Originally Posted by
skadi
I dont think that just position reports via satellite should be a problem. For example, in Germany all EMS-helicopters are fitted with a sat-datalink via Iridium and position/status reports ( incl. speed, course and height ) are transmitted every 2 minutes. And you dont need big antennas too, they are as small as GPS antennas.
AFAIK Iridium covers almost the whole earth?
skadi
Yes, Iridium low earth orbit satellites have global coverage including the poles.
Helicopters in the Gulf of Mexico have been using a similar SATCOM service from Outerlink (
www.outerlink.com ) for flight following for some years.