Flying with a lady DHC Beaver pilot in Alaska a few days ago and she advised that a ADS-B unit was provided free to her aircraft for testing a few years ago
Folks,
I would point out that the ADS-B supplied ( Project Capstone??) was NOT a 1090ES type, but UAT, a genuine broadband transceiver, with far more capability than 1090ES ADS-B. This was the system used for all early developments in the US, such as the "Tennessee Valley" trial, and the huge amount of development money spent by United Parcel Service, UPS.
The UAT system is deployed throughout the "lower 48", and much of the "price confusion" about really cheap US "ADS-B" is because, all too often, UAT prices are being quoted. Even in US, 1090ES ADS-B is bleeding expensive, compared to UAT, for a fraction of the capability.
The antiquated abortion that is 1090ES ADS-B/C would not have occurred if this outgrowth of a WWII system had not been "granted" a late entry to the ICAO competition for a broadband datalink ( which 1090ES is not), which included ADS-B/C capability.
If ICAO has not succumbed to the lobby to promote the wildly incapable 1090ES ADS-B/C, we would not be having all the problems we are, and everybody from airlines down would NOT HAVE INCURRED the proven to be huge installed costs of 1090ES ADS-B.
It would have been straightforward for Dick Smith to fit UAT to his CJ3, around AUD$20,000 or less, the costs to Qantaslink -8 would have been around AUD$20-40,000, instead of around AUD$300-500,000. In each case quoted, and all similar, it would have been a stand alone system that did not interfere with existing transponders and ACAS/TCAS, and did not have to be integrated with "glass cockpits".
And FAA would not be having the channel saturation problems of 1090ES that Mitre Corp. forecast in the early 1990s.
And the "irony" is that many airlines have had to fit broadband transceivers anyway, doubling up costs, as VDL-2 (for ARINC/SITA) has replaced ACARS due to bandwidth necessity, and many parts of the world mandate non-voice comms. for much routine CNS/ATM -- via ARINC/SITA.
VDL-4 is VDL-2 plus ADS-B OUT, and was the first ADS-B system in daily service, in Scandinavia.( Note: NOT Australia, as Airservices often claim)
Huge amounts of money, for a vastly inferior and limited system, which is 1090ES ADS-B. We will pay and pay and pay for this huge technological step backwards.
Tootle pip!!