Jimbob wrote in
:

I noticed that last month the FAA activated the ADS-B system in
limited coverage on the east coast. Has anyone played with this?
I've seen a couple of fluffy demo videos but I wanted to see what you
could actually get.

I was particually interested in the graphical weather capabilities
compared with XMWeather and the other services.


Jim

http://www.unconventional-wisdom.org

You can see the status at
http://www.faa.gov/safeflight21/EastCoastDeployment.htm

You typically get Flight Information Services Broadcast (FIS-B) weather
(NEXRAD graphical weather) and Traffic Information Services Broadcast
(TIS-B), which shows you traffic in the neighborhood (collectde by radar
on the ground and uplinked. You can also see other ADS-B equipped
aircraft (currently on the UAT band only - 978 MHz). Later, the 1090 Mhz
receivers on the ground will also provide traffic for the TIS-B uplink on
UAT.

The map at the site is a bit outdated and there are more sites now.
Additional FAA decisions regarding ADS-B deployment are expected to be
made sometime in September 2005.

You can also do a websearch for " East Coast ADS-B " for additional
information.

Basically, it helps to remember ADS-B consists of two pieces - the
transmitter and the receiver. Typically (so far, anyway) in the UAT
band, you buy a transceiver (and a processor/display, if you want the
information displayed). If you read the Data Link decision, you'd see
UAT is currently for the general aviation community. On the 1090 MHz
link, the transmitter and receiver are generally separate boxes (with the
transmitter implemented as part of the Transponder, because the
transponder already has a 1090 MHz transmitter). TIS-B is envisioned for
the 1090 MHz link in the future (but no FIS-B). Somewhat preliminary
industry standard documents (and products based on them) exist, and they
are maturing fast.

-srr
adsb.z.usenet2 AT neverbox POINT com