View Full Version : Just wondering...
Chickenhawk1
14th Oct 2006, 15:07
...what's the reason for transponders only having 4096 codes? Why do they only go to 7? What about 8 and 9?
Stringfellow Dork
14th Oct 2006, 15:20
Try this... (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=236903&highlight=squawk+8+digits)
Chickenhawk1
14th Oct 2006, 15:30
Thanks for that Stringfellow, did a brief search but didn't see it. I am enlightened....
22clipper
15th Oct 2006, 01:50
If the transponder was invented today the dials would probably be numbered one to eight as the current fad is to mask the underlying architecture of how things work from the user.
Me, well I still like my zero to F hexadecimal thumbwheel channel selectors. Alas I had to abandon 'em 'cause the customers complained. We've struck a compromise. The new ones go 0-15, the punters would prefer 1-16 but they've learned to live with the zeroth channel God love 'em.
I'll have to go dual BCD wheels on systems with more than 16 remotes though, I can't see the clients accepting 63 for the 99th remote! Like the man said there are only 10 folks in this world who dig binary, those that do & those that don't!
NickLappos
15th Oct 2006, 14:06
If transponders were invented today, they'd have video displays and show tv. But they can't be reinvented, because the government must start the ball rolling, and they really do not have any incentive to care.
The amazement of our aviation system is how the governmental agencies that are empowered to approve things have simply chosen to ignore progress in favor of constance. Since all aviation electronic devices must arise when a civil servant agrees to them, and the economic incentives of better operations are not at all in the civil servant's charter, we are saddled with nav, com and surveillence equipment and procedures that are the product of the same minds that run the post office.
While Fed EX trucks can tell their dispatch where they are within 10 yards, we have transponders and radars that are not accurate within 3 miles (which then sets the traffic density standards for the entire national airspace system!) My FedEx package has better flight following than an airliner.