[cyberax]

What is _really_ needed is a replacement of the archaic narrowband analog FM radio. Where you can't listen and talk at the same time. There are probably at least several dozen accidents where the inability to communicate with an aircraft or a road vehicle was a contributing factor.

I would settle for a good digital system with an ability to issue emergency/priority calls to specific receivers. Oh, and full-duplex communication.

I'm practicing for a sports pilot license, and I really have problems with understanding other pilots and the ATC.

[zanderz]

Not only that, if 2 people talk at once they can cancel each other out and neither can be heard by anyone else.

Much of aviation is still based on pre WWII tech and practices like this and people underestimate how slow and difficult it is to change. Many piston aircraft still run on leaded gas, for example, the last existing market for it in the US.