I wonder if this is FAA approved. There have been others that made the same claim, and they didn't pan out. The FAA has mentioned portable ADS-B out will never happen on a few occasions. Also, they're selling ad space on their website... If they pull it off, great, you can't put panel mount stuff on a drone. I wouldn't want drone stuff on my panel. All good.
Between being able to afford this, and the power it consumes I wouldn't expect it to pop up on your screen anytime soon. Having said that, if there are drones more than 500' AGL and my Garmin filtered them out until I was within 500' I wouldn't mind at all.
That's the interesting thing about the little box and the U.K. authorizing it even in aircraft. (The link I shared).
If FAA says they won't approve tiny little so-called "portable" ADS-B devices for drones, especially larger ones, as they start to allow those to become commercially regulated -- the entire "NexGen" concept loses credibility. If drones can't participate, what's the point of the entire system?
If they allow the little "portable" ADS-B devices to participate from drones, they lose credibility on the whole "portables are not good enough in airplanes" stance.
I hope someone miniaturizes one down to the size of a credit card plus antennas and sells it for $29 just to annoy the holy hell out of these guys who can't keep the official story straight because it makes no sense.
The actual tech "jobs" an ADS-B device does simply aren't that difficult. It's certification that adds all the cost.
A low powered 900 MHz transmitter hooked to any of a slew of cheap GPS chipsets that does nothing but transmit location, should be about a $100 device in the modern world, in any quantity. Maybe $200 retail.
Strap the thing in the tail back near the useless 121.5 ELT, stick a 900 MHz quarter wave outside, and wire it through a fuse to the battery. Done. Regulatory requirement to transmit location, accomplished.
Can still receive on a Stratux if you want to see others.
All missions accomplished. Send and receive. Cheap. Simple. Works.
$5000 for the same functionality is ridiculous. But tech and pricing just march on by whenever someone slaps the label "avionics" on it.
In the case of actual avionics, this may make some sense. In the case of transmitting one's GPS location, hell, I've been doing that since the early 90s with packet radio at 1200 baud with a modem that I breadboarded on veroboard myself that consisted of one chip and a couple of jellybean components and a DOS box.
The tech behind ADS-B isn't new and it isn't hard. It's only hard in FAA land.