I'm trying to understand the benefits of upgrading from my current 470. I appreciate Dynon's generous trade-in program but, what benefits do I get for $295. I'm pasting the FAQ reply from Dynon's website below for easy reference.
If I understand correctly the only benefit of a 472 over a 470 is that I'll see aircraft with 1090 out signal directly even if I'm not in a ground station coverage area. That sounds like a very limited advantage though since the ground station coverage is supposed to be 100% above 1800 feet and much better than that in most places. Am I missing something?
From the Dynon Website FAQ:
The SV-ADSB-470 and SV-ADSB-472 receive identical weather, as weather is only sent over 978 MHz, and both products receive on 978 MHz.
For traffic, the SV-ADSB-472 receives traffic via both ADS-B frequencies - UAT/978 MHz & 1090 MHz. The SV-ADSB-470 receives traffic via UAT/978 MHz only. While one might think this makes the SV-ADSB-472 superior, they are closer in capability than many realize.
Neither product (nor any other ADS-B receiver) can see aircraft that is are not equipped with ADS-B Out. Although more aircraft will equip as 2020 approaches, a sizeable percentage of the fleet will choose to not equip at all (they?ll need to avoid ADS-B rule airspace after 2020). The FAA?s ADS-B network of ground stations are designed to deal with this issue, and when your aircraft is talking to a ground station via ADS-B Out, both the SV-ADSB-470 and SV-ADSB-472 receive the same traffic information back. When you are ADS-B Out equipped, and are in a radar coverage area, the ADS-B ground stations relay all traffic targets that are around you. If you are in range of a ground station but not in a radar coverage area, the ground stations will still relay all other ADS-B Out equipped traffic. This means that whenever you within range of a ground station, you see all possible traffic with either receiver. The only time the SV-ADSB-272 (or any dual band receiver) has an advantage is when you are flying in an area that is not covered by an ADS-B ground station station. This is most likely to be the case in mountainous terrain, or very near the ground (the ADS-B system is designed to cover almost the entire US at 1800?, with coverage beginning much lower in most places). Even in this situation, the advantage of a dual band receiver is slight: In this case, the SV-ADSB-470 will see UAT equipped aircraft, while the SV-ADSB-472 will see both UAT and 1090ES equipped aircraft. However, NEITHER receiver will see aircraft that aren?t equipped with ADS-B Out. Because many aircraft - especially in remote areas - are not ADS-B equipped, and these are NEVER visible to any ADS-B receiver if you are not in range of a ground station. All of that said, if you?d like to upgrade your SV-ADSB-470 for an SV-ADSB-472, we do have a generous trade-in program available.