A Remote ID broadcast module is the retrofit path for a drone that was not produced as a Standard Remote ID aircraft. The module broadcasts identification and location information about the drone and the drone's takeoff location. It does not broadcast the control station's live position. Pilots using this path must be able to see the drone at all times during flight. Outside an FAA-recognized identification area, that module is how an older aircraft complies. Aircraft built before the rule are not grandfathered.
Takeoff location, not the pilot's later position
A Standard Remote ID drone broadcasts identification and location information about the drone and about the control station. The broadcast includes the aircraft's identification, position, and altitude, plus the control station location. A broadcast module transmits the takeoff location instead. The module cannot track where the pilot walks after launch, so it does not update a live control-station position. It also does not limit itself to a serial number with no location at all.
The three ways to comply, including a Standard Remote ID aircraft and a FRIA, are summarized on the Remote ID page. This page is the module path only. The broadcast module is not registered as its own aircraft. Section 89.115(a)(1)(ii) requires the Certificate of Aircraft Registration for each unmanned aircraft the module is used with to list the module's serial number, under the applicable rules in Parts 47 and 48. The same sentence allows the other path: the unmanned aircraft's serial number is submitted in a notice of identification under §89.130 before the operation. That notice is how a foreign-registered civil unmanned aircraft confirms identification. Listing the module serial on an aircraft's registration is not a second registration of the module, and it does not replace the broadcast.
Visual line of sight stays with the module
A remote pilot retrofits an older drone with an FAA-accepted Remote ID broadcast module and later obtains a waiver to fly beyond visual line of sight. During flights that use the module as the Remote ID method, the pilot must still keep the drone within visual line of sight at all times. The broadcast-module compliance path requires that visual contact. The waiver does not override the restriction that comes with this equipment path, and the module does not become a beyond-visual-line-of-sight solution because someone wishes it also broadcast the control station location. Standard Remote ID is the path that broadcasts the control station. The module path is the path that broadcasts the takeoff point and keeps the aircraft in sight.
Section 107.31 visual line of sight, and what does not count as seeing the aircraft, is on the visual line of sight page. The module rule is an additional reason the aircraft stays in sight. It is not satisfied by the camera.
A 2019 aircraft outside a FRIA
A remote pilot wants to fly a 2019-model drone with no built-in Remote ID, for a commercial roof inspection, outside any FAA-recognized identification area. The direct way to comply is to attach an FAA-accepted Remote ID broadcast module and keep the drone within visual line of sight. Emailing the FAA a notice of intent 24 hours before the flight does not create a compliance path. Nothing in the rule excuses the aircraft because it was built before Remote ID existed.
The other no-equipment path is to fly inside a FRIA under the conditions in §89.115, which require both the aircraft and the person manipulating the controls to remain inside the area, with the aircraft in sight. Those boundary rules are on the FRIA page. A roof inspection on a building outside that area is a module flight, or a Standard Remote ID aircraft, not a grandfathered flight and not an email notice.
What fails these items
The location trap swaps the two broadcasts. Pilots remember that Remote ID sends "a location" and then pick the control station for a module, or the takeoff point for a Standard Remote ID aircraft. Say which box is on the aircraft. Built-in Standard Remote ID: control station. Added module: takeoff location.
The operation trap treats a §107.31 waiver as a switch that turns every Remote ID path into a beyond-visual-line-of-sight path. It does not. Module flights stay in sight. The history trap treats 2019 as an exemption year. It is not. Attach an accepted module, see the aircraft, or stay inside a FRIA on the FRIA's terms.
If the module later stops broadcasting, the person manipulating the controls lands as soon as practicable. That failure duty is on the broadcast failure page.
Practice the module items in the free practice test. Remote ID is taught with the regulations lessons in the course at pricing.