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>A couple of months ago I had a couple of close encounters that were traced
>to a transponder that intermittently reported wrong altitude information. I >would like to know what altitude the transponders in the aircraft I fly are >reporting. > The easiest way to find out what altitude your transponder is reporting is to look directly at the digital output of the altimeter that is feeding the transponder mode c function. By doing this you will have about 1/10th the electronic work to do. However, this DOES require that you tap into the cable between the altimeter and the transponder and this probably isnt something that the FAA is going to give unqualified approval to. I gather, however, that you are keen to do some electronic construction. For the average person, getting a 1GHz receiver to work reliably is a little daunting unless you can find some integrated circuit that pretty much packages the whole thing. That is the first thing I would research. Assuming that you are successful, then you get to design the interface between the receiver and the digital circuitry that will decode and display the altitude. But dont worry about this step until you have the RF part solved. Let us know if you find a nice receiver chip and then we can talk about interfacing. Good luck. Alice |
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