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5G now means some flights won’t be able to land when pilots can’t see the runway
Verizon and AT&T are hoping new swaths of C-band cellular radio spectrum will help make the 5G hype closer to reality, but the big mid-band 5G rollout may have a side effect. Airplanes rely on radio altimeters to tell how high they are above the ground to safely land when pilots can’t see, and the FAA is now instructing 6,834 of them to not do that at certain airports because of 5G interference. (www.theverge.com) More...
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Isn't the function of an efficient government, FAA vs FCC, to look at these issues long before it gets to this kind of mess. I had a Bonzer Radar Altimeter in a Cessna 401, yes, 401 in the 70's, RA's were first, they win.
Yep, seems like a lot of political posturing instead of just solving the problem. From the cellular side, my bet is they see this as only affecting outdated RA's. From the aviation side, it's a problem that only exists because of the FCC reuse of C-band for cellular. This should've been addressed at the time the FCC decided to auction off that spectrum for cellular use. Even with enough advance warning (maybe 5-10 years), it's not entirely unreasonable to require upgrades of RA's without effective bandpass filtering. If I were king, I'd say prorate the cost based on the age of the RA install--- 25+ years old, nothing. Less than 25, then prorated reimbursement up to full cost if the RA was installed just prior to notification to aircraft owner's. FCC auction proceeds used to pay those reimbursements.
This is the kind of attitude that gets airports closed. We were first so screw you. The horse and buggy whip was here first maybe you need to go back to using them. I watched arrogant pilots piss off city council members and homeowners with that attitude and come close to losing their airports. Cooler heads prevailed and the airport won.
Equipment manufacturers need to step up and protect their equipment with highly efficient band pass and bandstop filters they are not expensive I built them for pipeline telecom use adding high quality shielding and bonding can eliminate the threat. Rather than piss and whine about the problem resolve it for your customers and let’s move on.
The number of people who will benefit from the use of the band cars exceeds the small handful of RA in use let’s fix the problem and move on. But then doing that does t mean good journalism and handwringing and it doesn’t sell clicks on the internet
Equipment manufacturers need to step up and protect their equipment with highly efficient band pass and bandstop filters they are not expensive I built them for pipeline telecom use adding high quality shielding and bonding can eliminate the threat. Rather than piss and whine about the problem resolve it for your customers and let’s move on.
The number of people who will benefit from the use of the band cars exceeds the small handful of RA in use let’s fix the problem and move on. But then doing that does t mean good journalism and handwringing and it doesn’t sell clicks on the internet
This was an issue that arose during the previous Administration, and the FCC Administrator (Ajit Pai) was "pro Big Business" which, in this case, translated to cell carriers are bigger donors than science, safety of flight, weather radars, weather satellites, etc. FCC Staff identified issues but the Commission, under Pai's leadership, went down the current path.
There are other areas looking at spectrum issues left over from that FCC administration. Right now, there's a satellite company threatening to disrupt earth observations and earth-sensor data collection with a decision to place their next satellite-based internet solution channels directly adjacent to the frequencies used by NOAA for the aforementioned functions.
There are other areas looking at spectrum issues left over from that FCC administration. Right now, there's a satellite company threatening to disrupt earth observations and earth-sensor data collection with a decision to place their next satellite-based internet solution channels directly adjacent to the frequencies used by NOAA for the aforementioned functions.
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Radar altimeters and 5G do not operate in the same band. Radar altimeters operate on 4.2-4.4 GHz, the 5G equipment operates on 3.7-3.98 GHz. The problem sounds like older radar altimeters lack bandpass filtering adequate to filter out C-band transmitters. This is more of a crappy or outdated design issue with some radar altimeters than a problem caused by 5G. The powers that be are stuck weighing the expense of upgrading 6,834 airplanes or hamstringing cellular companies in providing the needed capacity to the roughly 250 million cell phone users in the U.S. Seems like a relatively small expense all things considered to replace what is likely older equipment in the first place given the economic impact of blocking C-band for cellular.
Maybe the FCC that created this situation could pony up some of the roughly $80 BILLION they received in licensing fees from cellular companies on C-band auctions for the spectrum in question to address the situation they're partly responsible for. $170 million @ $25,000/aircraft? Small numbers considering it affects the 250 million cellular users in the U.S.
Maybe the FCC that created this situation could pony up some of the roughly $80 BILLION they received in licensing fees from cellular companies on C-band auctions for the spectrum in question to address the situation they're partly responsible for. $170 million @ $25,000/aircraft? Small numbers considering it affects the 250 million cellular users in the U.S.
