On Friday, April 12, 2013 5:06:53 AM UTC+2, Bill D wrote:
On Thursday, April 11, 2013 8:12:58 PM UTC-6, Bob Kuykendall wrote:

On Apr 11, 2:33*pm, "Paul Remde" wrote:



... *At a recent soaring



seminar someone stated that they thought the FAA was



going to require radios with the 8.33 MHz spacing starting in 2020.







I will be someewhat surprised if we get to 2020 and we are still using



what we think of today as "aircraft radios." I think that by then we



will find that the bandwidth dedicated to those old grampa boxes will



have been divided up and auctioned off, and we will be communicating



over a system based on mobile phone infrastructure.







If I'm wrong, I'll buy you a beer at the 2020 SSA convention. Offer



limited to the first 24 "I told ya sos."







Thanks, Bob K.



I've got a feeling you'll win that bet. By 2020, the 2 meter AM simplex air-band will be nearly 100 years old and very likely the last of its kind in use. It's way past its use-by date. There are better ways to communicate.

I got a feeling you guys will LOSE that bet. The installed base is too big, worldwide, and entrenched to change that quickly - so unless you want to limit yourself to a flarm-like comm system that only works with other similarly-equipped aircraft, and never plan to talk to ATC or other aircraft, you will be stuck with an antique VHF-AM radio.

Plus, good luck with a ground-based cellular comm system over the mid-Atlantic, or the Kalahari desert!

Not to say that a specialized, glider-only comm system couldn't be developed (again, along the FLARM model), but now bandwidth again becomes a problem..

Kirk
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