How to manually tune your radio stack to receive air traffic control information in Flight Simulator (837881)

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How to use the Autotune feature in Flight Simulator 2002 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 when you interact with Air Traffic Control

Flight Simulator 2002 and Flight Simulator 2004 will automatically tune the radios for you when you are interacting with Air Traffic Control (ATC) in the product. When you use the Autotune feature, Flight Simulator will switch radio frequencies for you automatically. This action frees you to concentrate on flying the aircraft and navigating to your destination. When you select an item from the ATC menu to contact a new controller (for example, Contact Approach) the radio frequency changes to the new controller's frequency automatically. When you use the Autotune feature, you may not hear anything on the radio until you select an item from the ATC menu, unless you are already tuned to an active frequency. This will work this way even if you can hear other aircraft talking to ATC.

How to tune the radios manually

Flight Simulator will not Autotune the radio until you initiate contact by selecting a message from the ATC menu. This allows pilots who want more realism to bypass the Autotune feature by tuning the radios by hand each time that a frequency change is required. For additional information, see the "Using the Radios" topic in the Flight Simulator Help Files.

In this method, new ATC menu items will appear in the ATC window when you tune the radio to a new frequency. If you want to see choices for your ATC responses or messages to a tower controller, for example, you must first tune the radio to the tower frequency. To tune a new frequency into a communication (COM), a navigation (NAV), or an ADF (automatic direction finder) radio, press SHIFT+2, or click the panel to bring up the radio stack. After the Radio stack is open there are two ways to manually tune a new frequency in the chosen radio:

• If you have a mouse wheel you can roll it up or down to change the frequency up or down. To do this, put the pointer over the radio frequency that you want to change. Roll the mouse wheel up or down to adjust the frequency up or down.
• If you do not have a mouse wheel, you can use the left mouse button to change. To do this, put your mouse cursor over the standby frequency numbers on the upper right of the current radio. The pointer changes to a hand. Move the mouse cursor left or right. A plus sign (+) or a minus sign (-) will appear on the cursor. To increase the frequency numbers, position the pointer so that you see a plus sign, and then click the left mouse button. To decrease the frequency numbers, position the pointer so that you see a minus sign, and then click the left mouse button.

When you have the correct frequency dialed in, use one of the following methods to make it active:

• Click the white button that is labeled STBY.
• On the keyboard, press C to select the primary frequency numbers (to the left of the decimal) on Com 1 radio.
• On the keyboard, press C+2 to select the primary frequency numbers on Com 2 radio.
• On the keyboard, press the plus sign (+) to increase the frequency numbers.
• On the keyboard, press the minus sign (-) to decrease the frequency numbers.
• On the keyboard, press the C key two times to select the secondary frequency numbers (to the right of the decimal) on Com 1 radio.
• On the keyboard, press the C key two times, and then press 2 to select the secondary frequency numbers on Com 2 radio.
• On the keyboard, press the plus key (+) to increase the frequency numbers.
• On the keyboard, press the minus key (-) to decrease the frequency numbers.
  
  Note This process also works for the NAV, the ADF, and the transponder radios. To do this, substitute the N key for Nav (N+2 for Nav 2), the A key for ADF, or the T key for transponder radios.