that all FAA en-route centres use the call sign "Center" and all ICAO en-route centres use "Control". We realised that there were variations to this rule in the real-world but to implement them would have required further sub-divisions to the ICAO area adding yet more complexity to an already very complex program - we were, after all, trying to cover the whole ATC world - so this was felt to be a sensible compromise.

 

So to answer your question, to change Melbourne and Brisbane Centres from "Control" to "Center" it's just a simple matter of changing them from ICAO Centres to FAA Centres. However, please note that this is a global change! Everything else will change to FAA too and Australia will end up with an 18,000ft transition altitude, US phraseology, visibility reports in statute miles and so on which you may not want. You will, though, get group form numbers in call signs which I think is also an Australian difference from ICAO Standards and Practices so you gain some things and lose others by doing this.

 

If you do want to change Australia to an FAA jurisdiction country, it's a simple matter of changing an 'I' to an 'F' in the appropriate file. I don't have the program installed at the moment so I can't tell you which one off the top of my head but I'm sure one of the team members will along to let you know which it is.

 

Pete

Thanks Pete for a great reply; I will have a look at the file architecture and try it.

 

If the negatives outweigh the positives I can always change it back.

 

Now I understand how it works, the compromise makes perfect sense. And yes, we do use group form numbers here now. That happened around 2004.

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

I will have a look at the file architecture and try it. If the negatives outweigh the positives I can always change it back.

 

Yes, I think that's the sensible approach, Mark - try it and see. Sorry I can't remember which file it is but if you can't find it yourself I'm sure one of the team members will be along soon with that info.

Pete

 

Oh yes, one very important thing I forgot - if you do find the right file please make sure you edit it in a text editor such as Notepad and NOT in Excel or a similar spread sheet program.

P.

I located in scripts/pilot and scripts/controller test fields (a script) that is one phrase consisting of the jurisdiction name and the word control or center. These are numbered like cntr102.txt and the contents here is "Barcelona control". Each winwood voice folder for pilots or controls has the phrase title and the .wav file has the same phrase recorded as in this case as "Barcelona control". In the instances I found, all of the .wav files have the combined phrase. There is also no "control" isolated .wav I noticed, just a center .wav file.

 

Brisbane's FIR (center flight information region authority geometric boundaries) scripts are defined in data file z4.csv. If you search for Brisbane in notepad (backup first) you come up with two FIR regions 282 coded twice. Browsing I also noticed Melbourne and Aukland Oceanic plus Port Moresby if applicable. Sorry, I'm not great in geography In the controller scripts folder cntr282.txt has "Brisbane control" and if you play say in the winwood folder 15 (John Burgess, controller identified within) cntr282.wav you here "Brisbane control".

 

So in this instances I located The area name and word control is one audio combined .wav file.

 

Anyway contrary to Pete's description in this application that's what I found. The FAA vs. ICAO tag has operational meaning as to which phrases are used, etc. Again, while I found a "center" .wav I did not find a "control" .wav.

 

Now, Pete was a beta team member before I came on board at the very end of RCv4 development so maybe RCv3 worked as he describes, or I am just missing something.

 

With the structure I found the only way to maintain continuity of voices is for each center control wave file is to edit the control wav file so that the "control" portion of the .wav is overwritten with the "center" wav copy using an audio editor. That would have to be done in each applicable voice folder for pilots and controllers. Just count up the number of folders on the voices tab for pilots and controllers. A huge task if you do them all. In this manner you do not change the script file of the .wav file name.

 

A freeware voice editor I use is Audacity. Search for it. Backup anything you edit so you can recall those files without an RC reinstall.

 

The z4.csv file lists all of the FIR codes so you need to know which named jusrisdictions exist for your areas of interest and get the coded number.

 

Good luck!

Thanks Ronzie, no luck required, as I am not going to do anything based on that advice.

 

It was a small nice to have, if it was straight forward.

 

Kind regards,

 

Mark

the determinator of whether to say center or control is in the atc boundary files. in that, I designate whether that area is USA FAA terminology and procedures or non FAA terminology and procedures.

 

if you were to designate the mentioned centers to be non FAA, you would get control instead of center. BUT, then everything is going to change terminology wise, to non FAA terminology and procedures (air pressure, line up and wait, non FL180, etc)

 

jd

Thanks JD for the reply, I really appreciate it.

 

My thirst for knowledge has been more than satisfied; I will leave it as it is.

 

If you do decide to do RC5 I am happy to help at the Australian end, as I work in "the industry".

 

Kind regards,

 

Mark