Plenty of folks are selling portable ADS-B units these days, but none we have tried can quite match the capability of the Clarity SV product from Sagetech. The unit incorporates not one but two ADS-B receivers (a 1090 MHz receiver for seeing traffic and a 987 MHz for transmitting weather data), a WAAS GPS receiver and a built-in AHRS. That’s quite a few acronyms, so before we explain exactly how the technology works, let’s start with an overview of what Clarity SV can do in the airplane.
Getting started is easy. Simply open WingX Pro or another compatible app on your iPad or Android tablet and hit the Clarity SV’s power button. Toss the unit onto the glareshield and you’re in business. Your tablet is now a full-featured EFIS complete with synthetic-vision display and GPS-derived speed, altitude and heading data, as well as a moving map capable of presenting Nexrad weather graphics for the entire country and TIS-B traffic targets. All of the information is transmitted by Wi-Fi to the tablet, and the Clarity unit itself has a six-hour battery, making this a truly wireless setup. A “data burst” function lets you instantly update an iPad that has been put to sleep to conserve the battery.
