On Friday, November 16, 2012 4:14:15 AM UTC+1, pcool wrote:
Then, why flarm is encoding-shuffling-cyphering these SAR valuable
informations, is beyond my understanding.
The only reason I can spot is they want to maintain a privileged position on
this matter, as they did with the communication protocol. After all, Flarm
units are about safety, SAR is safety, and this is a "safety" market, with a
monopolistic leader.

Very well said, Paolo. Couldn't agree more.

FLARM is acting in their own commercial interest, not in the interest of aviation safety. Of course they do, they're a commercial company, they ultimately have to. It is worth pointing that out because many people still believe FLARM is all about safety, while the FLARM company protects its protocol in a (cold) patent war. (Google for the DSX T-Advisor story for more information)

By the way, FLARM wants us to log the LFLA sentences in XCSoar log files. We denied, and we may decide again when FLARM opens up the specification for everybody. We will not sign a NDA, because there must not be secrets in XCSoar. We're an open project, and we want to free the gliding world from proprietary manufacturers, not make it more proprietary and more reliant on a monopoly that is only just starting to act weird, who knows what they will do next.

By the way 2.0, using a FLARM may be illegal in Germany due to our very strict privacy laws.