On Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:48:29 -0600, wrote:
John,

OK. I'll buy that. Although I will counter that the cost of "legal"
weather information is still not exactly cheap (I guess, depending on your
cheapness threshold). To be legal, it would have to be based (currently)
on satellite or (in some limited areas) ADS-B. Cell phone data reception
is illegal.

Satellite data services (used by Garmin, for example), cost ~$500 a year
(it's been a while since I looked at what I paid for a subscription, so
please don't jump all over this, but it's some hundreds of dollars) and
the hardware to receive these will cost around $1000 (again, I'm not that
current, but it's a lot more than a typical cellphone).

ADS-B is only available in limited areas, mostly metropolitan, and the
receivers cost thousands (plus are power hungry and generally unsuited for
glider use).

However, I think the spirit of this discussion is that this technology is
rapidly evolving and certainly all of this is becoming much more
available and may even already be cheap (at least to people who have more
financial means than I ).


--Stefan


Stefan,

Likewise if it's already covered by FAA/FCC rules, there's no need to
have duplicate rules in you contest rules.

I was merely pointing out the argument of keeping costs down has been
rendered irrelevant due to contemporary consumer communications devices
as well as access to useful met feeds.


--
Stefan Murry