The haze between Mode S and UAT ADS-B

Does Surveillance and Broadcast (SBS) want you to know about the real ADS-B?

By Rob Stapleton
ANCHORAGE, AK (Sept. 27,2009) Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Dave Bowen wrote and interesting piece and posted it in the Federal Times.com on Sept 21.

Bowen correctly informs pilots and aircraft owners of ADS-B's capabilities when used with the Universal Access Transceiver and is using both 1090 MHz and 978 MHz. There is a misconception that ALL ADS-B coverage is the same and will be the next best thing to sliced bread (for air traffic control and surveillance). Many do not realize that ADS-B will at first be a transmit only system thus only taking advantage of the radar like service only.

Bowen perspective is interesting as most of the ADS-B that will be offered in the U.S. will be similar to Mode S, and will only transmit in real time a location not allowing for additional services, such as TIS-B, FIS-B and transmit and receive information from other like equipped (UAT) aircraft. In the future both the FAA and ITT who has the multi billion contract to install the equipment nationwide have said the services like current weather, email, and other situational awareness service could be provided by subscription in the future.

Bowen states: The Federal Aviation Administration is working with U.S. airlines to get them to put ADS-B equipment in their aircraft and, in return, is enabling more straight-line routing, which results in shorter flying times and reduced fuel burn, saving millions of gallons of fuel per year. We are also developing and publishing more GPS-based airport approaches each year, and these now outnumber our published approaches based on ground-based navigation equipment.
ADS-B is already operational in Alaska, where the population depends on aviation to a far greater extent than in the continental U.S. It will soon be deployed in the Gulf of Mexico. FAA intends to deploy ADS-B over the continental U.S. in the next few years; it started in Miami, Florida last fall.
FAA’s NextGen initiative is far more than just ADS-B — it will enable digital communication, digital weather modeling and other capabilities. It will support a level of air traffic that is magnitudes more than current levels — safely, efficiently and effectively. NextGen will be less costly to operate and generate significant fuel savings for air carriers and other users of U.S. airspace. NextGen is the path that FAA will take to fly into the future.

Many airlines do not support the re-equipage of their aircraft with ADS-B UAT technology as they are equipped with Mode C and Mode S which offers similar coverage. The added expense of changing their equippage is one argument, that seems to be floating around, the other is the hazy smokescreen of misinformation about the real ADS-B as it is used in Alaska today--with UAT.
Some argue that where 'the rubber meets the road' in an argument, is that in a crowded corridor, Mode S only has so much bandwidth and can easily be choked up with multiple contacts.
This limitation only supports the use of both the 978 MHz UAT and 1090 MHz frequencies and the use of the UAT technology for its potential services.

Will future ADS-B in Alaska be the real deal?

Feds: At play in the fields of the Lord!

Anchorage, AK-(April 13, 2008)-- It has come to my attention that some within the Federal Aviation Administration are not being completely forthcoming about the information that it is giving in regards to the implementation of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast technology here in Alaska. For that matter how ADS-B will work in the National Airspace System may be skewed as well.

The purpose of this blog is to start a dialog with those in Alaska (or anyone anywhere) who believes that the Universal Access Transceiver version of ADS-B tested here in Alaska is the 'Right' way to go with future installations.

What am I saying...? I am asking for information about whether Alaska is going to get tricked into getting the 1090 MHz extended squitter, or are we going to get the two-way UAT ADS-B technology responsible for creating a 40+ percent safer flying environment in South West Alaska, and which won the 2007 Collier Trophy (http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/ads-b-program-wins-collier-trophy/?no_cache=1) .

I hope to ask some tough question here, so lets define why this is important.

Well--the hope is that individuals who believe in the hard won Capstone Program that proved how technology could benefit pilots and passenger safety by adding additional two-way situational awareness into the cockpit of Rural flying aircraft can use this vehicle to inform me ( a media person) with real facts.

These facts are not available to me by asking Federal Aviation Administration officials for story related information. Either by email, phone conversation, or by the Freedom of Information Act.

In fact, many of the FOIA's that I have submitted in the past year about ADS-B here in Alaska come back as "No known information on this topic is available."

That's odd because many of you who will read this have given me the names of documents, programs, contracts and meetings that are real, but according to the FAA have never happened, thus are not available via FOIA.

Strange?

It is my quest, and my job to inform industry and business about anything and everything that affects change to the economics of aviation in Alaska. Remember I am not the enemy media, but a messenger.

Without the raw-pure-facts, how can anyone hope to report an accurate story?

Please respond and help me by posting your knowledge of ADS-B UAT or the fake 1090 ES version as my plea for facts, and the truth. Let the facts speak for themselves.

Consider me the messenger for the Alaska aviation industry, and your inside knowledge as help for a pilots need to know about the goings on around the politics of ADS-B technology.

This a last chance to keep the Capstone Safety Program's legacy on track here in Alaska, use it.

Please respond!

RS-

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/arc/programs/capstone/?CFID=32466514&CFTOKEN=5e0e51571b7f35c1-4BD8347D-1372-4132-8D6D69336366EB40&jsessionid=f830bf6c454e51a7f205

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2006/060510ads-b.html

http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/101506/tra_20061015010.shtml