Respectfully I disagree with you here Jay. You and I have worked closely to get your system working and I know you're frustrated. However, you were the first one to respond to Jim from the FAA when he CAME TO US on his own a few months back, so you know at least one person is there to help.
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I have acknowledged, both here an in other forums, that to date Jim is the ONLY person in the FAA that I have discovered who knows (or cares) about ADS-B as it applies to general aviation. There may be others out there, but I have not found them, and it's not for a lack of trying.
And I don't mean to imply that there aren't plenty of FAA types who are eager to explain how the system will work in 2020. Those folks were everywhere at Oshkosh. I'm talking about someone who can help you with a current installation in the current airspace system.
Unfortunately, a guy who can run written reports after the fact is simply not very helpful when you're trying to troubleshoot an ADS-B installation. To date, I have found NO ONE in the FAA who knows (or cares) about day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute operation of the ADS-B system. The two controlling bodies -- ATC and Flight Service -- simply do not know or care at this time.
Which means that in the real world we have no idea if the system is up, down, or sideways in any given sector. If you suddenly have no traffic, it is quite impossible to determine why.
Which is why we have been using a dual redundant system to crosscheck each other. When the GRT system fails to display traffic, but the Nexus 7/GDL-39 does -- we assume (and rightly so) that there is a problem with the SkyRadar/GRT Horizon/TT-22 system.
When the GRT shows traffic, and the Nexus 7 does not, we presume there's a glitch with the GDL-39/Garmin Pilot system
When they BOTH fail to display traffic/weather, as happens often, we presume the ADS-B system itself is to blame. However, in the absence of real-time reporting from the FAA, we have no real-time data, and are thus left guessing.
My advice to anyone thinking of upgrading: WAIT. Don't throw your money away until the system is operational and the controlling bodies have implemented two-way reporting of outages. You'll save yourself a lot of time and grief.