Mode S at TC
 

When, from outside controlled airspace, I call up Luton, Essex or Gatwick for crossing or ATSOCA, do you see the Mode S flight ID (in my case the registration) idependently of the Mode A code?

If so, are you permitted to identify me on Mode S alone? In which case, is the discrete Mode A code just for the benefit of other units?

All we see is your Mode A + C.
If you have enhanced Mode 'S', we will see your selected FL, plus other data that we can select, such as IAS, magnetic heading, rate of climb/descend.

The TC radar displays do not yet have the facility to interrogate the airframe id/aircraft registration database to match up that Mode S parameter and display the a/c reg from the database.

All it can do is code/callsign convert mode A codes from known flightplans or other codes that are manually input into the system.

So for now discrete mode A codes are still required, unfortunately. I get the feeling that the facility is not going to appear in the near future, neither.

Enhanced Mode S transmits the callsign as well, no idea if it is used for flightplan correlation though at your unit. Basic Mode S is another thing though, you'd have to have access to the mode s / registration database to use mode s for identifying purposes then.

No, Elementary Mode S transmits flight ID (and altitude and flight status) as downlink parameters. See the TGL

Is it only the new NATS Raytheon radars that have Mode S capability? And does this mean that mandatory Mode S won't be extended to other TMAs (Manchester, Scottish) until all the relevant en route radars are replaced?
What about airfield radars? Won't they all need to be Mode S capable before the TMA they're associated with/below can become mandatory Mode S for IFRs? I'm thinking Hawarden, Liverpool, Woodford, Warton, Blackpool.
NS

As for being identified on Mode S parameters alone, currently there seems to be a big hole in MATS 1 on that one. Sure, you can be identified by various means, but I'm not sure if you can be validated if you're a free-caller.
For starters you'd presumably still be squawking mode A 7000

Thats because the CONOPS for the UK has not been written yet.

BD

@bookworm, thanks for the link, i stand corrected :)