Why don't voice radio communications use FM?

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
B A R R Y writes:

How about VOR ID's, RCO's, distant TWEBs and FSS stations?

For automated signals (not voice), distance is important. For voice,
I'm not sure that distance matters that much, since if they are far
enough away to be hard to hear, they are probably not an immediate
hazard, and controllers have facilities that provide adequate coverage
for the area that they control.

I believe the Clue stores are open this weekend. You would benefit from a
visit and a purchase.


Do you fly?

As a pilot, only in simulation. As a passenger, only when absolutely
necessary.

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Mxsmanic,

I take it they don't have
radios?


You take wrongly.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Mxsmanic,

As a passenger, only when absolutely
necessary.


Why? It's one of the safest modes of transportation. Do you drive?

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Thomas Borchert schrieb:

As a passenger, only when absolutely
necessary.

Why? It's one of the safest modes of transportation.

Are you kidding? With all those garbled communications over AM?

Stefan

Let me think. If my radio died and all I had was a handheld I would
really want to be heard... even with this tiny antenna.
Then use AM on your handheld.

That would be pointless if FM was a standard, wouldn't it ?

I was wondering about gliders not long ago. I take it they don't have
radios?

I flew in two clubs. In one radios were the norm and downwind calls
were expected. In the other one, most (if not all) training gliders had
no radios at all.

Bartek

Mxsmanic schrieb:

I was wondering about gliders not long ago. I take it they don't have
radios? Wouldn't it be safer to have a radio powered by a battery or
something, just in case? Radios can be made very light so weight
would not be an issue.

Not only would it be safer, but much more convenient, too. That's why
pretty much all gliders actually *do* have radios. Along with GPS
navigation, speed optimizing and glide range computers and a couple more
of such gadgets.

You should *really* get some basic knowledge before commenting.

Stefan

writes:

That would be pointless if FM was a standard, wouldn't it ?

It depends on who is at the other end.

I flew in two clubs. In one radios were the norm and downwind calls
were expected. In the other one, most (if not all) training gliders had
no radios at all.

Do gliders get any special consideration from ATC, given that they are
unpowered aircraft?

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B A R R Y writes:

Sorry, but you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. The
ability to pull in a signal is important enough that radios
incorporate a squelch defeat feature to open the squelch all the way.

That is common for all sorts of radios.

If you ever decide to learn to fly an actual airplane, which is much
more fun than any simulation, you'd see what I mean.

I prefer simulation, for a number of reasons.

Real flying is fantastic, exponentially better than simulations (real
is better than virtual in everything I've ever done), so I genuinely hope
that you will!

The parts of flying that I like can be mostly simulated with 100%
accuracy, at much lower cost and much higher convenience than a real
aircraft. For example, I like to fly IFR, and I scarcely need a real
aircraft for that; even a full-motion simulator isn't required,
although it would be nice.

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Thomas Borchert writes:

Why? It's one of the safest modes of transportation.

It's also the most frustrating. Hours to get to the airport, hours to
get past the paranoia of incompetent security staff, another hour to
get aboard, another hour waiting to leave the gate, a short period in
the air with tons of traffic all around, above, and below you, and
then another couple of hours at the other end.

All of this is avoided in simulation. You start the engines and go.
When you are done, you stop.

Do you drive?

Not if I can avoid it. I exhausted the novelty of driving years ago,
and most real-world driving today involves frustrations of its own.

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Stefan writes:

Are you kidding? With all those garbled communications over AM?

That's only the tip of the iceberg. The skies are mighty crowded
today, and that's my biggest source of worry. The practical logistics
of travelling on commercial flights as a passenger make it a very
unpleasant ordeal nowadays. Flying as a pilot is not very practical,
as it costs thousands of dollars to get a license and thousands of
dollars to fly, and that's only if you are satisfied with little
tin-can private aircraft. If you want to fly multiengine jets, you
need to pony up seven figures as a bare minimum. If you want to fly
military aircraft, you're out of luck unless you started at age 20 and
spent years in the service, and even then it's hard to get into that
position.

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