FLARM in the USA question

I would like to know how (and when) FLARM got approved for operation in the USA (FCC? different frequency?). The manual still says; "Operation of FLARM is forbidden in the USA or Canada or in aircraft registered in the USA or Canada."

Thanks,
Kolie Lombard

On Friday, May 4, 2018 at 8:35:00 AM UTC-4, wrote:
I would like to know how (and when) FLARM got approved for operation in the USA (FCC? different frequency?). The manual still says; "Operation of FLARM is forbidden in the USA or Canada or in aircraft registered in the USA or Canada."

Thanks,
Kolie Lombard

In Canada, the only FLARMs legal to use are the PowerFLARM CORE and Portable sold by FLARM Technology. Devices which are on the Industry Canada (FCC equivalent) Radio Equipment List are authorized. The frequency spectrum is common between Canada and the U.S., 902-928 MHz; radiated power for the Portable is 0.01w, the CORE, 0.018w.
Canadian Approval doc for Portable: https://industrycanada.co/10154A-FLAPFP24 dated 9 Mar 2012.
Canadian Approval doc for CORE/Brick: https://industrycanada.co/10154A-FLAPFC10 dated 14 Aug 2012.
I googled for you ("PowerFLARM FCC approval document") and it coughed up:
https://fccid.io/ZKUGC625162 which gives the CORE approval in July 2012, with the testing etc. From that, I got the link for the company, then the link for the Portable: https://fccid.io/ZKUGC625161 7 January 2011. It does not seem that long ago...

You can see the testing required for approval in the FCC documents; this is expensive (which is why I expect no one else's FLARMs are approved yet). I have read that LX Navigation and LX Nav have submitted their FLARMs for testing, but no approvals yet. You could ask the dealers.

The frequency change from Europe was done since the spectrum used - Industrial, Scientific, Medical (ISM) is different, and 868MHz is allocated for celluar phones in Canada (I assume US too) vs ISM in Europe.

Which FLARM are you talking about?

Dan, thanks or your detailed response. My question was prompted by the following announcement:

https://www.suasnews.com/2018/05/ope...ard-published/

This link was forwarded to me with the warning from the manual that says; "Operation of FLARM is forbidden in the USA or Canada or in aircraft registered in the USA or Canada."

My argument was that the manual refers to a different (manually operated) system, and that some versions of FLARM are used by at least glider pilots in the USA already.

The bottom line is that I am curious if the "open FLARM UAS eID standard" mentioned in the article will find any traction in the USA and what it would take for that to happen.

Kolie

I have PowerFlarm Core Manual Version 150, January 19, 2016.
Page 31, paragraph 4,"Within the USA, the device may only be used in transportation vehicles such as aircraft or motor vehicles."

I have read this manual pretty carefully after this post of "Operation of
FLARM is forbidden in the USA..."

I am asking Kolie Lombard to clarify where he got his information.

On 05/04/2018 06:11 PM, wrote:
I have PowerFlarm Core Manual Version 150, January 19, 2016.
Page 31, paragraph 4,"Within the USA, the device may only be used in transportation vehicles such as aircraft or motor vehicles."

I have read this manual pretty carefully after this post of "Operation of
FLARM is forbidden in the USA..."

I am asking Kolie Lombard to clarify where he got his information.


He was reading a FLARM manual. PowerFlarm is not the same as Flarm.
It's not a "type of Flarm", it's quite different. Different
frequencies. Very incompatible.

Thank you.
THis amalgam of "FLARM" units makes the endless discussions all the more difficult.

(...)

He was reading a FLARM manual. PowerFlarm is not the same as Flarm.
It's not a "type of Flarm", it's quite different. Different
frequencies. Very incompatible.

Which practically means that if a US pilot wants to take his glider to the other continents (for a competition, long vacation, temporary job assignment), his PowerFlarm becomes useless. However, ADS-B 1090 ES continues to work and will be compatible. Yet another good reason to wish we had a FLARM-similar software using the ADS-B transmissions (a deep sigh... Darryl says it would be too expensive to engineer and maintain for the small soaring community).

PowerFLARM is not “quite different� from FLARM, they operate very similarly. This is how misinformation starts—importantly PowerFLARM units fully interoperate with legacy FLARM units using different geographically appropriate frequency bands. They run very similar internal code, etc.

Internally PowerFLARM is more modern than legacy units, but older FLARM products were even capable of operating on ISM frequencies. Not as optimized for that as USA PowerFLARM units are, and legacy units were never FCC approved and so never legal to sell in the USA. USA FCC approval can be a real hurdle for RF products manufacturers. And not something anybody should be operating here. FLARM may well have geo blocked the ISM bands in them by now, I don’t know and don’t care. FLARM to their credit spent lots of effort to design PowerFLARM to pass FCC approval and spent money to get that approval so we could utilize FLARM technology in the USA. That initial delay in getting PowerFLARM released in the USA was Flarm jumping through burning hoops to get that FCC approval.

So.....
Classic Flarm units are not permitted in the USA?
Therefore, all of our discussions in the USA should be limited to PowerFlarm?

On Friday, May 4, 2018 at 7:05:05 PM UTC-7, wrote:
So.....
Classic Flarm units are not permitted in the USA?
Therefore, all of our discussions in the USA should be limited to PowerFlarm?

Where have you you been Guy? :-) All our discussion in the USA *has* been about PowerFLARM.

A large part of the focus on getting PowerFLARM into the USA was because the legacy FLARM was not FCC approved. That the product could also offer some ADS-B compatibility was another reason to want to go that way (with the USA ahead of the rest of the world on ADS-B adoption).

Now as pointed out here it seems like other vendors are working to get FCC approval for their FLARM products in the USA, so it will get a little more confusing how we talk about different FLARM products. But nobody is going to go back in time and invest $$$ and effort to get old legacy FLARM products FCC approved for use in the USA.