There was also an article on the front page of yesterday's Washington Post newspaper on the frequency conjestion problem in the U.S. domestic ATC system. It was really a well done story for a general interest publication.
Looks like MITRE's
PR machine is is running full blast on the NEXCOM thing... next thing you know they will have invented the Internet or something.
American domestic aviation communications uses VHF AM at 25KHz for voice com. The only data link I know of is ACARS, a proprietary system from ARINC. Proposals are out there to change to the 8.33MHz channel spacing used in Europe because they ran out of spectrum a while ago and 8.33 won't be enough to do the job for long. The Americans have to make a decision now whether to just go to 8.33MHz spacing and make most everybody buy new radios or go to NEXCOM and make everybody buy new radios. But since it is not safety directly per se I don't think anybody can be compelled to buy the new radios necessary, so FAA will have to maintain some capability.
What do users (pilots) think of having to use data link and new radios, new frequencies and all the dislocation that will have along with it? Is this the time to take advantage of the situation and do away with a lot of the ATC practices that have evolved over the last 50 years and go to something more efficient than highways in the sky?