I have noticed that often the military transponder do not register on SkyEcho. Last week I was in receipt of a Traffic Service from a military LARS in the north and warned of RAF aircraft but neither was showing on my SkyDemon fed by SkyEcho. I queried with the controller if the aircraft were transponder equipped and transmitting. I was assured they were.
Can anyone think why this might be? It is not an isolated occurrence so I may need to talk with Uavionics in due course.
I think you are perhaps misunderstanding what SE2 does – it’s ADS-B in and some of the military out there probably won’t be ADS-B out so you won’t see them. You may get FLARM from some types though if you have paid for the FLARM decode if you’re using it with Skydemon.
MattL wrote:
I think you are perhaps misunderstanding what SE2 does – it’s ADS-B in and some of the military out there probably won’t be ADS-B out so you won’t see them.
Very right, you have to be aware that only a fraction of GA traffic is transmitting ADS-B out (probably still well below 50%)! Commerical traffic will be 99% ADS-B out. Military traffic will be like GA only partially equipped. Do not rely on such a device for comprehensive traffic avoidance!
I’d say ADS-B OUT is way below 50% around here, in GA.
And most of it will be uncertified which means it won’t show up on certified ADS-B IN systems (e.g. a TAS605A).
I imagine in time, although it may be a long time, Europe will get ground stations to supply info on all transponder equipped planes to those that receive ADS-B IN. It’s an intrinsic part of the technology along with weather and so on.
I’ve been using portable ADS-B IN (Stratus) and Foreflight as my primary traffic awareness tool for 3 years (time flies), at least when away from the airport environment and not in really remote places. It’s now hard to imagine taking off without it.
Silvaire wrote:
I imagine in time, although it may be a long time, Europe will get ground stations to supply info on all transponder equipped planes to those that receive ADS-B IN. It’s an intrinsic part of the technology along with weather and so on.
heavy sigh
@Silvaire, I’m not sure if many of us will live long enough to see that in actions in Europe.
Why not? I don’t think the ground station cost is all that high.
NATS told me at a meeting ~ 10 years ago that they are not allowed to spend a single penny on anything for GA unless there is a business case.
And below 2000kg there is no business case.
Example: they developed the AFPEX tool because it enabled them to close the FBUs and save 7 digits in payroll and establishment costs.
Peter wrote:
NATS told me at a meeting ~ 10 years ago that they are not allowed to spend a single penny on anything for GA unless there is a business case.And below 2000kg there is no business case.
@Peter, even it is above 2000kg – you’ve heard all the stories where the pilots pay the enroute charges, but don’t get the enroute service they’ve paid for.
Sure.
But they would if they flew in CAS, which is what the vast majority of 2000kg+ traffic does.
The European GA system is set up mostly around OCAS traffic. Different countries then offer different services. UK offers a little bit, funded under LARS (historically for the RAF which didn’t use GPS so were always getting lost, and lately to suppress CAS busts a bit). France offers a good service because somebody decided that for national security they want a known-traffic environment. Other countries are sort of in between.
Another thing is that European ATC rarely see ADS-B data. They see Mode A/C/S. So there is no obvious body which be concentrating the data and re-radiating it.
