Portable TABS coming to the USA?

Why would you think this is coming next year? This has been around in the UK for a while and commented on here before. It's a very UK thing, and part of an interesting UK GA specific program that uAvionix is involved with.

Be very careful, this is NOT a TABS aka TSO-C199 or FLARM device in the way glider pilots in the USA will think of it.

It has FLARM receive only, so not really that useful in gliders. It also does not support FLARM serial protocol AFAIK so can't display traffic on a typical glider traffic display.

Since "TABS" has no real meaning except as a synonym for TCO-C199 I would not call this a TABS device, and uAvionix do not say that AFAIK. It's a UK CAP 1391 Intermediate ECD device. Huh what? yes exactly, but please stop calling it a TABS device.

It implements TABS Class B i.e. the GPS receiver part only.

It implements some form of a subset of 1090ES Out, but does not implement that to the TABS/TSO-C199 Class A spec for the 1090ES transmitter part. For starters at only 25W output power it's significantly below the 70W TSO-C199 minimal power requirements. But again, its "UK CAP 1391" built for the special needs of the UK market.

The documentation talks about RTCA DO-260B output messages and not TSO-C199 Class A or any mention of DO-181E (Mode-S) or any other standard others that would imply any transponder like capabilities and therefore I suspect this device is not compatible with TCAS, TCAD or PCAS systems. But I note that their website mentions TCAS visibility, that may be a typo and I suspect they meant to say CDTI. I will send them an email. It appears that few airlines in the USA have any ADS-B In capability, so not having TCAS compatibility would be a significant issue. I expect that will be a significant issue in regions of the UK as well... but if you are focused in low-cost you can't implement transponder capabilities. uAvionix marketing statements about visibility to ATC also seem to be UK specific, SIL=1 devices are not visible to ATC controllers in the USA (I wish they were).

A Trig Transponder and TN72 GPS (which also implements TABS Class B GPS receiver specs) gets you *all* the TABS Class A+B goodies by fact that he transponder implements all the parts of Class A support that this device will not. It also gets you more than TABS... including visibility to ATC via SSR/transponder interrogations that a pure TABS device will not... and that UK CAP 1391 devices also will not.

There is no sign this has FCC approval or is seeking it. It also just does not seem to make sense for uAvionix to do that for the USA market, where they already very nice GA products tailored for the USA GA market.



On Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 1:47:34 PM UTC-8, son_of_flubber wrote:
Is portable TABS (non 2020 compliant ADS-B-out) coming to the USA in 2020?

This unit looks a lot like portable TABS.
https://uavionix.com/products/skyecho/
It also implements FLARM, and I think that would need to be disabled in the USA. The price point looks right.