A fair remark, Paul, still I'll stand my ground: for announcing where I am, I will use something decent. This is after all both towards ground stations (my main concern) and towards other pilots (a side benefit). On the receiving side, I might be less demanding, as I consider electronics only a help in detecting other traffic. Not wanting to redo the discussion on the Mk1 eyeball, though, that has been done to death.
As for gliders using Flarm: it must be quite general yes, on the continent too. Still we should not follow them in this abhorrence. At my homefield, the better equipped gliders carry both Flarm and ADS-B transmitters - if that isn't a waste of payload and of electric power!
I think this whole thing is a tough problem, though I don't think anyone is suggesting that everyone should adopt Flarm. I can think of lots of cases where multiple technologies existed for a while before some sort of shake out. In this case though, there's a 'natural monopoly' in that having anti-collision systems which can't see each other kind of defeats the point.
A few thoughts:
- There probably isn't a one size fits all solution. The requirements of functionality, reliability, size, cost and power consumption are different for different use cases (airliners in controlled airspace different from a glider outside etc).
- Ability to encrypt / not spoof might be illusory. You can make it more difficult to break, but probably not more than that. See the huge amount of work that went into making DVDs and Blu Rays secure, and how far that got them. And Flarm's attempts at encryption.
- I don't think the market can afford too many non-co-operative products. It means that none of them actually achieve their aim.
- Regulation is probably actually getting in the way. In the UK there are some trials of ADSB with low cost GPSs, but they are moving awfully slowly.
So what to do? Personally I wish that the powers that be actually get on with a low cost ADSB and make it happen. Get some products out, remove the regulatory barriers. Gliders will probably continue with Flarm in the short to medium term, not least because of the anti-collision algorithms, but everybody gets to receive both.
[I carry a Flarm and a mode-S in my glider. The first helps me with gliders, the second keeps big things with a traffic service away from me. Neither helps me much with GA]
Paul