FLARM Technology for the US Gliding Community

On Sep 15, 4:20*pm, Ramy wrote:
On Sep 15, 12:19*pm, Andy wrote:



On Sep 15, 11:25*am, Ramy wrote:

We would probably have at east one pilot alive today if the FCC
approved those units earlier.

That seems to assign some blame to FCC.

Why would FCC be expected to approve an equipment for which no
approval application was made. * Why would anyone have made an
approval application for an equipment which was not marketed for use
in USA and prohibited by the manufacture(s) from being used in USA.

For those that think the door will be open to import the older FLARM
units to US and use them without FCC approval, don't forget that the
unit's firmware has an embedded drop dead date. *It would be very easy
for the next firmware cycle to inhibit operation for GPS locations in
USA.

Am I the only one that suspects a large part of the US PowerFLARM cost
is going towards a legal fund?

Andy

You may be right but my point is that, as often the case, we have the
technology (which should normally be the biggest challenge) but it
almost always hampered by paperwork/FCC/FAA/liablity/(name your
favorite bureaucrat agency here).
This is much less so with consumer devices.
I understand this is to prevent chaos, but if so, how come everyone
can mail order an aviation radio and interfere with ATC if they feal
like?

Ramy

As usual, reality is a bit more complicated...
In USA, the power levels allowed on the free-for-all
frequencies are higher than other countries.
That means the background noise level on these
frequencies is higher from other devices.
PowerFLARM has a more powerful
radio transmitter than the classic FLARM, and
is thus is more able to punch through the noise.

So, while a classic FLARM might operate here,
in addition to being illegal it won't work as well.
The other guy *might* hear you...

Hope that helps !
You guys should fly more and speculate less !

See ya, Dave "YO electric"