# EPIRBS / PLBs



## MrFaulty (May 15, 2008)

Just a gripe I have - recently as most of you are probably aware, the analogue system was turned off. I had a personal EPIRB, cost me $280 approx and now it is useless. I went and priced a new digital one, over $600!!!

I know people are going to say stop complaining, no price is too great for safety etc, but, surely the powers that be should make it affordable to be safe? and in any case, when I purchase my analogue EPIRB (some years back admitadly) no one advised me that it would be a throw away not too far down the track - how about a buy back scheme - even if GME and the likes offered a small portion of its original value as a subsidy for a new one.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?


----------



## beefs (Jan 30, 2006)

I'm the same as you, a personal epirb for getting off the beaten track and another for the boat...being pricey as they are it's only the boat epirb that got replaced. So now, instead of having my personal epirb attached to my belt when hiking etc it will be the massive anchor sized boat epirb or none at all...some sort of buyback or subsidy would have been nice.


----------



## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

If anyone's keen I did pick up a GME MT410G PLB yesterday for $495. It's a GPS equipped (accuracy within 100m instead of 5km for non GPS), waterproof, has a strobe light, and is a compact unit (although slightly larger than my old one). Whitworths in Melb have em on special for $549, Anaconda stock em for $649 but have a "Beat it by 10% price guarantee", which then gets ya the $495 price tag. A google should bring up the Whitworths price for em to verify pricing. Still a lotta loot though. :shock:


----------



## Feral (Oct 18, 2008)

For land based, a lot of the big national parks etc you can now rent them


----------



## Bart70 (Jan 28, 2007)

MrFaulty said:


> Just a gripe I have - recently as most of you are probably aware, the analogue system was turned off. I had a personal EPIRB, cost me $280 approx and now it is useless. I went and priced a new digital one, over $600!!!
> 
> I know people are going to say stop complaining, no price is too great for safety etc, but, surely the powers that be should make it affordable to be safe? and in any case, when I purchase my analogue EPIRB (some years back admitadly) no one advised me that it would be a throw away not too far down the track - how about a buy back scheme - even if GME and the likes offered a small portion of its original value as a subsidy for a new one.
> 
> Anyone else have any thoughts on this?


Hi MrFaulty,

I am currently involved in a project team for the company I work for selecting the best PLB to issue to our field staff (approx 2000 units). As part of this process I have visited the AMSA Control Centre in Canberra and held meetings with AMSA staff to gain an understanding of how the units and the Cospas-Sarsat satelite systems functions.

It was interesting to note that AMSA were actively pushing the fact that the VHF system was being shut down well in advance. The knowledge was out there well in advance. What is apparent is that many distributors did not push the same message down to the retailers, and some who did had it ignored at retail level. Even our own aviation industry almost got caught out and in some cases did not have their aircraft beacons upgraded to 406mhz in time.

Whilst AMSA were aware and making this known - how many people even know what AMSA is? or that it exists? or that they provide advise on the systems to users?

I tend to agree with you - the importers/distributors/retailers should have been more proactive in advising the buying public. In fairness to them they probably had thousands of the units in the country that would have been worthless (to them) had they not sold them - so their best interest was to move tham ASAP (hence becoming worthless to the purchaser).

Perhaps a government based scheme could have been introduced for those who purchased the older units 12 months or less from the turn changeover date?

An interesting sidenote is that AMSA regularly get responses from old units.....these are often eventually found in the bottom of garbage tips etc.... They have a policy of search untl the unit is found - it is not uncommon to find the SES searching a landfill site for an activated beacon!! Please be responsible if disposing of these units!!

*EDIT:* Be responsible in this regard people. Whilst there is a chance a signal from one may still be picked up by a passing aircraft, resources are tied up looking for it while somebody else could be in trouble. The government made it known for a long time that these units were going to be phased out - do not be so keen to aim the blame at them. The manufacturers kept pushing them at the public!

I believe fines will apply shortly for people who are registered to a device that is activated - they should be out of service by now.

There are also a couple of shortcomings of the system that people should be aware of - one there can be up to a 90 minute delay in getting a signal out - this is 'worst case scenario' but possible due to the satelite systems location in the sky. The main satelites are geostationary with the main one that covers Oz being located over India so in our mid nth western sky. If in a ravine blocking line of site there are a lower set of orbiting satelites which pass over every 90 minutes. It is possible that you can set off your beacon, be in the shadow of the geostationary satelite and have had the orbiting ones just gone over - meaning 90 mins aprox until the next one. Is a lot better than having no PLB at all!!

Sometimes the geostationary satelite over Hawaii will pick up beacons from the Oz east coast.....but the main satelite for us in located over India.

These are not to be confused with the GPS satelites - a PLB/EPIRB will gain its location from the GPS system, but sends the distress signal via the Cospas-Sarsat system.

All 406Mhz units also have a 'homing'or tracking transmitter in the VHF range (121mhz from memory) that is constantly monitored by aircraft - any commercial flight that flies within 30 nm of a beacon that has been activated will pick up the signal and are obliged to report it. It is also used for SAR aircraft who have directional antenna's to home in on a beacon as they get within range of it. This means that if you are blocked from the geo satelite and waiting for one orbit overhead....nearby aircraft will also be alerted and a response activated. AMSA will commence a response then update the search when the extra details come in from the Geostationary.

A bit of background info for those who have not had a lot of exposure to it - I certainly learnt a lot since becoming involved with the project.

Bart70


----------

