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Old September 24th 20, 08:17 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Martin Gregorie[_6_]
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Default SSA Sailplane Tracker

On Thu, 24 Sep 2020 09:49:32 -0700, Steve Koerner wrote:

There is also one more mode of tracking that can also work at high
bandwidth - phone tracking. Like other ground based systems it suffers
dropouts (more so than ADS-b in my experience with it). The beauty of
the phone tracking app is that it doesn't require expensive avionics.
The phone tracking system seems to have lost favor. I'm not sure if
it's still supported.

Phones don't necessarily provide good coverage everywhe I've sat over
the middle of Huntingdon, a market town 15 miles NW of Cambradge, at
3000-3200 ft and had exactly zero phone signal: The British telcos keep
coverage as near-pancake-shaped as possible because that reduces the
transmitter power bills and anyway they don't seem to think anybody needs
to use a phone above 500ft or so.

I expect its the same in Holland, Belgium and much of France.

Is this also the case in the flatter parts of the USA?


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