EPIRB ..... When to activate?

Only in life threatening situations! HOWEVER ..who decides what is life threatening? Sadly common sense is growing scarcer and nongs will set off an epirb when not really necessary.. Maybe charging them the cost of the search is warranted. Satfone is a lot dearer but in my opinion a must if travelling to remote/isolated areas. Epirb for backup positioning if reqd.

From the Australian Government website...

“Distress beacons should only be used when there is a threat of grave and imminent danger. In the event of an emergency, communication should first be attempted with others close by using radios, phones and other signalling devices. Mobile phones can be used but should not be relied upon as they can be out of range, have low batteries or become water-damaged.”

My take is that if you have to think twice about whether you should use it or not after taking into account the above guidelines than I would hit the button, little point dying wondering...

Exactly, ONLY in life threatening situations.

In the high country IMO this only applies if you are off track - hiking, hunting etc. and something goes wrong.

You are unable to contact anyone else in the area, and are not able to get back to shelter / warmth.

If stuck in extreme weather again id still say you should have the means to reasonably look after yourself - ride it out.

So long as you show reasonable efforts to be self sufficient, but due to extreme circumstances you still felt like your life was in danger then i think you are well within your rights to activate your PLB. (EPIRBS are for Boats).

IMO i doubt, 'they' the govt. are going to make anyone pay for their own rescue in the case of incompetence... Sure the media might run a story or two about what an idiot you were, and 'they' will warn you that you 'could' be liable for false activations but i bet that all. I wish they did make a few of the idiots pay but ive never heard of it happening.

..............................

Its pretty hard to comment on 'the' case in the high country with the information you have given but who knows... up there the weather can turn in minutes. How 'main' is the main road, up there who knows even reaching a 'main' road / track does no guarantee someone is going to come passed for hours (rarely, but still possible; even a day or two), and from there it still could be 50-60km out to ACTUAL help / contact with people, a town.

If you leave your vehicle and start hiking out and an hour later the weather drops 20deg, visibility go's to zero... then what, ok sure. Activate your PLB, but still it could be hours before help arrives, and in these conditions they might not even be able to reach you for 12-24hours...

Unless you are highly experienced, and have all the equipment necessary my advice would be to stay with your vehicle and ride it out (the bad weather) and keep waiting, trying to contact others on the UHF. Depending on your location Mobile Phone coverage is pretty much available from EVERY high mountain peak. I would be more likely to head 'up' and get mobile phone reception (as much as i hate it when on holidays!). If you have done all that, run out of food and froze ya butt off for one night, maybe, just maybe then id flick the switch on the PLB.

Travis.

I have thought about this at length in the past and its not easy. When is something life threatening? More importantly, do you wait until you are in dire circumstance given you don't know how far away help could be.... or do you activate early to avoid catastrophe. Do you wait until your last litre of water... two litres? Or do you call while you have supplies to spare (when the temptation is to wait for someone to show up)? I dunno. I will activate early and take the legal consequences of that I think. Good reason to have a sat phone.

All valid points. One thing to remember is that emergency services don't know what the emergency is. A beacon activation is detected and generally a response is quickly launched.

If taking the High Country for example, the last PLB activation got an initial response from three police units and a MICA ambulance. This was soon expanded to another police unit and two police Search and Rescue vehicles with oversnow vehicle capabilities. The searches don't know if the person is dying, stuck or lonely.

It turned into a large scale operation but ended with a good result, with the person being found safe, but cold and wet.

I'd always recommend another form of comms so that you can contact '000' or similar, and advised them if you are 'just' lost, injured or need specialist medical attention.

Bottom line:- when you honestly believe there is no other option and you can't help yourself without putting yourself or others in danger - flick the switch.

Tim-Stratford

Also, if you OK but lost and you know there is a search party out there looking for you, you should turn on the PLB so they don't waste resources looking for you.

Gday,
I agree with everyone else....... If you think your life is at risk or you know there is already a search party looking for you.
Obviously dont leave it too late,but dont set it off when there is a possibility of someone comeing past before your rations run out or you need medical help.

Cheers

I can sort of provide some input here as I dobbed myself in responding in another thread as I work on the box that gets the activations and then coordinates the response.

The official answer as pointed out above is that it is a distress call - when life is in imminent danger. But that is often a personal call, its easy in a boat (I'm sinking) or in a plane (engine stopped and flying is curtailed). On land and isolated and you come upon an accident and people are hurt and you have no other means of communication is an easy scenario as well.

Off-road is sometimes the harder, ie breakdown/bogged, it really is your call and you take into consideration - how remote am I, is someone expecting me, do we have enough food and water, is there any other means of communication. It may not seem too bad on day 1 but don't wait till its too late - better to rescue a fit and healthy family then find one that ran out of water a day ago.

If you do set it off though, please leave it on until the Police or we ask you to turn it off. If someone comes along and helps you out of trouble - keep it on - as you can imagine how hard a scenario it is that one is active for awhile and then disappears and no one is at the spot indicated.

The other thing is to consider what time of day is it, if you are concerned at lunchtime its best not think "I will till tonight in case someone comes along before I set it off". There are so many more options to help you by day then when the sun goes down.

