OK, who dumped the EPIRB??

[wheels 543]

An emergency locator beacon buried under rubbish at the Taupo tip sparked a search and rescue operation this morning.

 

The National Rescue Coordination Centre alerted Taupo's Youthtown Rescue Helicopter to the beacon sounding after the signal was picked up by several aircraft.

 

Chopper pilot Nat Every said the beacon signal had been picked up as far away as the Kapiti Coast, north of Wellington, by an aircraft at 16,000 feet. Various other aircraft across the central North Island also picked up the signal.

 

"After a brief airborne search, followed by a ground search, an ELT beacon was found at the Taupo landfill under about a foot of rubbish," Every said.

 

"This serves as a timely reminder to please take care when disposing of old beacons. Had the battery been removed the false activation could have been avoided."

[PaulR 3]

Possibly more important is the question:

 

"WHO failed to REGISTER their EPIRB "

 

Just shows there is nothing wrong with it as well!!

 

Looks like a SALCOM.

[wheels 543]

Now that these are obsolete, would the old registration info still be kept??

I threw ours out the other day. Took the batteries out ofcourse. It was out of our old Liferaft and it had never been registered to us. I have no clue who it would have been registered too.

[Steve Pope 243]

We are told they are obsolete, but it is obvious that that one could have led someones rescue had it been activated in an emergency situation. perhaps we should keep our 121.5"s as a back up rather than dump them!

[Guest]

That is my thoughts Steve.

I am days away from relaunch so need to buy a new unit, but the expired one may just get put away somewhere on the yacht.

[wheels 543]

The big problem is that the 121 has to be picked up by an aircraft listening for that freq. And then they can onbly home in on it by flying around till the signal gets stronger and/or via Triangulation. That can take a long time. And then there is enough inaccuracy that unless the vessel is visable, than can go right over you and still not see you because the centre of strong signal is a wide area. You don't actually get pinpointed.

[Atom Ant 0]

And yet nearly a year after they were no longer being monitored, they found one in a dump, buried, and pretty quickly too I might add. Not so long ago someone was rescued due to an old 121 being activated. Mine is still in the boat and I won't throw it out - but I ain't counting on it as a first line device either.

[Guest]

The new units also still put out the 121 signal.

It can be used by rescue service to home in on the unit using direction finding gear (which looks like a prop from the original Star trek series.)

[wheels 543]

It is the satellite signal that is no longer monitored.

121 is short distance and as already said, a homing signal and used by aircraft. Not very accurate. The direction finder can find the general position and it is only with flying over that they can work out they passed the source and it takes several directions to triangulate to get an area. But the area is not very accurate.

121 is NOT a reason to keep these devices as they simply may never be heard. Although you probably have a far higher chance of one being heard than a flare being seen. It just needs to be understood that there is still a chance you won't be noticed and thus it is not 100% reliable like a new EPIRB is. And if you consider carrying an EPIRB as important, then a new unit is not really that expensive and you can have the certainty of being heard.

I fear that many people holding onto these old units think they are still going to raise help by using them. It's really only going to be a 90% chance I would expect and that is if you are Coastal. The further away you get, the les your chance and like all these low frequencies, they are line of sight. So off shore sailing should never ever consider them.

[Steve Pope 243]

The moral of any epirb debate is to have the epirb as a last resort, rather than going out without proper preparation and redundant self sufficiency. As you get away from 1st world infrastructure you and you alone can be relied on for your safety, or not. As we have to carry a 406 having the old 121.5 is certainly as good or better than carrying extra flares, I know of only 1 rescue being activated by setting off a flare and that wasn't quick enough to avoid a fatality, the person who survived would have done so anyway as they were already ashore.

[Guest]

None of the comments here are saying they won't be buying a 406 unit because they have a 121 that still works.

The point you are missing is that a rescue vessel/aircraft searching on the water will have a 406 epirb generated GPS location from RCC as the point of reference, but will be using a 121 tracker as a direction finder to go directly to the vessel in distress. The battery life of these things is short, so being able to turn on another 121 only device once your 406 unit LED stops flashing will keep the blood pressure down.

 

I read an incident report from the US where a 1 month old 406 unit operated for only 2 hours before the battery went flat. Luckily they had another 406 from their previous vessel that they were able to switch on that went for another 24 hours. They were finally found by an aircraft that made VHF contact.

[wheels 543]

I was about to make a comment and then suddenly that made me think of a question. Does 406 update position ever Sattelite pass? or does it give a Lat/Long co-ordinate update as poisition changes with drift???

My comment was going to be that the GPS co-ordinate is within a metre of bang on the spot. The aircraft does not need the 121. In fact you would be far more accurate in setting off a flare to mark your position to the aircraft going over. 121 is simply not accurate. I can not ephasize that enough. 121 is very very inaccurate and ultimately comes down to some very good eyes in the aircraft to pinpoint a boat. Hence often why VHF usually becomes the last tool in the final coming together. If there is no VHF communication, it takes a great deal to home in on the 121 and often quite a search till the vessel or raft is spotted. 121 gives a general area only and it big ruff seas and poor visability, spotting a boat can be really hard.

