Initials on Server Made Easy

Initials on server

hello and welcome to the zdc r tech within vatsim and vat usa during this video we will be walking you through the steps to setting up your vrc client which is the initial client that all atc members use to control on vatsim first step is navigate to the zdc website that you would have received in an email click under the controllers tab and select the files option you'll then see another screen that shows you a series of tabs the last two tabs the sops and loas are center operating procedures and letters of agreement it is preferred that you review these ahead of your training sessions v8s vstars and vram are all clients both for controlling and for weather which will be described later on in your first session the tab that you want to focus with now is under vrc the first file that you want to download is the zdc alias file if you initially click the green button you'll see the actual file instead right click and select save link as change it to a dot txt file and then download it to some location that you can refer to easily the next file that you will need is the sector file same process as with the alias file you want to right click that and save save link as and it should default to a dot sct 2 file if it does not feel free to change it and then save it in the same location that you saved the alias file the last file that you'll need is the zdc pof file which is the positions file same process as the first two right click and select save link as and ensure that that's a pof file and if it's not feel free to change it and save it in the same location once you have downloaded those three files successfully open up a search browser type in vrc vat sim download and amongst the different results you'll ultimately get to this page here where you'll have two options to choose from either one download the most current version as you can see here is 1.2.6 it and download at the same location that you downloaded the files in a search browser search for audio for van sim and when you first click on one of the first results you'll see this page here click on update my software at the top you'll see the pilot clients for p 3d fsx and x-plane go down to the atc section and click on vrc audio for vatsim is the new client that we use to attach to the audio enhancements and improvements that vatsam made the first link takes you back to the vrc download the second link is a link for afv click that save that to the same location that you saved everything else and the rest of this page is a quick little tutorial on setting up the audio portion for audio for vatsim once all these files have been downloaded you should have the zdc alias file most current version the zdc sector file also the most current version the zdz pof file as well as the vrc executable setup and the audio for vat sim executable at this point i would recommend that you create a new folder for vrc outside of program files and then you want to go under view and select the box for file extensions under the vrc folder that you just created outside of program files i would create an audio for vat sim folder this keeps your program file separate and easy for you to access select the three files that we downloaded initially and copy and paste them into your vrc folder run the executable for the vrc setup click agree click next and then select the location that you created for your vrc folder if you choose to use vrc in one of your non-system drives it's the same process just locate the folder that you created in this process once you have it here it's correct folder click install it'll run through the installer and then create a desktop icon as well as inside of your vrc folder you'll have another vrc folder and you'll see the executable here at this point we're going to open up and double click the vrc program click on the default profile maximize the window and then close the controllers in chat this is the main body of your scope window go under file and click on open sector and then in the vrc folder that you created you should locate the sector file it should be the only file here at this point you can either double click it or click open and it will show you the zdc rtc sector boundaries for our entire art tech navigating on the scope window right click moves the window around based on how you want to see it and then a zoom is either a mouse wheel in or a control pin shop this highlights the artec boundaries both to the east to south west and north the next step is to zoom in on the washington dulles international airport one of our major airports within the arctic's kilo india alpha delta located right here zoom in and center until you get the bulk of the airport centered on your screen like this and there are two radar modes that you'll use while you're training for s1 and s2 they are ground and tower go up to settings radar mode and for now let's select ground the next options under settings are your color profiles this is entirely your preference if you have any questions discuss that with your trainer when you first start under settings general we're going to load up the two files the two remaining files that we downloaded the first is your alias file select the select button and it should default to your vrc folder and that should be the only file currently available same process for your pof file click it double click it under assign squat codes in random order make sure that the box is checked your settings first window should look like this click apply under air space ensure that your vis range as an observer is no more than 150 in your arrival fields for now enter in k-i-a-d k-d-c-a k-b-w-i k-r-i-c k-r-d-u these four airports are the largest four airports that we have in the art tech copy from the arrival fields and paste into the departure fields click apply your screen should look similar to this at this point click ok go up to [Music] save session profile under the files tab