Mongoose Aviator
Line Up and Wait
Can you cut-n-paste the text of the portion you are referring to? The specific wording may be relevant either one way or the other?
Agreed on GTN. Convenient and allows skipping of a step waiting to hear the morse code. GTN Xi Series Pilot's Guide:
NAV Frequency Tuning & Selection
Available with GTN 650Xi/750Xi
"GTN automatically decodes Morse code and displays the Ident for the active frequency above it.
The RFL (reverse frequency lookup) identifier is displayed below the frequency and is only dependent on GPS position and database information."
The GTN 650/750 makes it easy and fast to visually verify the RFL below the freq is correct as that comes up immediately upon dialing it up. Assuming you did not dial it up way far in advance and are actually closer to something else with the same code. But more realistic, you are in the vicinity, dial it up, visually verify the identifier in case it was fat fingered. Then wait for the morse code to be picked up by the unit and decoded while you are doing something else. When that automated task is completed then the Morse Code Ident is added above the freq. Convenient and by displaying both the RFL and the decode, it helps to make it pretty obvious what you are looking at.
My IFD550 also has the decoder functionality:
"Decoded Facility Identifier. The facility (e.g. Ground, Tower, Approach) for the Active and each displayed Standby com frequency are displayed in each com frequency slot. This is a handy reminder of the facility that is tuned in each slot. Similarly, if the frequency displayed is a navigation frequency, then the identifier decoded from Morse code will be displayed, which serves as a means to Tune-Identify-Monitor."
The Garmin GNS430W does NOT have morse code decoder ability so it is very interesting that the 530W is reported to have the ability. I fly with a 430W and I just assumed the 530W was similar in this regard. Comparing the two Pilot's Guides (400W Series vs 500W Series), both in Section 8 VLOC (VOR/Localizer/Glideslope) Receiver Operations, the 530W has an extra page that the 430W does not have, "VLOC Ident Window" which includes this:
"VLOC Ident Window. Directly below the VLOC Tuning Window is a VLOC Ident Window (default setting). When the GNS 530W is tuned to a nearby VOR, the VLOC Ident Window displays the Morse code identifier of the selected station, the radial from the VOR and the distance from the VOR. When tuned to a nearby localizer, the VLOC Ident window displays the identifier, associated airport and runway. The VLOC Ident Window can be replaced with traffic information or configurable data fields".
What I find interesting with the 530W is the lack of information in the documentation as to whether this is a database lookup or a real-time morse decoder. As other posters have noted, a database lookup would be expected to occur immediately and would be expected to operate similar to the documented operation of the GTN in terms of using GPS position to display the nearest facility which matches while an actual decoder would require the aircraft in close enough proximity to pickup, hear (internally to the unit) and decode the morse code which also takes some time and would not be expected to be instant.
The 530W manual talks about the VLOC ident procedure the same way as the 430W in terms of pressing the VLOC volume for ident.
My implication from the 530W is that the pilot is required to manually ident the morse code by actually listening and comparing the audible morse code sound transmission over the NAV frequency via the ident button. On the other hand, I do not fly with the 530W so I find this interesting but not relevant for my own instrument approaches.
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