Avalanche transceivers

[mountainmatt]

Looking for a avalanche transceiver to use mountaineering. Any suggestions?

[Weekend_Climberz]

Mammut Barryvox. It's sweet and lite.

[PaulB]

Lots of good info and some recommendations here.

[Bergretter]

I agree on Mammut's Barryvox as a great choice, it's size is nice for mountaineering. My friend uses the Barryvox and I use the Tracker (we agree the Tracker is the more user friendly), finding these very simple to use compared to traditional analog types, this makes you a pro (or close to) without tons of practice.

[tomtom]

Pieps DSP.

 

Third antenna makes a difference.

[genepires]

mammut is a good beacon as are most modern beacons.

 

But the best piece of gear for avi protection is to not get caught in one. I know this obvious, but looking at getting caught in an avalanche on any mountain that contains rock cliffs, crevasses, ice cliffs and such will probably result in death due to trauma. So don't let the knowledge of a beacon on your person give you a sense of security, because it shouldn't. Just my little speel, 2 cents. ect.

[tlinn]

I did my avy course with a dude that is known in the industry as THE beacon guy and this is what he said.

 

Pieps DSP - very easy to use and is relatively foolproof but there are still some erros with the digital beacons

 

Ortovox M2 and Mammut - same deal. The M2 is the worst

 

Tracker - nice and easy to use but has a button that is easy to push by mistake making it easy to start transmitting by mistake in a search. Also, the range with this one isn`t as good as many of the others.

 

Ortovox F1 - my pick. Is nice and easy to use. Cheap. And is analog so it doesn`t have the same transceiver issues. Make sure you get one with a digital display. I have an old one I picked up in Europe that only uses sound and it take much more practice to become proficient.

 

Whatever beacon you choose make sure you know it inside and out. THis is far more important than the type of beacon you are using. Also, get to know your partner`s beacons.

 

cheers

[tlinn]

On another note the Pieps is pretty sweet for multiple burials as you can flag a victim isolating that signal and then move onto the next victim. It is also so accurate that if the victim is buried hopelessly deep in the snow you can move onto the next signal as this person is not likely going to make it. The Pieps is the best of the digital transceivers.

[larrythellama]

barryovox is way overkill, almost all the functions are pointless. tracker or the f1 are the standards. i also have an sos which works quite well.

[RogerJ]

Here is another link (sponsored by Backcountry.com) the conclusions seemed to be right to the point.

 

Backcountry.com Review

 

-r

[dbconlin]

I tried a Pieps DSP in the store and the "found victim" function did not seem to work. In fact, I could not get it to work very well at all. Granted this is in the store, where there are a lot of complicating factors, so I don't know.

 

My girlfriend has the Tracker. Any Avy rescue professional will probably recommend that one, for beginners or experts alike. The world speed record was set with this beacon according to pros at the Colorado Mountain School.

 

I have the Mammut. I love it. It isn't quite as user-friendly as the Tracker initially, but once you learn to use it, I can use it every bit as fast or faster than most people can use the Tracker. I agree most of the user-programmable options are useless, but of course, you can just leave it in the default and never worry about those. Most avy pros I talked to said that the Mammut is the only option they would consider besides the Tracker. Also it is considerably lighter and more compact, if that matters.

 

Hope this helps.

 

David

[mike1]

I have Arva and like it a lot. However, I've trained with others that use the Mammut and it's top notch. I suggest Mammut Berryvox for ease of use and built in safety switch.

[cj001f]

I tried a Pieps DSP in the store and the "found victim" function did not seem to work. In fact, I could not get it to work very well at all. Granted this is in the store, where there are a lot of complicating factors, so I don't know.

I've problems with my DSP masking older beacons. Namely, it doesn't very well. The beacon count feature will also be off. The firmware upgrade didn't improve this noticeably.

 

That said it's a very easy to use digital direction finding beacon with the best range of any - more than enough for top honours, currently.

[mike1]

http://beaconreviews.com/transceivers/

 

more good info.