It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information. - Oscar Wilde

The ATIS Concept

Automatic terminal information service, or ATIS, is a continuous broadcast of recorded aeronautical information in busier terminal areas, i.e. airports and their immediate surroundings.

ATIS broadcasts contain essential information, such as current weather information, active runways, and any other information required by the pilots.

DCS Limitations

Unfortunately, the DCS API only allow to get the temperature, pressure as well as wind direction and speed. Therefore, some other information such as cloud coverage, base and ceiling are not available when dynamic weather is used.

Scripting

The lua script to create an ATIS at an airport is pretty easy:

-- ATIS at Batumi Airport on 143.00 MHz AM.
atisBatumi=ATIS:New("Batumi", 143.00)
atisBatumi:Start()

The ATIS.New(airbasename, frequency) creates a new ATIS object. The parameter airbasename is the name of the airbase or airport. Note that this has to be spelled exactly as in the DCS mission editor. The parameter frequency is the frequency the ATIS broadcasts in MHz.

Broadcasting is started via the ATIS.Start() function. The start can be delayed by using ATIS.__Start(delay), where delay is the delay in seconds.

Subtitles

Note Subtitles are not displayed when using SRS. The DCS mechanic to show subtitles (top left screen), is via the function call that plays a sound file from a UNIT, hence this doesn't work here.

Currently, DCS allows for displaying subtitles of radio transmissions only from airborne units, i.e. airplanes and helicopters. Therefore, if you want to have subtitles, it is necessary to place an additional aircraft on the ATIS airport and set it to uncontrolled. This unit can then function as a radio relay to transmit messages with subtitles. These subtitles will only be displayed, if the player has tuned in the correct ATIS frequency.

Radio transmissions via an airborne unit can be set via the ATIS.SetRadioRelayUnitName(unitname) function, where the parameter unitname is the name of the unit passed as string, e.g.

atisBatumi:SetRadioRelayUnitName("Radio Relay Batumi")

With a unit set in the mission editor with name "Radio Relay Batumi".

Note that you should use a different relay unit for each ATIS!

By default, subtitles are displayed for 10 seconds. This can be changed using ATIS.SetSubtitleDuration(duration) with duration being the duration in seconds. Setting a duration of 0 will completely disable all subtitles.

Active Runway

By default, the currently active runway is determined automatically by analyzing the wind direction. Therefore, you should obviously set the wind speed to be greater zero in your mission.

Note however, there are a few special cases, where automatic detection does not yield the correct or desired result. For example, there are airports with more than one runway facing in the same direction (usually denoted left and right). In this case, there is obviously no unique result depending on the wind vector.

If the automatic runway detection fails, the active runway can be specified manually in the script via the ATIS.SetActiveRunway(runway) function. The parameter runway is a string which can be used to specify the runway heading and, if applicable, whether the left or right runway is in use.

For example, setting runway 21L would be

atisNellis:SetActiveRunway("21L")

The script will examine the string and search for the characters "L" (left) and "R" (right).

If only left or right should be set and the direction determined by the wind vector, the runway heading can be left out, e.g.

atisAbuDhabi:SetActiveRunway("L")

The first two digits of the runway are determined by converting the true runway heading into its magnetic heading. The magnetic declination (or variation) is assumed to be constant on the given map. An explicit correction factor can be set via ATIS.SetRunwayCorrectionMagnetic2True.

Tower Frequencies

The tower frequency (or frequencies) can also be included in the ATIS information. However, there is no way to get these automatically. Therefore, it is necessary to manually specify them in the script via the ATIS.SetTowerFrequencies(frequencies) function. The parameter frequencies can be a plain number if only one frequency is necessary or it can be a table of frequencies.

Nav Aids

Frequencies or channels of navigation aids can be specified by the user and are then provided as additional information. Unfortunately, it is not possible to acquire this information via the DCS API we have access to.

As they say, all road lead to Rome but (for me) the easiest way to obtain the available nav aids data of an airport, is to start a mission and click on an airport symbol.

For example, the AIRDROME DATA for Batumi reads:

• TACAN 16X - set via ATIS.SetTACAN
• VOR N/A - set via ATIS.SetVOR
• RSBN N/A - set via ATIS.SetRSBN
• ATC 260.000, 131.000, 40.400, 4.250 - set via ATIS.SetTowerFrequencies
• Runways 31 and 13 - automatic but can be set manually via ATIS.SetRunwayHeadingsMagnetic
• ILS 110.30 for runway 13 - set via ATIS.AddILS
• PRMG N/A - set via ATIS.AddPRMG
• OUTER NDB N/A - set via ATIS.AddNDBouter
• INNER NDB N/A - set via ATIS.AddNDBinner

And the AIRDROME DATA for Kobuleti reads:

