doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (03/17/86)
[Boy, this month's AOPA Pilot sure had some interesting stuff!]
AOPA is upset about ARINC petitioning the FCC for authorization to
carry "digital administrative messages" in their portion of the
aircraft band (128.825 - 132.00 MHz). Some of AOPA's objections
are related to the content of the communications (passenger travel
arrangements, etc.) That doesn't mean much to me.
But part of their objections are, "the spectrum currently set aside
for operational control communications is severely congested; increased
congestion will lead to earlier implementation of 25 kHz channel spacing
and further reduction in spacing to possibly 10 or 12.5 kHz..."
Huh? I don't know how it is around say, LA or NYC, but here in the
Phoenix area the ARINC frequencies are virtually dead. There are only
3 or 4 channels in use at all, and they are virtually dead even during
the morning and afternoon rush hours.
AOPA goes on with objections that, "the proposed communications are
discriminatory to thousands of general aviation operators who do not
and will not have digital capability and force those general aviation
operators who may wish to have digital communications into a proprietary
monopolistic digital communications system..."
Huh again? If you check the FCC Aircraft Station License, you will see
that you cannot be authorized to use both FSS/Unicom frequencies (122.0
- 123.0) and ARINC frequencies (now you know why FSS uses 123.6 for
airport advisory functions instead of a 122.x frequency). I don't see
how anything that ARINC does on their frequencies is going to affect GA,
because GA can't use ARINC frequencies.
What am I missing???
--
Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {elrond,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!doug