Using Controller Identifiers

Controller Identifiers are those that appear to the left of callsigns in the Controller List, when the .ese file recognises the format and frequency of that callsign. They can be used in a number of ways.

Note, that any position with a number assigned is not defined or being picked up as in the .ese. These can be shown/hidden by toggling the 'U' at the top of the list.

[Left showing unidentified controllers; Right showing all controllers defined in the sector file]

TAG Handoff

NB: If the Sector Exit List is predicting the next sector the aircraft will enter correctly, you can hover over the tag and press F4 or just use the handoff function. This guide is useful when you want to manually handoff, for one reason or another...

Using EuroScope command line, you can initiate a controller handoff with a controller identifier - you can even do this for unidentified controllers, with just a number. [I sometimes find this method is easier when handing over a sector, rather than scrolling through the list and finding the relief controller for each aircraft.]

1. Press F4, which will produce in the command line: .QX
2. Type the controller ID. e.g. for Gatwick Director, it would be .QX KKA
3. Press the ASEL key (defined in General Settings - for me it's NUMPLUS), or click on the aircraft tag on your radar display.
4. Wait for the receiving controller to accept!

Pointout

This works much the same way as the action above, but enables you to 'point out' an aircraft to another controller. This might be useful during coordination, or to request that they take some form of action.

1. Press the F1 key, followed by P OR type .point
2. Again, type the controller ID.
3. Press the ASEL key, or click on the aircraft tag. Done!

Alias

The AC_Alias contains the following lines by default:

.ho Contact $radioname($1) ($atccallsign($1)) $freq($1)

.ct Contact $radioname($1) $freq($1) ($atccallsign($1))

Using a controller identifier, as shown above, can be used to populate this handoff message. First, activate the alias as usual by typing .ho/.ct in the command reference, then EuroScope should have highlighted $1; type the controller identifier in the controller list, and press TAB. Done!