and name this something to your preference so zbc observing observer initial setup you can name it whatever you'd like this is entirely your preference this is something only you see once that part is saved you'll see at the top where it names the profile within the quotation marks under view we have a series of options and we'll go through these during your first session for now if you look at mouse location it puts the gps coordinates for your mouse which is only handy if you're going to make sector files or sweatbox files range rings don't apply airports if you take on airports and zoom out you will see all the different airports within our rtec whether small or large now it may be hard to see now so this is where we would refer back to the color profile modify the current under airports identify a color that is not going to make you blind like this one these are the default that come with vrc which are not always the greatest select a color profile that makes it easy for you to see the screen in all the different items in the screen without causing you to go blind under modify current select airports again and let's choose a less offensive color you can also identify precise coloring based on what you like but for now for ease of use let's just select this one here the airports are now ticked on as you can see that's a lot of information and probably hard to digest and if you're working at ground position which you are when you first start a little unnecessary other than the airport that you're at so untick airports if you untick the label on any option it leaves the marker there but removes the words that are associated with that marker so if you leave the airport's labels ticked on and then unchecked airports this is what you'll see as we go through all the other options it's important to think about what you want to see as a controller and i know it's hard to understand that now and we'll get into more of that during your first session the least amount of information that you see on your screen makes it the easiest for you to control one good example is if you look at the fix and fix labels with all the fixes turned on within the rtc your entire screen is taken up with all that information for the most part it's not information that you need at this time as you expand and grow and learn you don't need to have every effects turned on so it's a good idea to keep your screen as clean as you possibly can keep it which allows you to look and focus on the airport as well as the aircraft that are around your airport under view the rest of the options here should look similar to that the high boundaries are already marked and the last option is static text with that turned on if you zoom back in to kilo india alpha delta you'll see the taxiways that weren't there to begin with as a ground controller you're responsible for ensuring the safe and efficient movement on the ground it helps to have the taxiways marked there for you go back up to settings and then general under the hotkeys tab you have three different options i would leave them as default except for the push to talk key this will be what you use to communicate with the pilots through the afv program ensure that that is option that is not currently selected to any other item in your computer click apply then click ok and under the flight script tab you have a bunch of different options related to flight strips flight strips are something that controllers when they're first in starting and and getting used to atc is a quick and easy tool to have a lot of information provided to you at once and allows you to ensure that you keep things organized your first session will discuss a little bit further the ways in which you can use flight strips for now select the two column flight strip bay and let's move on to the next subject click on the tools option within the menu bar underneath the tool section you have multiple different panels that will provide you information at a glance make it easier for you to get a multitude of information that helps you control for now click on the flight strip bay click on controller list click on aircraft list click on comms panel click on weather panel and click on incoming chat log as you can tell your screen becomes very busy very quickly a lot of this information isn't needed all the time and so going up to the tools section allows you to turn on the panels that you need if you have two monitors or more you can drag these to the other monitor which makes them persistent but also not in your way again you want to keep your screen as clean as you possibly can let's zoom out of your screen so that you can see the entire rtc within the center of your viewscope and go under views diagrams each of these will take on different options for example the class bravo take on the coastline which shows the geography around r-tech and the potomac river for those not familiar with the dc area the potomac river is a rather interesting and fun feature and it makes it easier for you to kind of get a reference of where you're at based on those geography options let's zoom back into dulles now it's time to connect to the vancem network for the first time as an observer go up to file down to connect and you're going to enter the information that vatson provided to you in the welcome email from them your certificate id will be a series of numbers and the password will be provided by vetsim your callson id for observing is zdc underscore operating initials underscore obs and then your real name select facility is observer ranking as observer and the server that's closest to you geographically your initials will be provided to you by an email from zdc click connect once you're connected you'll see some language down at the bottom to scroll back up that language you can hit the page up where you can see i forgot my password so you'll see where it connected in incorrectly there once you zoom out and you're connected as observer