Banter wrote:pjotrtje wrote:Which underlines the (un)reliability of SBS-1 when it comes to military aircraft!
I agree . Where do we stand with Military Mode-S indentification reliablity?
Is it only good for transports or are there descepancys aswell ?
There are some discripencies, most of them can be related in Human factors while putting data in the database. Others will copy it and before we know it everybody has hexcode linked with wrong tailnumber, sometimes me included I have to admit.
Mode-s callsigns however are more tricky, believe it is or will be in the very near future mandatory to show correct callsign. Happened already that Dutch Mil or Lippe kindly requested a RC135 aircraft to show correct callsign which they promptly did.
Fighters on the other hand is difficult to say, there are at least 3 Klu F-16's who are flying with Hexcode 000017 which is not even a correct Hexcode.
It is realy a nice sport try to figure out their tails, listen to the scanner, wait for Squawk or altitude change compare it with SBS-1 and look which Hexcode is changing Squawk or changing altitude, next step is watch out for logs from the fence with callsigns.
Other source can be AAR missions, where t/n are given on the boom freq. I have identified several Tornado's and reconfirmed them several times this way.
I would say:
Transporters on SBS-1 pretty reliable
Fighters (Dutch F-16's), some confirmed other total chaos But working on it!
Helicopters (Dutch), in my opinion reliable
Mode-s Callsigns, as for the moment would say the least realiable although it is getting better. Stay sharp.
Grtz
Joost