For aircraft owners who don’t want to alter their familiar instrument panels, Garmin has added the GDL 82 to its ADS-B OUT offerings. The new ADS-B OUT transceiver is remotely mounted and includes a rule-compliant precision GPS sensor and GPS antenna, and it is priced at $1,795, including installation kit.

Although many pilots are upgrading their aircraft with new navigators and displays along with ADS-B OUT/IN packages, there are many older aircraft still flying that either aren’t worth adding more than a third of their value in avionics upgrades or that have instrument panels that the owner doesn’t wish to alter. Many of these aircraft also do not have a WAAS GPS receiver installed. The solution for these owners is a remote-mount ADS-B transceiver that includes the rule-compliant GPS sensor, and the GDL 82 is Garmin’s lowest-cost product for this application.

The GDL 82 is a UAT transceiver, broadcasting on 978 MHz and thus designed for operations in ADS-B airspace in the U.S. below 18,000 feet. It integrates with the aircraft’s transponder and transponder antenna, according to Garmin, and the GDL 82 “is installed in-line with the aircraft’s existing transponder wiring and antenna to transmit the necessary ADS-B OUT information.”

Most existing mode-C transponders can integrate with the GDL 82, and Garmin’s AutoSquawk interrogation technology eliminates the need for a separate dedicated UAT control panel.