Hi Theo, I was intending to reply to this post of your's on 15/01, but found the thread locked (shades of Kinetic?). Thank you for the link to the zhaw site, which I visited and have to say not very impressed with. I note in the bottom right hand corner it say "Live", but without a RB showing directly received info., you can't tell just how live it actually is, also the info. displayed is hardly earth shatteringly detailed. Why you can't accept that different countries have different rules and regs, I do not know - I just wonder if it's just sour grapes, or a desire on your part to stir things - if AirNav have to incorporate a 5 minute delay to be left alone by the Authorities, then so be it. Once the Authorities realise that we're not a bunch of terrorists, then, who knows, we may be able to have live network access.
In your PS, you ask whether different versions could be made - I don't know the ins and outs of AN as a company, but I'm sure there's a very simple answer - cost. The cost of producing 10 or 20 units of one particular spec. would be prohibitive - Joe Public, like me wouldn't be able to afford it.
You then refer to CB in the mid 70s, this was also referred to as the 11 metre band (26 - 28 MHz) and for long distance use, AM, USB and LSB were used with "burners" (Linear Amps). This caused considerable interference on the old VHF TV and radio channels, and also to some Airband frequencies. When a f riend of mine (about 1 1/2 miles away) started transmitting, he swamped 130 -136 MHz as well! I actually had a Midland AM/Side Band rig confiscated by Post Office Radio Telecomms, when a group of us were trapped on Westbury White Horse hill. If we wanted the rigs back we would have had to contest the confiscation and faced prosecution in the courts - it was far easier and cheaper to lose the rigs and get another one (I still have few rigs, including a Ham International Concorde 3, and the infamous Uniden 2830 covering the 10 metre 28 - 30 Mhz Amateur band, which by bridging a chip became a full 26 - 30 MHz rig). Anyway, back to the point, because the Authorities realised they couldn't win against the illegal breakers in the UK, they decided to introduce the 27/81UK FM only 40 channel rigs, which worked on a totally different and incompatible band to the US and continental rigs, but these were produced and sold in their hundreds of thousands, very often using the same basic chip, thus reducing the cost of production hugely. RB and SBS units will never be produced and sold in such numbers unfortunately.
If you can't get your head around simple commercial facts of life, I can only conclude you live in "Cloud Cuckoo Land", wherever that is!