[Steve Pope 243]

Hard case Allan to hear how bad the 121.5 really is/was especially since they were sold as the latest / best thing since sliced bread prior to the 406's being launched

Once again, be self reliant, as probably when the 406 is superseded we will find out they didn't cut the mustard either. Of course that wont happen until the market is saturated with 406's. Cynical, nah, not really.

[wheels 543]

Don't get the homing freq confused with the Satt freq Steve. That is why they were still good units in their time. There was nothing better simply put. It's only because having the L/L co-ordinates transmitted now, that the new 406 is far supperior. The search aircraft can now dial in a specific point on the face of the world and fly right too it. The fact that they have the 121.5 still, is only really as a back up. Yes it will still get you found hopefully, but just no where near as fast as can now happen when they now know ecatly where in the big wide world you actually are.

I first found out how useless this 121.5 freq was when I was involved in a search and rescue for a chopper when I was in my early 20's. I was involved quite by accident. I happened to be a passenger in a mates light aircraft. We were leaving Hokitika and heading to CHCH when a chopper leaving Westport went down. We were asked if we could help out while on our route to CHCH. They had the signal, but no idea where exactly the aircraft was. We flew along the path of direction with two other choopers each side of us and I can vividly remember looking down at the dense bush in the valley below thinking, man if something went into that, we haven't a show of seeing anything. Eventually they found the chopper. It had gone down at the back of a golf course only minutes leaving Westport, sadly killing both on board.

 

Slightly on a different tack, there is someone right at the moment trying to fund putting up his own Sattelite for Cell phs. He wants to make cell phone calls cheaper and cover a bigger area. I was thinking a further point to that idea. If they use birds up there for cell communication, I reckon it wouldn't be long before smart phones take a step further in development and have EPIRB type ability. You could be found anywhere in the world. Of course, you can also be tracked anywhere in the world.

[PaulR 3]

http://www.salcom.co.nz/Media/Products/Manuals/1180-mrb406-and-mrb406GPS-manual.pdf

 

This Salcom Manual has good information, testing, operating sequences and coverage charts.

 

Always buy the 406 WITH GPS.

 

Read Martime NZA report about sinking off Tauranga (Time to Burn?)when their keel fell off. Marine rescue centre had to wait for over an hour for next pass to get a position fix. Skipper drowned. Extra cost of $300 for GPS model means position sent with first message. Cheap if you are the one in the water.

 

REGISTER the beacon. Read Australian reports where 2 very experienced CYCA sailors drowned in a race last year. One beacon was not registered so rescue could not check up quickly. Other beacon was registered but not activated from memory.

 

CHECK and CHECK a few months later that WELLINGTON 406 registry is correct. A few years ago I found out that they "retype" the information. The confirming email I received back was fine. About a month later I wanted "PROOF" that the beacon was correctly registered for owner, copy for yacht's files and to make the Safety Inspector's job nice and easy "Tick Off".

 

The Wellington 406 registery staff had confused numbers, mis-spelt names etc about 10 mistakes including swapping numbers between my brother and another person. This could have easily resulted in the phone being answered "I've never heard of that person".

 

So Check and CHECK again.

HUMAN ERRORS => Don't trust the bastards with your life.

Remember it's only your money they after.

Once tax is paid, they really really are concerned about your health.

All pink pigs fuelled are ready for take off

[rigger 47]

A 406 EPIRB without a GPS - Position is determined by the satellites so is not within a few metres.

 

 

The 406 MHz EPIRB was designed to operate with satellites. The signal frequency (406 MHz) has been designated internationally for use only for distress. Other communications and interference, such as on 121.5 MHz, is not allowed on this frequency. Its signal allows a satellite local user terminal to accurately locate the EPIRB (much more accurately -- 2 to 5 km vice 25 km -- than 121.5/243 MHz devices), and identify the vessel (the signal is encoded with the vessel's identity) anywhere in the world (there is no range limitation). These devices are detectable not only by COSPAS-SARSAT satellites which are polar orbiting, but also by geostationary GOES weather satellites. EPIRBs detected by the GEOSTAR system, consisting of GOES and other geostationary satellites, send rescue authorities an instant alert, but without location information unless the EPIRB is equipped with an integral GPS receiver. EPIRBs detected by COSPAS-SARSAT (e.g. TIROS N) satellites provide rescue authorities location of distress, but location and sometimes alerting may be delayed as much as an hour or two. Although these EPIRBs also include a low power 121.5 MHz homing signal, homing on the more powerful 406 MHz frequency has proven to be a significant aid to search and rescue aircraft. These are the only EPIRB types which can be sold in the United States.

 

A new type of 406 MHz EPIRB, having an integral GPS navigation receiver, became available in 1998. This EPIRB will send accurate location as well as identification information to rescue authorities immediately upon activation through both geostationary (GEOSAR) and polar orbiting satellites. These types of EPIRBs are the best you can buy.