Emergency locator beacon use

[wayno]

Just wondering how many people are using emergency locator beacons and if they are using them at all
I read about a lot of protracted searches where a locator beacon would drastically reduced the search time.
be good if you could put your answer in the poll created for this... cheers

Last edited by wayno on Thu 25 Oct, 2012 12:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[wildernesswanderer]

I don't have one yet, but definitely going to get one. To me it's common sense especially if you solo hike

[wayno]

cool can you vote that you never take one on the poll please?

[Tony]

I take my PLB with me on all bushwalks and fishing trips, it is so easy for an injury or serious illness to happen while walking, it is also peace of mind for loved ones who are not on the walk.

A couple of years ago I came to realise how easy it is to have an major accident while walking, while I consider myself sure footed and I have done thousands of k on good to very rough tracks and many k's through un-tracked scrub without a major problem, this day I was walking on reasonable good section track in the Budawangs, when I caught the tip of my shoe on the stump of bush that had been cleared from the track, I went straight over and landed on my forehead and nearly knocked myself out, fortunately my head hit some relatively soft ground, I felt dizzy and had to stay on the ground for about five minutes before I could get up and after re-bending my very badly bent (new) glasses I continued without further problems, if my head hit a rock or another bush stump I could have been in serious trouble.

Tony

[Mark F]

As well as taking it on all walks I usually leave it in the car so it is available if I come across a road accident or such and there is no mobile phone coverage. As it a Spot 2 I can also send my partner an "I delayed" mess age if needed.

[doogs]

I carry a Spot2 on all trips even when walking with others that I know will also be carrying a PLB or Spot. It's also great when you are out in the mountains on a perfect day, you can send a message directly to Facebook to make all your friends jealous

[LandSailor]

I always take one. If doing solo walks I think you owe it to others - family , emergency services and not just yourself.
There is a show on channel 7 called "I Shouldnt Be Alive". I have it programmed in my Tivo.
Each episode is about some kind of accident that turns a pleasant trip into a life-threatening situation in an instant.
You fall down a cliff and are stuck on a ledge in the snow halfway down a mountain with a broken leg for a week as an example.
It occurred to me that every single emergency situation Ive seen on the show so far could have been quickly resolved simply by pressing the button on an EPIRB.

After watching this series Im now thinking I should carry the epirb on my actual person rather than in my pack.
Cant always guarantee III be near my pack if something serious happened like a snakebite or severe fall.

[stepbystep]

I think it's a case of if you own one it's always in your kit and if you don't it's not!

Seems strange to me that you would choose not to take one unless you hire or borrow one. Before I owned one I borrowed a mates once or twice on big solo walks.

[wayno]

i think EPIRB's are for use on the water... they are designed to float and have a flashing light and a tether...
PLB are the ones that bushwalkers use

[LandSailor]

i think EPIRB's are for use on the water... they are designed to float and have a flashing light and a tether...
PLB are the ones that bushwalkers use

True! Should have said PLB which is what I actually have.

[Nuts]

I always take one. If doing solo walks I think you owe it to others - family , emergency services and not just yourself.
There is a show on channel 7 called "I Shouldnt Be Alive". I have it programmed in my Tivo.
Each episode is about some kind of accident that turns a pleasant trip into a life-threatening situation in an instant.
You fall down a cliff and are stuck on a ledge in the snow halfway down a mountain with a broken leg for a week as an example.
It occurred to me that every single emergency situation Ive seen on the show so far could have been quickly resolved simply by pressing the button on an EPIRB.

After watching this series Im now thinking I should carry the epirb on my actual person rather than in my pack.
Cant always guarantee III be near my pack if something serious happened like a snakebite or severe fall.

Yes, it is an interesting series. Your right, almost always a beacon would have saved the day. The point about carrying on person is a good one, even (considering the extremes of 'what can go wrong') as an example, perhaps when heading to the toilet, moreso at night/in bad weather (people have lost their tents). Another similar attribute supporting one of the various tracking beacons, especially for solo walkers, is in giving searchers somewhere to start even if you are separated from your gear.