you'll start to see some traffic within our rtc the little green icon there that are flying around and on the ground let's start off by clicking on american 540 and then go to tools and aircraft list you'll see american 540 was arriving into washington national kdca from boston and his flight plan is there aircraft and call sign are there and current squad code and route as you can see traffic does get refreshed periodically by the network and so you'll see them move along to your scope and you can zoom in to see aircraft on the ground these aircraft that have either arrived or are departing under tools click controllers and chat and you'll see all of the current controllers that are signed into the network in this case washington center and washington ground are providing coverage over kdca washington national along with the kdca atis if you go under tools and comms panel we're now going to set up afv which you have to do some steps in vrc to get to afv initially putting your position name as your controller initials and ddc underscore obs and put the frequency as listed there click save changes and then close the communications tab we're going to disconnect the network click file then disconnect click ok and go under settings general and on the first tab on the left hand side you'll see prompt to save profile and prompt before disconnect for now leave those both on ensure that they're on open up your afv installer that you downloaded previously execute that click next change the default to the folder that you created under vrc and then audio for vetsim click ok ensure that it's there click next and then click install this installer may take a little bit of time to run through but it should be relatively quick on your system once process is done you'll see launch as an option click finish to launch and more than likely you'll have an update to run through the first time you open up afe if you don't great you can skip this part if you do click on the update option down below allow it to download should be relatively fast usually updates are for the most part relatively small click next the same you did before ensure that that folder is the same as it was before click install and once it is done here make sure that the box is checked to start afe and click finish once you click finish the program will open up at this point you can delete the vrc setup executable as well as the afv executable now the next step is your personal preference if you'd like to have the desktop icons you can right-click the executable for afe and indicate send to desktop so now you have a desktop for afv and a desktop for vrc inside of the afv itself you want to click on settings and the same information here can be found this initial part can be found through here in the tutorial on the afv site if you get stuck into your cid and then this time i'm sure i have the right password because i copy and paste it which is your friend select your microphone which will usually be your headset click the output device which should also be your headset unless you want to go through speakers on the mic volume slider ensure that as you speak your voice is in the green area you don't want it in the red because then you're over modulated and loud to everybody likewise you don't want to be in the blue because they can't hear you then so ensure that the bulk of your voice is through the the green section your push to talk should be the same as you set up in vrc which in this case left control click apply click ok and now you can open up vrc click file connect and connect as normal thankfully your password and cid are saved once you're connected to vrc open backup afv get to position that makes sense for you according to your screen under the connect you'll have a bunch of different options you'll see your controller initials and zdc observing there if you want to listen to dc center go back to afe hit the plus type in dc underscore ctr just like it is on the controllers in chat window select the check box and then you'll have three options tx rx and xc tx is transmit rx is receive and xc will be discussed later ensure for now that you just have rx selected you don't want to transmit you just want to receive at this point as aircraft call washington center and washington center calls his aircraft back you'll see last received frequency as well as the last aircraft called and then you'll start to hear sounds come through whatever method you chose speakers or headset and then you'll hear the controllers talking to the pilots and pawns talking back to the controllers you can follow along as you hear and observe what's happening on the scope you can follow along to kind of get familiar with how radio communications are handled the flow of traffic and that type of thing for now we're going to disconnect and we're going to set up swepbox for the very first session that you'll have with your training mentor or instructor go back to your vrc folder after you've disconnected from vrc go back to your vrc folders and the first file you'll see is servers.txt there's big bold words that says this file is automatically created and to not touch but we don't want to do that we want to create a new text file so right click the empty space click new and then text document title that is my servers dot txt open that file up after disconnecting and closing down vrc and enter in sweatbox.vetsim.net space and then sweat box in all caps i'll leave it up here for a couple seconds for you once that's done save the file close and reopen brc connect as normal except this time you should see swepbox as a server option select that and then you should be connected to our smart box swap box is used to simulate high volumes of traffic to get students used to controlling whatever position they're going for s one is two such like that so thank you for your attention during this video we are excited to have you control with us and look forward to seeing you on the scopes