Peter I think that the frequency tax got scrapped because the tax man was just too greedy the Cost for having a VHF frequency was high bit the cost for having a radar was astronomic, so what the tax man was thinking was a tax on the ATC units area radar was also a tax on aircraft WX radar and radar altimeters.
The result was a massive annual tax on each airliner that had WX radar and the two radalts that are required for autoland. Of course the UK could only impose this on UK registered aircraft. The result was the airline industry was up in arms over the thing and the numptys who invented the idea went away to think of another idea to get some money for nothing.
Yes – ground frequencies are the first to move to 8.33 and I have seen some already.
Outside the UK there is no incentive for anybody to move to 8.33
Depends on what you want use your handheld radio for. If it is really only for emergency usage, you will certainly not need 8.33 for many years to come. But if you want to use it for listening to ATIS and calling your handling agent and enquiring about the de-icing queue then you need 8.33 now already.
I wonder if 8.33 is at all relevant to emergency handheld radios.
In the UK we have the frequency tax (is it active and being charged? – I have not been able to find any reference last time I looked; just a load of proposals from a few years ago) which will create an incentive for any radio frequency owner to move to 8.33.
But the biggest ones, like 121.50, 124.60 (London Info), 125.25 (Farnborough) etc are not likely to move, because they have far bigger costs elsewhere and with so much traffic de facto for ever remaining non-8.33 (e.g. most of UK VFR, which will always have the option of going “ostensibly” non-radio 
) they would be stupid to drop the existing frequencies.
Outside the UK there is no incentive for anybody to move to 8.33.
I use a very old KX99 that is soon for the bin due to 8.33 but this important thing is that I also have a mechanical relay fitted to the aircraft that enables me to plug the KX99 into the Com2 antena, this gives a range of over 50 nm at 2000ft, I also have connections for my headset the result is that withing 50 miles of a station the radio quality is almost as good as the radios fitted to the aircraft.
For navigation the KX99 is not bad with VOR but the most useful is my iPad, it is loaded with JeppFD and with the standard internal GPS has proved to be stunningly accurate, I tested it a few weeks back on a trip to TFS and the numbers it was putting out excactly matched the aircraft dual FMS system and that was at a ground speed of about 400kt so I think it has the capacity to navigate in an emergency at 120 Kts !
It should be a good few years yet – the 196 is till in production. The III Pilot can still be updated and that went out of production about 7 years ago if memory serves me correctly.
That’s what I thought. I recall that change on the G496 too, c. 2009. I didn’t bother updating the G496 after that, because if it broke and I had to get another one I would have to pay again for the database…
Do you have any feeling for when Garmin will drop database support for the 196? I would probably do one update at that point.
Incidentally, the G196 doesn’t ever pick up EGNOS. It just says “looking for WAAS” and never find anything. That is with the 2011 firmware. Is that as intended? The G496 picks up EGNOS OK. That said, both are within 10ft of each other on altitude.
Sorry Peter – it is a licensing thing. By having the GPS connected at the time of purchase they are able to encode the unit ID ( not to be confused eith the serial number ) into the download so that it will only work on that specific unit.
My Skymap 2 is for sale – £50 plus postage.
Includes antenna, USB-serial lead (I used to download flight plans into it from Navbox), a mains power unit, the original carry case, and a thin 12V lead acid battery which I used to fly with when I was renting.
The condition is very good. A few holes were drilled into the back for attaching a quick-release clip but that’s been removed. The database is 2005 which is probably the latest available. I can email photos to anyone.
I will put it on Ebay, a week from now.
It lists it there at $50
It took me a while to realise one can’t just buy the database. One has to create an account. Also they seem to no longer allow a database download. You have to connect the GPS to the actual PC being used at the time. But the GPS is now in the plane.
Is there any way to download the database, Peter?
