Remote ID as a Radio Rule

The requirement

§89.105 — Except as otherwise authorized by the Administrator or as provided in §89.120, after September 16, 2023, no person may operate an unmanned aircraft within the airspace of the United States unless the operation meets the requirements of §89.110 or §89.115.

Note what Part 89 covers: all unmanned aircraft required to be registered, not only Part 107 operations. Recreational flight under §44809 is included.

Three ways to comply, and only three:

1. §89.110 — a standard Remote ID unmanned aircraft (built in).
2. §89.115(a) — a broadcast module attached to a non-standard aircraft.
3. §89.115(b) — operating within an FAA-Recognized Identification Area (FRIA), where no Remote ID broadcast is required — but you must remain within visual line of sight of the aircraft and inside the FRIA’s boundaries.

What is actually broadcast

This is the part worth knowing precisely, because the two routes broadcast different things and the difference is often stated wrongly.

The distinction that matters: a standard aircraft broadcasts where the pilot is, continuously. A broadcast module broadcasts where the aircraft took off from — a fixed point, not a live position.

That is why §89.115(a) additionally requires the operator to remain within visual line of sight for the entire operation: the module cannot report the control station’s position, so the rule constrains it instead.

Two smaller differences follow the same logic. A standard aircraft may use a session ID — a rotating identifier that satisfies the rule without exposing the registration number to every passer-by. A module has no such option. And only a standard aircraft reports emergency status.

The performance requirements

§89.310 and §89.320 specify behaviour, not a radio protocol:

• Self-test before takeoff, with the result reported to the pilot.
• A standard aircraft must not be able to take off if its Remote ID equipment is not functional. A module cannot enforce that, so §89.110(a)(2) requires the pilot to land as soon as practicable if broadcasting stops.
• Continuous monitoring from takeoff to shutdown, with failure notification.
• Tamper resistance, error correction, and no interference with other systems.

Notice what the rule does not say: it never names a frequency or a modulation. The FAA specified message elements and performance, and left the radio layer to an accepted means of compliance under §89.405.

The chain is worth following once, because it is the answer to “what frequency is Remote ID on?”:

14 CFR 89.305 (message elements) → §89.405 means of compliance → FAA accepts ASTM F3586-22 (87 FR 49520) → which invokes ASTM F3411 (the technical specification) → which specifies the actual radio layer.

F3411 gives four transmission methods, all in the same 2.4 GHz Part 15 spectrum as everything else on the aircraft:

• Bluetooth 5 Long Range — a mandatory transmit method in F3411-22a
• Bluetooth 4 Legacy Advertising — optional
• Wi-Fi NAN and Wi-Fi Beacon

A performance rule rather than an equipment rule. It is the same regulatory choice as the FCC’s exposure limits, which specify field strengths rather than antenna designs, and it ages considerably better: when the broadcast technology changes, the FAA accepts a new means of compliance and Part 89 does not move.

Receiving Remote ID

You can receive it, and doing so is the best way to understand it.

• A phone app. Several free apps use the phone’s own Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios to display nearby aircraft. An empty screen is not proof of an empty sky: Wi-Fi NAN support arrived on Android around 2017 and iOS does not support it at all, so an iPhone simply cannot see the Wi-Fi NAN broadcasts. Bluetooth 5 Long Range support also varies by handset.
• An ESP32 receiver. Open-source firmware turns a $10 board into a dedicated Remote ID receiver that logs every message element. The obvious next project after the SDR lab track.
• Not an RTL-SDR. 2.4 GHz is above its tuning range, and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi need a protocol-aware receiver rather than a spectrum view.

Receive your own aircraft first. Fly it, watch your own Remote ID broadcast appear, and confirm the message elements match what your compliance route is supposed to send. It is the same principle as the SDR lab’s decoding exercises — start with a signal you can independently verify.

Then consider what it means that your control station’s position is broadcast in the clear to anyone within range, continuously, whenever you fly a standard aircraft. That is the deliberate design, and it is worth having thought about before someone asks you about it on site.

Check yourself

1. You fly a non-standard aircraft with a broadcast module. Does it transmit your position?
2. Your standard aircraft’s Remote ID stops broadcasting mid-flight. What does the rule require?
3. Why does Part 89 not specify a frequency?