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A comment on Aviation is stuck in the 60s – a reflection on MH 370. Parent comment

Re:Aviation is stuck in the 60s – a reflection on MH 370 by joezydeco on Sunday March 09, 2014 @01:34PM (#7369101)
Reading GPS is cheap and easy. Sending information back is not.

Those shipping container trackers use GSM to call home. They're cell phones. What happens when that container is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?

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Re:Aviation is stuck in the 60s – a reflection on MH 370 by fnordfnordfnord on Sunday March 09, 2014 @02:22PM (#7369311)
That's an interesting question. Mini "cell tower" on the ship with satellite link?
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Re:Aviation is stuck in the 60s – a reflection on MH 370 by joezydeco on Sunday March 09, 2014 @04:04PM (#7369758)
The original topic here was "why don't planes have GPS trackers on them and constantly report in, if trackers are so cheap and every car/truck/container/phone on the planet can have one?"

How does a plane get data back to the ground when it's 7 miles up and 1000 miles from shore? You have to have a satellite or long-range VHF link.

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Re:Aviation is stuck in the 60s – a reflection on MH 370 by KaiserPro on Sunday March 09, 2014 @02:49PM (#7369425)
or you could just use radar, which only requires your own radar to work....
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