CalebATC
Member
We are already going to Mode-S and ADS-B.... and that's expensive enough! I wouldn't expect any major change in the U.S. for years! Money, size, implemention, and much work would have to be done!
Air-Digital? Ever?
- Thread starter SCPD
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Well, i`m thinkin` it probably won`t happen, why? Everyone knows what happens to a digital tv signal when one gets to the edge of the range, basically ya fall off the "digital cliff", same thingy for digital two-way radio too (ever listten to a digital signal from a far away transmitter? it`s kinda garbled), it starts to garble once the edge of the coverage is reached, now `spose ya are an airport person on the ground, and ya are trying to hear the pilot talking to you (or mabey the tower), digital will work fine for a while, but put some terrain (or some distance) in the middle of the equation and see what happens. So that said i`m really not thinkin` that avaition will ever go digital, the work needed to make a go of it wouldn`t justify the expense and time, not to mention the range limits. N9NRA
I agree 100% .. it would be a disaster waiting to happen. You just have to look at the digital modes we have now. DStar is a perfect example .... you just have to listen to a conversation. It is not uncommon for someone to "go digital" or as I call it .. going R2D2. Imagine the air traffic controller instructions not being heard properly because of digital problems.
As much as AM is pretty old school, I would hate to be on a plane that used a digital means of communications.
The only saving grace is that there is something called traffic collision avoidance system(TCAS), the one thing that planes have when things go wrong.
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