Sort of also goes back to my "preaching" in the other thread, register it for free and keep your details up todate and provide good info to your contacts, and when you set it off it will be a lot easier to resolve and maybe a simple response :)

Apart from being an official response - the above is pretty much the same answer that we give at boat and 4WD shows. (yep we get to have a stand at a few shows each year now for 4WD shows :) )

Hope this helps albeit not a difinitive answer

Pete

wouldnt think one would be neccessary in Vic no where there is further than 50k from a bitumen road let alone a main dirt road

Whilst there is some discussion around other forms of communication versus PLB (mobile phone etc), it is worth a read of the following article involving the death of David Iredale in 2009.

In a nutshell David contacted triple-0 on his mobile phone after becoming lost in the Blue Mountains and less than 50 kilometres from Sydney. Vital information was not passed to police and they assumed he was in good health and had plenty of provisions; tragically his body was found 8 days later.

Had he activated a PLB (he didn’t have one with him) there would have been no ambiguity over his need to be assisted. So mobile phone or PLB? No ambiguity in the PLB as it will be acted upon immediately and without hesitation. David used his mobile phone, and died.

And I’m not passing comment on this case other than to highlight it, and it isn’t to say that other forms of communication should not be carried or used, but David’s tragic story is very sobering and makes you think twice on how you might want to alert authorities to your plight!

David Iredale - a (very) tragic story

And I’m, sure triple-0 procedures have changed as a consequence of David’s plight...

Shaker

The idea of an emergency is different to everyone. Factors that can come into play, are your fitness level, your age, your sex, your mental alertness, your understanding of the local environment at the place of your 'emergency'. Also what other emergency equipment you have. Mobile phones, HF radios, UHF radios & Sat phones can all assist in some emergency situations. It is always good to carry other forms of communication so that you can try to get assistance locally.

When all these avenues are exhausted because they do not work or you do not have them, then you must make a decision whether to sit & wait for help to pass you by, or push the button the emergency button.

Breaking down in the high country could mean just waiting for someone to pass & assist you, but how long do you wait? There is no right answer. Everyone reacts differently when put under pressure with a breakdown or vehicle accident. At the end of the day, it is your decision as to whether you push the button. For sure, there will be people say that 'I could have sorted that problem out' but the were not there and assessing the situation.

I recall a 4WD trip we did about 5 years ago in the High Country. We were running a difficult trip so were on tracks that saw very few vehicles. As we rounded a bend, we saw a vehicle using a block & tackle to try to recover his Hilux up a 500 metre steep incline. After talking to the guy (Tim) & his new girl friend (she said she wasnt going 4WDing ever again), Tim told us that he took the wrong turn and came down the night before. Realising how difficult the track was, he tried to turn around at the bottom, but rolled his vehicle. He manged to upright, then slept in his vehicle overnight, then spent about 8 hours trying to recover his vehicle up the steep incline. Tim managed to move his vehicle about 100 metres up the hill in 8 hours (with breaks). This was a hill that required diff locks, which all our convoy had.

Being the first vehicles he had seen in 24 hours, Tim was greatly relieved when we offered to winch him off the track so we could pass then snatch him to the top of the hill. Of course, he had no emergency equipment, but if he had an epirb, I believe he would have used it, especially as no other vehicle travelled on the track the previous day or this day.

Was this an emergency? It is a personal decision, and the Australian government covers the cost for all 'genuine' emergency recoveries. How they define genuine is a little vague. However, iwe should note that this is not the case in other countries. I suppose this is why SPOT users will notice that they can purchase insurance to cover all emergency recoveries in other countries.

Laurie

In the late 70s we did a land search with the SES for a missing person through pine forests near a major city.

We never found the young woman we were looking for but one of the teams found a missing motorbike rider who had had gone for a ride about 18 months earlier.

He was a bit skinny by the time we found him :-(

He had fallen and broken his leg badly and been trapped under the bike unable to get the 3 or 4 m to the road.

If he had had an epirb he would have been found and safe in hospital in a few hours rather than become a statistic .

G'day Everyone,

Really interesting read. We have just come back from a 3 month trip in remote areas. What we did;
Had two contacts back at home, second contact was our back up for the first.
Each had a current map, itinerary and important numbers .
We carried a Sat Phone and Epirb. We also ensured we had a plan should something go very bad.
On our EPIRB site we gave a full description of our vehicle from above, we also listed important things we carried such as comprehenisve first aid kit, what allergies we have. Water totals and what we average per day. Time we check in each night. Planning of this was very detailed and should we have got into a grave situation then the authorities had a full list and as much information as possible. The contact numbers were extremely important, this would allow them to speak with our contact to guage further info.
I also bush walk and river fish on my own. My wife has a map and also details of the the area I intend to fish. Usually I will giver her the actual grid references as well. I also carry my satphone. Regardless of the extra weight it allows me to check in. I remain disciplined in my walks and fishing to ensure I cover all aspects. My view is EPIRB use is only used should I feel my life is in grave danger, snake bite, severe injurie etc. As for break downs, well I would use my back up of the satphone to make arrangements.

Discipline is important, for insdtance when I go on my own I stick to the plan of where I am going and the grid references that I intend to fish in. This is also my way of ensuring should something go bad that I can be found ASAP.