It should be noted that on the Airservices Australia website they have a section “ADS-B – Frequently Asked Questions.”  (See here).  Many of the answers are misleading – some possibly because of a lack of knowledge by the people of Airservices, but others which seem to be intentionally so.

For example, there is a question about what Airservices Australia will do with ADS-B data. It says in effect that for an organisation to get ADS-B information, they “will have to follow the same legal process to obtain that data as they do today for access to radar data.”  This is not factually correct.  A small mail order electronic box will give all of the data – the same data that Airservices Australia will be receiving.

Another question and answer relates to turning off the identification of the aircraft – a so-called “privacy mode.”  This is useless as the ADS-B will always transmit the unique code for that particular transmitter.  This can easily be converted to identify a particular aircraft.  The truth is that there is simply no privacy, secrecy or confidentiality when it comes to ADS-B.

There is no mention in this question and answer section of the fact that for ADS-B to work correctly in the enroute environment (say, between Sydney and Canberra), that all aircraft – including Police, Customs and military aircraft – will have to be fitted with an ADS-B transmitter, otherwise they will be completely invisible to the system.  This would not be acceptably safe in relation to collision avoidance. 

It should also be noted that of the three scenarios covered in the first question, they all include the decommissioning of some enroute radars.  The answer also states that, “A firm decision is expected to be made in early 2006.”