Good points, John.
But there's a 4th thing. The original post is about this summer, not
2013 or so. The feds are involved in ADS-B, so 2013 is likely a dream
and "outrageous" costs by roll-out time will seem luxurious.
In order to compare what's available, proponents of any systems
please give the cost to get it operational in glider cockpits now, not
in some future time after budget overruns and inevitable delays.
Price (if a transponder is required, include that).
Present availability of the entire system.
Power requirements for the entire system.
Installation process.
Certification process.
There must be other things.
And to compare apples to apples (or is it now macs to macs), if all
aircraft were equipped with similar devices, let's look at the pros
and cons.
Jim

On Jul 23, 7:09*am, jcarlyle wrote:
I know, Mike. Three things, though: *(1) The ADS-B black box won't
detect Flarm signals, (2) the price of the ADS-B black box currently
ranges between outrageous and highway robbery, and (3) the amperage
requirements of the ADS-B black box is not currently battery friendly.
That's why I say it would be good if Flarm and Zaon got together -
they built small, affordable, battery friendly detection devices.

-John

On Jul 23, 9:26 am, "Mike Schumann" mike-nos...@traditions-

nospam.com wrote:
An ADS-B transceiver will not necessarily require any panel space. *It is a
black box with a GPS antenna, a radio antenna, and an interface to your GPS
/ Flight Computer. *All of the traffic information is displayed on whatever
navigation device that you already have in your glider.

Once the ADS-B ground station rollout is complete (which should occur ~
2013), an ADS-B transceiver will see all Mode C transponder equipped
traffic, so a transponder mode will not be necessary. *The only gottcha is
that ADS-B equipped aircraft will not be visible to TCAS unless they also
have Mode C/S transponders.

Mike Schumann