121.5/243 MHz epirbs on eBay

These EPIRB's still have some value although limited.

All commercial airliners still monitor 121.5 and 243 MHz all the time.

If you were venturing into the outback one of these EPIRBs would still be handy. An airliner that picks up a signal would contact the national SAR Centre and steps would be taken to locate the source.

Certainly worth keeping if you already have one, but buying one? That's something I probably would not do.

Yes I think it is wrong.

The vendors are only attempting to clear old stock and don't give a stuff about safety issues.

Unfortunatey, it is up to the buyer to be aware the old analogue units are to all extents and purposes OBSOLETE. Any worthwhile reseller will advise their customers of this fact.

If one looks at the Witworths Marine web site for instance, only 406mHz units are listed.

Anyone relying on some Airline Pilot to pick up the 121.5 signal and initiate any meaningful rescue attempt need their heads read.

Bill

Yeah some people on Ebay are real opportunists. I email them always when I come across something and let them know , the responses are always amusing. I bought a GME 406MHz with GPS and have finally completed registration and even had them call me to query my call sign (Mainly Marine USE).

Not everyone who travels in remote areas will buy a 406 beacon.

A 121.5 beacon is alot better than no beacon at all.

If you're overdue and they send out search aircraft for you, they will home straight in to you - even if you're invisible under tree cover.

If you don't have a beacon, they might give up after searching hundreds of square kilometres and missing you.

For those who think that a cheap 121.5 beacon will still be okay, something to consider is:

Upon receiving a report that an aircraft has heard a beacon the following formula is used to determine the initial area of probability:

1.2 x square root of the height in feet.

So if its QF10 flying from Sydney to Japan he will be up at 35 000 feet (as an example). Therefore the initial search area is radius of 225miles from his position.

So in the case of most users here if you are in trouble (in remote area) and you use a 121.5 beacon (after FEB 09) you are first off hoping that there happens to be an aircraft who has a company requirement (not legal) to monitor 121.5. If it does hear you, a circle of 225 miles is drawn around it. That is a large area to start with!

Hopefully it wont be at night, as in reality there are not that many aircraft flying around the remote regions at that time. There are the charter and bank runs but it is doubtful they will be listening out. Before anyone can start looking realistically more aircraft are going to be required to start initial localization searches.

Some extra thing to factor in now are:

Hopefully you were sitting on flat ground, or on the same side of the hill that the aircraft flew past on. If you were on the other side of the hill - the aircraft would not have picked you up (remembering the frequency is a Line Of Sight one.

Did you deploy the beacon correctly and its not being shielded? In a lot of cases a shielded beacons transmission on its harmonic of 243.0 is only heard. In this case your Qantas 747 wont hear it.

Prior to Feb 09, at least an orbiting satellite had the potential to detect and help locate you. After that date you will be reliant upon chance detections (as described above)

Personally I think if I was in the scenario above, I would start thinking that maybe the cheap $50-100 beacon on ebay wasn't such a good buy. Maybe the $400 406 wasn't such a bad price after all

Having worked at the RCC and been the one of the team that coordinates the response to epirbs - I will be honest and say - it is far more preferable that you have a 406

Pete