• TACAN 67X - set via ATIS.SetTACAN
• VOR N/A - set via ATIS.SetVOR
• RSBN N/A - set via ATIS.SetRSBN
• ATC 262.000, 133.000, 40.800, 4.350 - set via ATIS.SetTowerFrequencies
• Runways 25 and 07 - automatic but can be set manually via ATIS.SetRunwayHeadingsMagnetic
• ILS 111.50 for runway 07 - set via ATIS.AddILS
• PRMG N/A - set via ATIS.AddPRMG
• OUTER NDB 870.00 - set via ATIS.AddNDBouter
• INNER NDB 490.00 - set via ATIS.AddNDBinner

TACAN

The TACtical Air Navigation system (TACAN) channel can be set via the ATIS.SetTACAN(channel) function, where channel is the TACAN channel. Band is always assumed to be X-ray.

VOR

The Very high frequency Omni-directional Range (VOR) frequency can be set via the ATIS.SetVOR(frequency) function, where frequency is the VOR frequency.

ILS

The Instrument Landing System (ILS) frequency can be set via the ATIS.AddILS(frequency, runway) function, where frequency is the ILS frequency and runway the two letter string of the corresponding runway, e.g. "31". If the parameter runway is omitted (nil) then the frequency is supposed to be valid for all runways of the airport.

NDB

Inner and outer Non-Directional (radio) Beacons NDBs can be set via the ATIS.AddNDBinner(frequency, runway) and ATIS.AddNDBouter(frequency, runway) functions, respectively.

In both cases, the parameter frequency is the NDB frequency and runway the two letter string of the corresponding runway, e.g. "31". If the parameter runway is omitted (nil) then the frequency is supposed to be valid for all runways of the airport.

RSBN

The RSBN channel can be set via the ATIS.SetRSBN(channel) function.

PRMG

The PRMG channel can be set via the ATIS.AddPRMG(channel, runway) function for each runway.

Unit System

By default, information is given in imperial units, i.e. wind speed in knots, pressure in inches of mercury, visibility in Nautical miles, etc.

If you prefer metric units, you can enable this via the ATIS.SetMetricUnits() function,

atisBatumi:SetMetricUnits()

With this, wind speed is given in meters per second, pressure in hectopascal (hPa, which is the same as millibar - mbar), visibility in kilometers etc.

Sound Files

More than 180 individual sound files have been created using a text-to-speech program. All ATIS information is given with en-US accent. You can find the sound files here. Also check out the pinned messages in the Moose discord #ops-atis channel.

To include the files, open the mission (.miz) file with, e.g., 7-zip. Then just drag-n-drop the file into the miz.

Note that the default folder name is ATIS Soundfiles/. If you want to change it, you can use the ATIS.SetSoundfilesPath(path), where path is the path of the directory. This must end with a slash "/"!

Marks on the F10 Map

You can place marks on the F10 map via the ATIS.SetMapMarks() function. These will contain info about the ATIS frequency, the currently active runway and some basic info about the weather (wind, pressure and temperature).

Text-To-Speech

You can enable text-to-speech ATIS information with the ATIS.SetSRS() function. This uses SRS (Version >= 1.9.6.0) for broadcasting. Advantages are that no sound files or radio relay units are necessary. Also the issue that FC3 aircraft hear all transmissions will be circumvented.

The ATIS.SetSRS() requires you to specify the path to the SRS install directory or more specifically the path to the DCS-SR-ExternalAudio.exe file.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to determine the duration of the complete transmission. So once the transmission is finished, there might be some radio silence before the next iteration begins. You can fine tune the time interval between transmissions with the ATIS.SetQueueUpdateTime() function. The default interval is 90 seconds.

An SRS Setup-Guide can be found here: Moose TTS Setup Guide

Examples

Caucasus: Batumi

-- ATIS Batumi Airport on 143.00 MHz AM.
atisBatumi=ATIS:New(AIRBASE.Caucasus.Batumi, 143.00)
atisBatumi:SetRadioRelayUnitName("Radio Relay Batumi")
atisBatumi:Start()

Nevada: Nellis AFB

-- ATIS Nellis AFB on 270.10 MHz AM.
atisNellis=ATIS:New(AIRBASE.Nevada.Nellis, 270.1)
atisNellis:SetRadioRelayUnitName("Radio Relay Nellis")
atisNellis:SetActiveRunway("21L")
atisNellis:SetTowerFrequencies({327.000, 132.550})
atisNellis:SetTACAN(12)
atisNellis:AddILS(109.1, "21")
atisNellis:Start()

Persian Gulf: Abu Dhabi International Airport

-- ATIS Abu Dhabi International on 125.1 MHz AM.
atisAbuDhabi=ATIS:New(AIRBASE.PersianGulf.Abu_Dhabi_Intl, 125.1)
atisAbuDhabi:SetRadioRelayUnitName("Radio Relay Abu Dhabi International Airport")
atisAbuDhabi:SetMetricUnits()
atisAbuDhabi:SetActiveRunway("L")
atisAbuDhabi:SetTowerFrequencies({250.5, 119.2})
atisAbuDhabi:SetVOR(114.25)
atisAbuDhabi:Start()

SRS

atis=ATIS:New("Batumi", 305, radio.modulation.AM)
atis:SetSRS("D:\\DCS\\_SRS\\", "male", "en-US")
atis:Start()

This uses a male voice with US accent. It requires SRS to be installed in the `D:\DCS_SRS` directory. Note that backslashes need to be escaped or simply use slashes (as in linux).

