[amsat-bb] Re: Malaysian airliner puzzle

On Mon, Mar 17, 2014 at 12:40:05PM -0500, Joe wrote:

What I do not understand is why the Transponder is capable of being shut off at all?

That thing as soon as the plane is powered up should start transmitting, and continue to do so till the plane is shut down. And have no way anyone can shut it off in any way.

Because it takes a ludicrous amount of power to run. It would be one of the first things you'd turn off if you were load-shedding for some reason.