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Connection Features

ATIS connections make it possible to server up to 4 stations with voice ATIS, Actually EuroScope just provides the ATIS message, the actual text to voice synthesis and the serve to pilot voice connection is done on server side.

Dialog Fields

In the title of the dialog you can see the ATIS connection named as A, B, C and D for the four stations a controller my serve. Note the ground and tower controllers are allowed to server only their home airport, while approach/departure and enroute controllers may server four.

  • Text ATIS – The actual ATIS message that is sent to servers for voice synthesis. You are free to manually edit it.
  • ATIS callsign – The ATIS connection callsign. The first four letters must be the airport code, and the last five must be _ATIS. If you enter only the airport code here then the callsign will be expanded automatically. When you leave this field that the position data is searched in the ESE file, and the frequency is updated automatically.
  • ATIS frequency – The primary frequency for this ATIS connection.
  • Get METAR button – This button requests the METAR of the selected ATIS airport. When you press it the first time, it may happen that nothing is displayed momentarily as it may take a short time to receive the METAR information. If necessary, press it a second time some seconds later.
  • Current ATIS info and + and – buttons – By pressing the + and – buttons you can change the current ATIS letter. The current ATIS letter is also displayed in the toolbar of the main window. These buttons also change the ATIS letter in the Text ATIS and multiple record ATIS box. EuroScope looks for the ATIS letter in that box by searching for a space-letter-space combination and replaces all such occurrences of the old ATIS letter by the new one.
  • ATIS maker URL – This is the URL that will be called every time a new METAR is available for the served station. This URL might contain function names that will be extracted just before calling it. The return of the URL will be filled into the Text ATIS filed and will be published to the servers.
  • Extracted URL – Same as the above, but all functions are replaced with their final value.
  • Automatically generate new ATIS using the URL – Using this check-box whenever a new METAR is received the URL is called, the result is inserted to the Text ATIS field, and the ATIS letter is increased by one.
  • Test URL – Use this button to call th URL and test its result.
  • Connect ATIS button – This button is used to create your ATIS connection to the VATSIM server and to the voice server. This ATIS connection is a completely separate connection; VATSIM regulations restrict the use of such a second connection for the use as ATIS channel. The button is enabled only when you have a live, direct connection to VATSIM. The ICAO code that you entered in the ATIS airport field will be used to form the callsign of that connection. EuroScope will find the air frequency of this connection by looking the callsign up in your Voice Communication settings. There it will automatically check mark the ATIS check box and the RCV and XMT voice check boxes.
  • Disconnect ATIS button – Use it to disconnect the ATIS connection. It is enabled only when you are connected.
  • ATIS connect status – Just next to the Disconnect ATIS button there is a status field. It shows the current status of the voice ATIS connection.

Advanced Techniques

When you enter the text form of the ATIS, you can simplify things a little by using functions. EuroScope has a couple of built-in functions that are particularly useful in the ATIS text, for example:

  • $atisairport – airport code of your ATIS airport,
  • $altim() – the altimeter setting,
  • $deprwy() – active departure runways,
  • $arrrwy() – active arrival runways,
  • $wind() – wind from current METAR of this airport.

But working with these built-in functions in the ATIS text has the disadvantage that it will be more difficult for you to read the ATIS text while you are recording, as you can’t see what the functions expand to.

External ATIS Interpreter

If it was just for the functionality described up to this point, the multiple-recording mode would not be a real time saver. Putting all the fragments together to form a complete ATIS might even take longer than doing a single recording of the entire ATIS. The real clue comes in by automatically building the segment list from the current METAR and all the things EuroScope knows about active runways and the ATIS-letter you have chosen in the dialog. This is in fact not a trivial task considering the complexity of the METAR message. EuroScope has not yet built that functionality in, but can make use of external web services that accomplish the task instead.

To configure the use of such an external ATIS interpreter, we use the ATIS maker URL field. Enter here the web address of the service you want to use and all the parameters that the service needs to perform its task.

At present there is a public ATIS interpreter service available:

  • UNIAtis by Sami Ylismäki – This is a widely configurable ATIS interpreter. Currently it supports full METAR decoding with the exception of remarks, and every field can be customized to support a wide variety of formats. It includes support for semi-freely customized fields in the ATIS. If you would like to join him and make your own area specification contact him via the forum of UNIAtis at http://www.uniatis.net/.

An example for the UNIAtis service looks very similar:
http://uniatis.net/atis.php?depfreq=120.800&metar=$metar($atisairportA)&arr=$arrrwy($atisairportA)&dep=$deprwy($atisairportA)&apptype=ILS&info=$atiscodeA

Note how the example make use of the built-in functions of EuroScope to transfer the METAR information, the settings of departure and arrival runways, and the ATIS letter to web service. Some new built-in functions have been added particularly for this purpose:

  • $atisairport – airport code of your ATIS airport,
  • $altim(<airport-code>) – the altimeter setting,
  • $deprwy(<airport-code>) – active departure runways,
  • $arrrwy(<airport-code>) – active arrival runways,
  • $metar(<airport-code>) – the METAR in its long form,
  • $atiscode – the current ATIS letter as set in the control above.

After you have setup your ATIS maker URL, press the Test URL button and observe two things happening:

  • In the field Extracted URL you see how EuroScope has expanded the built-in function calls in your URL. That is the exact web request as is is being sent out to the external service. Originally more thought of as a debugging tool, it is a nice instrument to see what exactly is being sent.
  • In the fragment list you see the result that came back from the external web service, namely a complete fragment list for your new ATIS. You can edit this result by hand, although in most cases the returned result will be totally satisfactory.

If you have checked the Automatically generate new ATIS using the URL check box, EuroScope will automatically update the ATIS for every new METAR report that is being received. It also increases the ATIS letter automatically at that time. In order to let neighboring controllers know that the ATIS code has changed, EuroScope sends a text message to all other EuroScope clients in range, containing the new ATIS letter and airport code. If a neighboring controller has specified the same ATIS airport, the ATIS letter in his client is automatically updated and immediately visible in the menu bar.