SRS can use multiple frequencies:

atis=ATIS:New("Batumi", {305,103.85}, {radio.modulation.AM,radio.modulation.FM})
atis:SetSRS("D:\\DCS\\_SRS\\", "male", "en-US")
atis:Start()

SRS Localization

You can localize the SRS output, all you need is to provide a table of translations and set the locale of your instance. You need to provide the translations in your script before you instantiate your ATIS. The German localization (already provided in the code) e.g. looks like follows:

     ATIS.Messages.DE =
       {
         HOURS = "Uhr",
         TIME = "Zeit",
         NOCLOUDINFO = "Informationen über Wolken nicht verfuegbar",
         OVERCAST = "Geschlossene Wolkendecke",
         BROKEN = "Stark bewoelkt",
         SCATTERED = "Bewoelkt",
         FEWCLOUDS = "Leicht bewoelkt",
         NOCLOUDS = "Klar",
         AIRPORT = "Flughafen",
         INFORMATION ="Information",
         SUNRISEAT = "Sonnenaufgang um %s lokaler Zeit",
         SUNSETAT = "Sonnenuntergang um %s lokaler Zeit",
         WINDFROMMS = "Wind aus %s mit %s m/s",
         WINDFROMKNOTS = "Wind aus %s mit %s Knoten",
         GUSTING = "boeig",
         VISIKM = "Sichtweite %s km",
         VISISM = "Sichtweite %s Meilen",
         RAIN = "Regen",
         TSTORM = "Gewitter",
         SNOW = "Schnee",
         SSTROM = "Schneesturm",
         FOG = "Nebel",
         DUST = "Staub",
         PHENOMENA = "Wetter Phaenomene",
         CLOUDBASEM = "Wolkendecke von %s bis %s Meter",
         CLOUDBASEFT = "Wolkendecke von %s bis %s Fuß",
         TEMPERATURE = "Temperatur",
         DEWPOINT = "Taupunkt",
         ALTIMETER = "Hoehenmesser",
         ACTIVERUN = "Aktive Startbahn",
         ACTIVELANDING = "Aktive Landebahn",
         LEFT = "Links",
         RIGHT = "Rechts",
         RWYLENGTH = "Startbahn",
         METERS = "Meter",
         FEET = "Fuß",
         ELEVATION = "Hoehe",
         TOWERFREQ = "Kontrollturm Frequenz",
         ILSFREQ = "ILS Frequenz",
         OUTERNDB = "Aeussere NDB Frequenz",
         INNERNDB = "Innere NDB Frequenz",
         VORFREQ = "VOR Frequenz",
         VORFREQTTS = "V O R Frequenz",
         TACANCH = "TACAN Kanal %d Xaver",
         RSBNCH = "RSBN Kanal",
         PRMGCH = "PRMG Kanal",
         ADVISE = "Hinweis bei Erstkontakt, Sie haben Informationen",
         STATUTE = "englische Meilen",
         DEGREES = "Grad Celsius",
         FAHRENHEIT = "Grad Fahrenheit",
         INCHHG = "Inches H G",
         MMHG = "Millimeter H G",
         HECTO = "Hektopascal",
         METERSPER = "Meter pro Sekunde",
         TACAN = "Tackan",
         FARP = "Farp",
         DELIMITER = "Komma", -- decimal delimiter
       }

Then set up your ATIS and set the locale:

     atis=ATIS:New("Batumi", 305, radio.modulation.AM)
     atis:SetSRS("D:\\DCS\\_SRS\\", "female", "de_DE")
     atis:SetLocale("de") -- available locales from source are "en", "de" and "es"
     atis:Start()

FARPS

ATIS is working with FARPS, but this requires the usage of SRS. The airbase name for the New()-method is the UNIT name of the FARP:

 atis = ATIS:New("FARP Gold",119,radio.modulation.AM)
 atis:SetMetricUnits()
 atis:SetTransmitOnlyWithPlayers(true)
 atis:SetReportmBar(true)
 atis:SetTowerFrequencies(127.50)
 atis:SetSRS("D:\\DCS\\_SRS\\", "male", "en-US",nil,5002)
 atis:SetAdditionalInformation("Welcome to the Jungle!")
 atis:__Start(3)

ATIS table containing all defined ATISes.