PLB alternative?

[n5lp]

Originally Posted by gmcjetpilot

...Besides a 406 ELT or PLB meets the regs the other does not. ...

Personally I think a PLB is a great thing to carry in a GA airplane. I forgot mine the other day and felt naked. However it doesn't meet any FAA regs. The FAA doesn't care about it. Some FCC regs; yep.

[ajay]

Originally Posted by Ron Lee

Is the entire country covered by these repeaters?

What will activate a search? If you are flying alone and no one is watching out for you (my case), it could be days or weeks before someone starts asking questions and realizes that you are missing.

what about a system that transmits your gps position (accurately with WAAS) but instead of using ham, it uses a dedicated transponder frequency that the ATC is monitoring, it transmits your plane identification, and every plane retransmits this through a dedicated network, so the broadcast is shared by ground stations and airplanes alike. Furthermore, if your plane goes down the system has an accurate depiction and track of where you went down. Of course it is still true that if you are out of range you won't be in the broadcast, but it will have far greater range because of the inherent airborne receivers. Also the location accuracy will be an order of magnitude more accurate than current ELT technology (meters as opposed to 10s of kilometers). This track could easily be restored during search and rescue.

guess what, this describes one potential use of the ADS-B system you were knocking a couple days ago.

It isn't high tech, it is just a good idea for a standard with todays technologies. Yes it will require a more advanced transponder, but once the EFIS manufacturers start integrating the technology the price will come down below $5000.

Your letter to the FAA is a bad idea, this is one of their better ideas.

ajay

[gmcjetpilot]

Originally Posted by n5lp

Personally I think a PLB is a great thing to carry in a GA airplane. I forgot mine the other day and felt naked. However it doesn't meet any FAA regs. The FAA doesn't care about it. Some FCC regs; yep.

You are right, I miss spoke, of course not, however its closer to an ELT (because it is an ELT) than the pay for services like Spot or TracMe. It's like flying IFR with a Garmin 496 handheld GPS, you can try it but it's not legal. A PLB is not an aircraft approved ELT, true enough. However why the FAA/FCC /GOV is screwing around, the PLB is a great adjuct, while keeping the old (121.5/243) ELT rocking a little longer.

[Ron Lee]

In their recent notice on 121.5 MHz, I believe that the FAA recommended carrying a 406 MHz PLB. Even if they did not, it makes sense.

[n5lp]

Originally Posted by erich weaver

An acquaintance of mine described an aircraft locating system that sounded promising. As I understand it, a device on the plane periodically transmits GPS coordinates on ham radio frequencies, for which there are many repeaters that can presumably be reached by a flying aircraft. The gps coordinates are automatically entered into a database with a unique identifier. The database can be accessed on the internet, thereby allowing anyone to check the last known location of a plane providing they know the identifier.

Anybody heard of this - do I have the story right? Is there a web site reference? Is this system up and running? Is the database close to real-time?Effectiveness?

erich

Originally Posted by wv4i

It and variations thereof are used by ham radio ops, commercial operations, police/fire/rescue, hikers, etc. For amateur radio, involves transmitting GPS position to ground based repeater linked to internet, etc. Usually used with ground vehicles, personnel, as I'm not not aware of any method to auto switch repeaters as you fly in/out range. Would work fine without switch probably within 75-200 miles of a given repeater, subject to xmtr power and receive performance at each station.

I have been using APRS for weather spotting for some time. It works real well for that. Vehicles show up on the maps the National Weather Service uses so they don't have to constantly ask where everyone is.

There are big drawbacks to this system for aircraft like it has a lot of pieces and two more antennas and the system has a very low capacity because of low data rates and limited numbers of digipeaters. Also you don't know what the coverage area is.

I hadn't thought about it, until it was pointed out to me tonight, but the system Doug Reeves has been evaluating http://www.itzcomm.com/SPOT/SatelliteTrackers.html has most of the benefits without most of the drawbacks of APRS, for someone wanting that sort of thing.

For a government notification of serious trouble the PLB would still seem to be the way to go. You own it and the service is free, but it won't tell anyone where you are unless you make the major decision to activate it.

If you want someone to be able to tell where you are and how goes the trip, the Spot sounds great. It is all in one small, inexpensive package and the subscription is reasonable. It sounds like the coverage is everywhere in the US and quite of bit of other territory. Just throw it up on the glareshield.

Doug's experience suggests battery life, while transmitting, may be pretty limited. I would be interested in hearing more about that.

For me the PLB still seems like all I need, but if I was married or something like that, I'm pretty sure I would also get the SPOT.