EPIRB Rescue in the Pilbara

I always knew she was an intelligent woman :)))

BLOODY RELATIVES

Outlaws Bro, Outlaws hahahahahahaha

Check that the batteries are still in..!! lol

She wouldn't do that Laurie - she can't get off to sleep without my snoring !
Willie

Hello John

Yes . I'm supposed to be retired but I am back here for 6 weeks filling in .

Good one well done.

I guess it made for a nice change rather than landing on ships at sea.

same as the law of the sea. every one is obligated to respond to distress calls. Canberra would have had someone contact the air plane even if it did not receive the signal. Commercial aircraft like 747s carry a receiver as far as I remember.

Owen

>Commercial aircraft like 747s carry a receiver as far as I remember.

I have no doubt they do - i am interested in the concept of whether major commercial airlines respond to EPIRBs in the sense of homing in on then etc - call me a cynic but I have my doubts...?

Mike Harding

Although most big ones do monitor 121.5, the rules (very generalised statement) only require you to check that the freq on take off and shutdown so you can make sure your beacon is not active.

If aussar is made aware of a beacon detection, either by satellite or aircraft hearing reports, they will request ATC to get aircraft in the area to specifically monitor and report hearing and none hearing reports.

This is for two reasons: The first is it helps to narrow down the general area, and the second is that if a detection was by satellite there will be two positions, the real one and an identical one on the opposite side of the satellites path. You have to wait for the next satellite pass to determine which is the real one.

For example if one of these spots is on the east coast and the other is west, monitoring would be in put place on both coasts in the general detection area. If you get a aircraft reporting a detection on the west coast you know the beacon is that one and you can respond much quicker.

Most of the responses to beacons will be by the aerorescue aircrafton contract to aussar, rescue helicopters located around the country (eg westpacs and police) and aircraft of opportunity such as the Port Hedland Helo above (which looks like it did a great job). Its pretty rare for a 747 to be used to actually home and locate a beacon source.

Of course the job can be a whole lot quicker if you have a new 406 Beacon :)

Yeh , the Boss is getting me the one that transmits GPS position.

Hi aroundwego

Thanks for the clear explanation.

I have a VHF unit but will probably upgrade to UHF once the price settles down in a year or so.

Mike Harding

As mentioned above if you set off your epirb then a satellite will give two possible locations. If you have registered your epirb as land based and one of the two possible locations is at sea then the other possible position is now a probably position :-))

Can be better then that, if you have a 406 and its registered the first thing that would be done would be ring the nominated points of contact and they help out by saying "Your in your truck crossing the Simpson" or "your in your tinnie with 4 mates off such and such bay"

Also if you activate your 406 beacon (the new ones) it should be processed within about 10 minutes after being detected by the stationary satellites. So a response can be started, and then when the next orbiting satellite passes over it would provide a position. Or aussar can get something heading out in the direction you said you were going - and try and detect it before the satellite arrives.

Just one point (without being picky) you cant really rely on the fact that it is a marine registered beacon as people use them in other environments. Which is why being able to call you or the contacts is such an advantage

Absolutely right 'aroundwego'.

Now if we only had a simple system of filing an 'intention' plan like boats and aircraft do it would make it even easier. At present a couple of telephone numbers may be of little use as the contact people could be out of touch (might be out of range with their new 'G' phone :-)).