Personal Locator From Mt. Hood Thread

[LandShark]

For those of you who do not want regulation, you might want to go to http://www.katu.com/ and do some damage control on that poll on the front page. Right now 95% are in favor of requiring "personal locators", whatever that means.

 

The U.S. Coast Guard requires all ocean going vessals to carry Emergency Locators that are activated by water.

 

 

Phil you are full of shit. The Coast Guard requries EPIRB's for commercial vessels but imposes no such requirement on recreational vessels. Now STFU.

[ackvor]

SAR doesn't have the manpower/equipment/money to respond with everything for every time a little button gets pressed. It would be like sending a hook-and-ladder, SWAT team, and Lifelink heli every time 911 got called.

 

Actually, A search will be initiated after all emergency contacts, which are listed when the device is registered, are exhausted. This is a serious system. It is only to be activated when all other means of survival have been ruled out. I have the ACR unit with the internal GPS. It can be had for less than $600.00. Each unit is registered with a federal agency at no cost to the owner. I mainly use the unit for offshore fishing, but do occasionally take it with me on hikes in New England. I certainly don't think they should require these things, but maybe promote them somehow with some sort of incentives/discounts......

 

 

 

[Gary_Yngve]

My point is that they'll begin a search and will likely scout first, whereas if you can send specific info via cell/satphone, you can get a more specialized response.

 

Like if you call 911 and hang up, they'll call you back, and if they can't reach you, they'll send a patrol car by. They're not going to send every possible response your way.

 

If you hit the button, they may not respond with a heli with hoist capability, but if you call in and say you have a critically injured patient who needs immediate evac, they probably will.

 

Dunno what they do about a beep when it's dark or weather is bad... anyone know more?

[Nathan]

SAR doesn't have the manpower/equipment/money to respond with everything for every time a little button gets pressed. It would be like sending a hook-and-ladder, SWAT team, and Lifelink heli every time 911 got called.

 

Actually, A search will be initiated after all emergency contacts, which are listed when the device is registered, are exhausted. This is a serious system. It is only to be activated when all other means of survival have been ruled out. I have the ACR unit with the internal GPS. It can be had for less than $600.00. Each unit is registered with a federal agency at no cost to the owner. I mainly use the unit for offshore fishing, but do occasionally take it with me on hikes in New England. I certainly don't think they should require these things, but maybe promote them somehow with some sort of incentives/discounts......

 

 

So you're saying that if I activate a PLB they'll phone my wife (or whoever's on my list) who can possibly give SAR the general situation (am I solo, what was I planning on doing, etc...) before they send out the search party? Seems like that could in many cases provide some basic helpful information on the general situation.

 

Personnaly I think a PLB sounds like a good thing as an absolute last resort when the shit really hits the fan, especially for solo activities, even if there's a <1% chance I'll use it in my lifetime. Now if only they cost and weighed 1/3 the amount they do right now...

 

Any international restrictions on PLB's? Anyone have experience using them in Canada?