Ozzie wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 12:01 pm
Australian made. Compact lightweight design.Inherently buoyant.
IP68 water proof protection. Integrated 72Ch GPS receiver. 7 year battery life
6 year warranty. Easy to deploy
Great it can be used sea, land, Coles, wherever. What ultimately decided you on that one? We are still mulling it over as not currently going travelling any distance. Can it be used OS with suitable advanced notice to provider?
Just an add on for anyone else interested who gets off grid anywhere land or water, vehicle, boat or shanks pony.
https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-eve ... nt-300000/
G'day Ozzie,
I was searching the net and it came up on special for Anaconda club membership at $305, so was temporarily the cheapest one around here by far (they are usually mid $300 - $400ish). Plus Australian made and all the above you mentioned. They operate world wide, (just update your AMSA online beacon rego account with trip details) Pocket sized (when out of it's protective semihard $26 case) and easy to raise antena. The other thing is there's no subscription fees (like "spot", "Garmin inreach" etc, more suited to companies)
Did the 2 tests, it worked (without sending "Help save me!". press the green button, don't press the red button! Bit like the Matrix movies pills, they are about 1cm apart so be carefull!
). first test is indoors makes sure the electronics/batt are good, the 2nd GPS aquisition test was after dark as i couldn't see the flashing green LED in strong sunlight. Once the antenna is re-stowed, it covers the buttons so no way can anyone accidentally bump it on (plus the carry case helps too) just keep it well away from kids etc. (GME has good utube vids on operating stuff)
The good thing about GPS PLB's is on emergency activation (red button), it only takes minutes for data to reach authorities. especially your
exact coordinates (+/-100m) are 406Mhz beamed upto Geostationary equatorial satellites (70degN-70degS constant coverage) and more irregular polar orbit LEO sats and back to earth stations. the ID/coord data is merged with AMSA beacon rego data (owner/contact/ boat description etc), phone checks done to weed out the 97% of false alarms. Then the SAR sea/air craft head for you, with RDF = radio direction finders, that lock onto your beacons 121mhz homing signal. If at night, there is a flashing white strobe going on it too. It's modern miracle it all works so well. It might take a bit longer if you go on an antarctic expedition or visit santa at north pole.
The only thing with a small PLB is it must be held clear of water with vertical antena somehow if swimming (esky lid?) , or put on a flat surface like the deck or rocks (with good sky view). It can only signal for 24hrs or so.
The much bigger marine EPIRB signals best when floating in smooth water and can signal for 48hrs or longer, it's the first choice for offshore boats and PLB's are secondary. (but if you never go past the 2nm offshore and smooth waters limits, and 4WD, camp, kayak, dinghy etc allot too, a PLB would likely be first choice, they go anywhere easily) I got my PLB for dinghy/kayak/ maybe a bush camp (and Teria "solo man" overboard
)
Checked Teria's EPIRB a GME MT400 from 2014. A simple system (without GPS). The digital ID info gets out fast, but it can/often take
hours for Canberra to determine a rough 5km position, (as position calculation data trickles in from sats and aircraft) before they decide to alert search and rescue (SAR). So you could be 1-5 hours on the rocks or sunk before your local SAR gets to the big search area of your estimated position. The 121mhz homing beacon with their RDF does help allot, but the search takes longer and costs more. (Hence pre-trip logs with CG /VMR useful)
for me at least it's worth spending an extra $50 to get a GPS-EPIRB (like the GME MT600G) (saw one for $304 at anaconda club) and save those long hours of hell awaiting rescue. (difference between life or potential death basically) The whole new GPS-beacon system also saves the SAR authorities (taxpayers/volunteer Coast guard) a fortune too, as rescuers can go straight to your GPS-beacon without much searching. (still 3 years left on my current plain EPIRB's lifespan to go tho, so wait until then.
)
and no need to burn down whole forests either. $300 is better than $USD 300,000 fines! (thanks for that story too, interesting about not enough water carried for hot days, then severe leg cramps can't walk out)