Choosing an EPIRB

what ever you buy make sure its new type as the older ones are getting phased out in 2009. cheers

I have a GME MT300 (unused/ not activated) for sale. Battery good til Apr. 2010. It's not the personnal size!!

I have the KTI and carry it with me where ever I go (outdoors that is) I bought it 2 years ago knowing that it will be phased out BUT I liked its features (small, strobe light and replaceable battery). It will do me till they replace the network - as mentioned before I also haven't had to use it.

The strobe light was particularly of interest - just about every rescue i've heard about seemed to involve darkness.

Kind regards

Have used for a real life/death situation the GME MT400 (406mhz) & worked well for the price have now upgraded to GPS epirp exact location type

Make sure its at least a Positioning Indicating will be to within 5klms a old analouge is about 20klms at best

Check this Link for some useful info re EPIRBs

As we're now close to the cut-off date for VHF EPIRBs I would suggest you go for a UHF device.

Mike Harding

As Handy says, the two you have chosen use a system that WILL be switched off soon and they will no longer function. You need one that use 406 Mhz. Do a search on this site, it has been covered previously.

Have a look at thread 30466 - Matt answered this question - however I know he won't mind me quoting him...

Member - MATT M (ACT) posted this followup
Well worth spending the extra money on a 406 EPIRB because of the increased accuracy and the fact that it can identify the owner. Sending all this information (position, registration number, etc) takes a few satellite passes but the distress signal goes out very quickly. The SAR people love them because they are able to make a phone call to the numbers you nominate when you register. This often knocks a false alarm on the head before expensive SAR assets are launched or allows them to get a more accurate picture of what they are dealng with (number of people, equipment/experience you have, medical conditions, etc).

I spent several years working for the US Coast Guard doing SAR and the policy was that they would 'launch' for a 406 EPIRB almost immediately, whereas they would wait for 'correlating SAR information', distress flares, overdue reports, visual sightings, etc before getting too serious about a 121.5 hit. Although one group of rather dull thieves stole thousands of dollars of gear from several fishing vessels in Norfolk and then drove several hundred miles to their home in Boston. They were very surprised when the cops knocked on their door for a chat. Hadn't realised that they had activated the EPIRB when they pulled it of its bracket and that we tracked them the whole way!

Also the 406MHz frequency is a dedicated SAR frequency whereas 121.5 has some other uses. Most (marine at least) 406 EPIRBS also have a 121.5 MHz homing beacon that on site SAR units will use to hone in on your position when on scene. One good piece of advice offered to me when using them in a 4WD is to keep them handy to the driver's position. Not much use to you when floating off down the river in your car or forming the centrepiece of a four wheel BBQ. Still, a $30,000 signal fire is probably a good start to any search and rescue.

Matt.

Thanks to all of you who replied. It appears the 406Mhz is the way to go however Mike W's story was a bit of a concern ????

As we will really only be using it for the next year on the road the expiry date wasnt too much of a concern, hence the selected models. I guess I was kinda hoping the ones I selected would be ok due to being considerably cheaper aswell as a little more portable.

Common sense is telling me not to skimp on such an item and will now be hunting around for a 406Mhz type EPIRB.

Thanks again

121.5 EPIRBs will not be useless after 2009 - it's just that they won't be picked by satellite. Commercial aircraft will still have the 2nd receiver monitoring 121.5.

If you want to have a good chance of being found by visual detection, get a separate Strobe that uses a high-intensity gas-discharge tube like in a flashgun. The KTI uses LEDs - better than nothing, but nowhere near the visibility of a proper strobe.