Integration

Bridging the Gap: Real-Time VHF to UDP

One of the most effective ways to utilize RF data is to get it out of the radio domain and into standard networking environments as quickly as possible. Whether you are building a real-time flight tracking dashboard or a distributed IoT sensor map, Mycelium’s UDP_Send action provides a lightweight, low-latency bridge to the rest of your stack.

The Use Case: High-Priority Aircraft Alerts

We want to monitor the VHF ACARS band for a specific ground station registration. When a match is found, we don't just want to log it to a file; we want to blast a UDP packet to a local Node-RED instance that triggers a mobile notification.

Step 1: Configuring the Listener

We'll set up an ACARS receiver on the primary datalink frequency (131.725 MHz).

Step 2: Defining the Filter

We'll use the ACARS protocol-specific conditions to look for a specific station address (e.g., "KCID1").

Step 3: The UDP Bridge

When the filter matches, we invoke UDP_Send. Unlike TCP, UDP is "fire and forget," making it ideal for high-speed telemetry where missing an occasional packet is preferable to blocking the entire ingest pipeline with connection handshakes.

Visualization Architecture

By forwarding data via UDP, you can leverage a wide range of open-source tools to visualize your RF data in real-time.

Conclusion

Mycelium acting as a network bridge allows you to treat RF data like any other JSON or binary stream. This unlocks the ability to build sophisticated, cross-domain alerting systems with minimal infrastructure overhead.