rjk@mgweed.UUCP (12/17/83)
The following are excerpts from the December, 1983 AOPA Newsletter...
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High-Tech Transponder Heading Your Way
Recently the FAA issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM)
that outlined agency plans for the implementation of Mode S transponders.
This new transponder is considered by the FAA as an evolutionary advance-
ment over the current Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System (ATCRBS)
transponder and a key to operation in the modernized National Airspace
System (NAS). It will incorporate automatic pressure altitude reporting,
discrete addresses for permanent, individual identification codes and an
air-ground data-link capability.
The first Mode S ground facility is planned to become operational in
1988 and by 1991, 137 systems should be in operation. By 1992, pilots
will have to meet a Mode S requirement (or ATCRBS with altitude-reporting)
above 12,500 feet msl in enroute airspace, within TCAs and down to the
surface at certain high density airports.
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Randy King
mgweed!rjk