Six or seven years ago, I started to fly out of Jean, Nevada fairly
often so I installed a transponder. Jean is just outside the Las Vegas
Class B (8 to 9,000' at 20NM), and under the Mode C Veil which - not
printed on charts - is essentially Class B between 9 and 10,000'
unless you have a transponder or use a negotiated climb window.
One weekday morning, the pilot for the skydiving operation helped me
rig. That evening he helped me put the glider back in the box.
As we were pulling tape, he said: "You have a transponder, don't you?
I heard ATC vectoring aircraft around you." The pilot must actually
talk with control before a jump run to allow several small objects to
drop through the veil.
That confirmed the good idea of installing the transponder and
batteries.
Just installed and certified a transponder in the new flying
machine, too. But this is old technology. When we all have
transponders it will drive ATC crazy with gaggles of proximity alarms
going off. Be better if every aircraft had FLARM.
Jim