Just watching traffic?
Type a US ARTCC in VIEW ARTCC (for example KZJX, ZAN, or HCF/ZHN). The badge stays VIEW ONLY and the board is read-only — good for monitoring without sending CPDLC.
Get started as a controller
- Click Sign in with VATSIM in the top bar (your CID comes from VATSIM Connect).
- Log on to VATSIM and open a US center position (for example JAX_CTR or ZJX_CTR).
- Log in to vNAS with the same VATSIM CID and assume the matching center sector in vNAS.
- vUSAlink checks the vNAS controller feed — your CID, callsign, and ARTCC must match. The yellow VERIFY bar clears automatically when vNAS confirms you.
- Once verified, the badge changes to CONTROLLING and you can send CPDLC. This device stays verified for 30 days.
What the boxes mean
- L — CPDLC logon (solid white = connected). Click to force logoff; flashes when a pilot asks to log back on.
- M — Pilot message (flashes red on new traffic — click to read). From the menu, reply UNABLE (UM0) or STANDBY (UM1).
- H — Handoff pending (amber).
- W — Waiting for a pilot reply (WILCO/ROGER). Flashes red if no reply in 2 minutes.
Sending clearances
Click a row on the board:
- FLIGHT ID — hand off or contact another facility
- SQK — current / assigned squawk. Click to uplink a code. If the pilot is not squawking the assigned code, the amber assigned value is clickable to uplink it.
- ALT — climb, descend, or maintain altitude. Toggle APD to append AT PILOTS DISCRETION (UM177).
- HDG/SPD — heading or speed instructions
- ROUTE — direct-to a fix, crossing restrictions, or uplink a route
Pilots with compatible avionics auto-logon in your sector unless you force-logged them off.
Multi-message uplinks
Stage several clearances for one aircraft, then send them in a single CPDLC message:
- Open ALT, HDG/SPD, SQK, or ROUTE and set your instruction.
- Click Scratchpad to add it to the queue (bottom-left panel) instead of sending.
- Repeat for other instructions (up to 5 elements).
- Click UPLINK in the UPLINK QUEUE panel to send all staged items at once.
To send just one clearance immediately, use UPLINK in the menu as before. Amend removes the last queued item for that aircraft.
Useful tips
- SHOW ALL A/C — show every aircraft in the sector, not only those tuned to your frequency.
- SHOW CPDLC ONLY — show only aircraft logged on to CPDLC (KUSA).
- COMPACT TITLE — set the browser tab to [n] (CPDLC aircraft on your frequency) to save tab space. Off uses (n)vUSAlink.
- SOUND — adjust alert volume (50% is normal).
- REFRESH — reload live VATSIM traffic.
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