JasonC wrote:
I think this is an interesting side benefit for GA. Free emergency surveillance worldwide.
There is discussion in Canada about using this to remove the need for 406 ELT installations. At the moment, some sort of low-power autonomous PLB/ELT transmitting on 121.5 would still likely be needed for homing to a crash site, assuming that ADS-B transmissions would stop when the power goes out.
I queried Aireon directly about plans for distribution of the data and they don’t have anything planned for GA (not enough $$$ in it for them?). They did confirm that distribution to airports is part of the plan. As suggested, this could be a lot cheaper than adding (or maintaining) radar coverage in many low-density areas. I think that’s why NavCanada has some skin in the game.
It used to be that IFR trips always ended up on Flightaware, but VFR trips rarely did here in the US. Now with ADS-B installed, all of them get logged. Even if you drop off a passenger at an airport, it will continuously log it. I think the safety aspects are worth it, but at the same time there’s just no talking yourself out of anything in the future – it’s all there, down to the last feet.
At least in the US, if you only have a 978 ADS-B solution that works with a mode A/C (not ES or 1090 ADS-B) transponder and sqwak 1200, it transmits a random hex code, so you still show up as a target, but your N number isn’t transmitted. Somebody who’s really dedicated could probably track it by using a LiveATC radio feed or some other correlation method, but that would require more than the normal amount of effort.
$1800 978 MHz UAT with existing Narco 
Mode C here I come… Link. My panel won’t look the slightest bit different than it did in 1988, and the switch to turn off the tail number won’t show much… think I’ll put it on the center console some place. ADS-B In weather/traffic is less hassle and more future proof with portable hardware anyway.
Tracking by LiveATC radio feed? I’m not talking on the radio half way across the middle of nowhere. On Saturday I flew 250 nm out at 9500 ft and and the same distance back, never speaking to a soul except at home base. And regardless there is no LiveATC radio feed from most places I fly.
redRover wrote:
At least in the US, if you only have a 978 ADS-B solution that works with a mode A/C (not ES or 1090 ADS-B) transponder and sqwak 1200, it transmits a random hex code, so you still show up as a target, but your N number isn’t transmitted. Somebody who’s really dedicated could probably track it by using a LiveATC radio feed or some other correlation method, but that would require more than the normal amount of effort.
I did not know there was difference in ADS-B’s. Learn everyday. So when will it be mandatory in the UK?
IMHO, ADS-B will never be mandatory in the UK for Class G – same as transponders.
Installation will happen naturally among the group which travels more, but there are still large communities which don’t – in all of Europe.
I am still puzzled at the funding model for this space monitoring but I guess they worked out that IF position reporting is to be made mandatory (widely expected after MH370) and given that ADS-B cannot be monitored terrestrially over the open oceans, yet ADS-B is the most obvious equipment for airliners, the space solution only has to undercut the likes of Inmarsat (satcomms).
MH370 could have been monitored via Inmarsat but the airline chose to save money by not using the satcomms system, and got partially tracked only because the Rolls Royce engine leasing contract requires the installation of its own Inmarsat box which the crew could not switch off from the cockpit (or didn’t know about it). I guess Inmarsat is not cheap if a long haul airline decides to not pay for it.
However Iridium is also reportedly supported by US Govt contracts and the US should find worlwide traffic monitoring a useful intelligence function 
The FAA is starting to think about the US ADS-B future including SBA (space-based ADS-B). Of course in the context of conspicuity which is off-topic, rather than wx. Still, worth keeping an eye on what they come up with …
Satellite ADS-B
[ post moved from ADS-B thread ]
UK NATS are already at it.
https://www.aviationtoday.com/2019/03/26/space-based-ads-b-will-change-atc-nats-uk-north-atlantic/
Furthermore, I’ve personally spent much of the last year flight checking new UK military ADS-B infrastructure.Peter wrote:
I am still puzzled at the funding model for this space monitoring
The above article answers this question. Besides the tracking of flights like MH370 outside radar coverage which will likely be regulated for the airlines just to avoid repetition of the $$million$$ spent looking for MH370, SBA coverage will significantly reduce separation requirements over the N. Atlantic. The airlines will certainly shuffle up to the bar to pay for additional transatlantic slots.
Does Aireon really track all ADS-B equipped aircraft worldwide?
Aireon is a satellite based receiver system, fitted to the latest generation of Iridium satellites, that receives signals from ADS-B out equipped aircraft and forwards them to air traffic control. Part owned by ATC businesses (ANSPs) in Canada, Australia and UK which control traffic across vast areas of land and sea, it promises to provide continuous surveillance. This will allow higher density/optimised routing for long haul jets, such as transatlantic, with reduced traffic separation compared to today. Coverage is pretty much pole-to-pole worldwide, 24×7. It’s possible that data feeds might even make it to FlightRadar24 and/or its competitors.
Their press release states that it will “provide real-time air traffic surveillance and tracking to 100 percent of ADS-B equipped aircraft on the planet”. Airliners are typically fitted with transponder antenna both on top and underneath, so they can be detected by other aircraft for TCAS as well as by ground radar. GA aircraft typically only have a single antenna underneath.
Will Aireon be able to reliably detect ALL GA aircraft that are equipped with 1090MHz ADS-B out?
In areas of the UK/Europe with poor surface radar coverage, such as the Welsh/Scottish valleys, the Alps etc, will other agencies have access to this data feed in order to supplement conventional equipment? I did ask UK D&D at an exhibition recently, but apart from a general technology update throughout Swanwick next year, their representative didn’t really seem to know.
