Thanks for that, which confirms what I thought, they are really expensive bits of kit fitted to expensive aircraft that can only talk to each other.
Therefore their actual effectiveness is limited. In this day & age of high tec things in general it's a bit dissapointing that the mark one eyeball is still king of the hill. Is there any organisation looking at anything better?
What are the chances of a poor mans version of the millitary stuff.
It just seems to me that CAA etc put such a lot of "faith" in these things with talk of Mode C, Mode S & such, that if mandatory would put large numbers of small ac out of the game.
I am no expert on electronics, I'm an engineer / toolmaker but I can't see why a cheap simple even short range on board radar system can't be developed. It seems so obvious that I know I must be missing something pretty simple.
Are there any experts in the subject that can explain in simple terms why not?
Trevor