rokket2001

Thanks fort all the great info, everyone. Interesting about VHF. And sadly for me, I'm old... Yes, I assumed digital is the future for everything, so digital radio. I realise it would be a long time before a changeover, but well begun is half done and all that. It's like many new things in life, they will take literalll forever if we don't start now. Well, 100 years from now maybe. Of course by then we'll either have flying pods controlled by AI or we'll be back to caveman times...

The text would only appear on ATC screens. Say it's a commercial B737 for argument. The radio would be set by the factory to transmit "-B737", you just have to type in airline/flight before takeoff. Then every time you transmit, your transmission sends out text "ACME-B737" that appears on ATC screens. They know who is talking and you don't have to ID yourself. You still could for the first transmission, but every communication after would be faster. And (except for sc-fi hackers) would be more accurate. ATC would know that XXX airline, a B737 (or whatever), is talking.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. Instead of saying on the radio, "[TARGET TOWER] Acme Air 107, on final with information Juliet", The plane would key the mic and the callsign would appear as text on ATC screens: [TEXT]: ACME 107-B737. The pilot would then say the "meat" of his message: "on final with information Juliet". By putting the aircraft type in the info, you could distinguish between aircraft (somewhat - trouble if 5 737s are all landing/taking off at once...) so you have more info and know what plane made the transmission.

Watching vids, I see that aircraft have to spend so much precious time identifying themselves with every transmission. Of course it's critical to ID. I've seen some vids with pilots not ID-ing or communicating improperly and it's not good. But wouldn't it be so much more efficient if every transmission transmitted the call sign automatically? Not audio, but a text call sign and the type of aircraft. ATC would have another level of info, knowing that whoever is transmitting is "XXXX-B737" and not a "Cessna." It seems like it would cut down confusion and save time. Amateur/enthusiast here (professional at being an enthusiast!), so I could be waaay off. I know they have squawk codes and Friend Or Foe, but those are obviously different from what I can see. Anyone have any info or reasons why this won't work? (is stupid...) Thanks!