Member - Beatit (QLD) replied:

G'day Mike,

I know there have been a couple of posts on this topic and as I have 2 if these "old" devices and planning on a new one soon I have been toying with possibility of taking both on my travels. My personal small unit would certainly be no huge weight disadvantage and my simple reasoning is that should I end up in a serious enough situation to need to use one then maybe I'd be better served by having both screaming help for me!

Kind regards

Member - Footloose replied:

Good advice, Mike. I guess it's a matter of an old beacon being better than no beacon to save your bacon, eh ?

Member - Mike DID replied:

I have two 121.5 Beacons. One stays in my bushwalking pack and one stays in the vehicle. A don't have any remote area trips planned that will be out of range of commercial flight routes, so I won't be upgrading to a 406 beacon for a while. I have a satphone for urgent non-emergency calls.

I had a very vivid lesson in having backups for emergency equipment when I did my Deckhand (GPH) Training. We pushed the Self-Inflating raft into the pool and tugged on the handline. There was the expected bang and the covers of the raft separated, but then there was a lot of hissing and bubbling but not much inflating of the raft.

When the hissing stopped, we pulled the raft on land and opened it up. The CO2 line had cracked near the bottle, allowing all the gas to escape before there was any useful inflation of the raft.

Imagine the look on the faces of the survivors of a sinking yacht, if this was the only liferaft on board !!!

howie replied:

i agree it's probably worth keeping the 121.5 if you must, but people must realise the possible consequences.
a couple of posts seem to suggest that if you set off the 121.5, all will ok, as a passing jet will report it.
a "passing' jet at about 30,000 might hear the beacon, which at that height, could narrow it down to 40,000 sq miles.
that is, if you happen to be near a airline route, and if the pilot has that frequency on. (lot of 'ifs')
the only way i would use a 121.5 beacon now is if (hopefully you have done the right thing and told people your itinerary) you are reported late, and the search and rescue know roughly where you might be.
since the beacon's battery could only last for 24 hrs, i would try and wait until i thought the SAR was operational.
i remind people, the 121.5 signal will NOT be processed by the satellite from feb.
yes, the 121.5 element can used for the final homing in, but if nobody knows you are in trouble.......
the change has been planned for a long time now, and i understand the price for a 406 beacon may not be affordable to all, but please understand your decision.