That show highlights that it is as much a combination of these unlikely events or something totally from left field rather than what would immediately come to mind as a 'classic' accident.

For the poll, we carry a satphone plus one of the various beacons. My last couple of private walks have been with the spot tracking/phone combo perhaps not as ultimately reliable as a dedicated plb (as a panic button) or as useful as the satphone for longer term incident management but more useful when not lost or injured.

[Tortoise]

While sometimes it feels silly taking it on an easy walk, I pretty much always do - how much sillier would it be to have a serious situation, out of mobile range, with my PLB cosily ensconced at home.

It wouldn't help if I was solo and knocked myself out in a fall - and it could be tricky if my mental functioning was compromised by early hypothermia or whatever. A situation like Jonathan Dent (who died in the Dial Range) had, shows that a fatal situation can occur in our backyard, so to speak.

But again, if he had had a PLB, he would have had to have set it off while he was still thinking well enough to use it properly, when it may not have seemed an emergency warranting rescue. That's the line I think I'd find difficult in a real situation - like atypical chest pain, or abdo pain that might get better or might be appendicitis - rather than a broken leg, where the decision is easy.

[wayno]

most weeks, often several times a week in nz news is stories of searches going out for people who havent returned from trips, most don't have locator beacons....

[Strider]

most weeks, often several times a week in nz news is stories of searches going out for people who havent returned from trips, most don't have locator beacons....

If that is the case, the NZ govt could probably give away PLB's cheaper than what it costs for these multiple searches.

[wayno]

i dont even think a lot of toursts realise how easy they are to rent, doc rents them out but they dont advertise it prominently, i only read about it online, you have to ask if you want one, most tracks i've been doing are good tracks with enough other people on them to mean someone an raise the alarm, and the chance of something going wrong is minimal so i'm ok with doing without one. but on a rough or remote track i have rented on...

[photohiker]

The poll should include an option for when walking out of mobile range. I always take my beacon when walking out of mobile range, but I do a lot of walking in the hills without it where there is good mobile signal.

[wayno]

um oops i just discovered if you try and alter the poll then you wipe past results... feel free to resubmit any votes already made... sorry.....

[Mano]

Timely post Wayno! My PLB registration just arrived in the mail today. I bought an ACR ResQLink after reading about them in other posts. As another poster observed, I hope its the best bit of gear I never have to use. For $270 I don't think you can responsibly walk without one if you take on challenging areas. I cringe in hindsight at some of the walks I took my now wife on. If I'd been badly injured or bitten by one of the many snakes I saw I cringe at the thought of the choices that would have had to be made.

I was half tempted by the Spot as I like the idea of being able to send a don't panic I'm delay message but the thing that swayed me to the ResQLink is that it only has one purpose so there is never any question of whether you've run the batteries down - mine is good to Sept. 2018. I'm just going to pretend it's part of my pack and never even think about it from a gram counting perspective.

Landsailor
I've been watching that show and thinking exactly the same thing. How bad was that one about the guy who fell down onto that ledge after the snow storm and only got rescued because his mate had a plane and a hunch!

[nq111]

Wife is much more forgiving of my plans if I carry one so always do

[Mano]

I want to walk with my son too and a million times you would be fine - it's just the peace of mind for that 1 time things go against you.

[Ent]

Most expensive piece of kit I plan never to use. For me it is more the peace of mind it gives those back at home. Generally our group has a PLB, SPOT and mobile phones. Push comes to shove verbal communication trumps a PLB so phone is always first choice but a PLB is much more rugged. Would be interested in the average hours for searching for someone without a PLB compared to a person with a PLB.

Cheers

Last edited by Ent on Fri 26 Oct, 2012 7:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

[photohiker]

Would be interested in the average hours for searching for someone without a PLB compared to a person without a PLB.

Wouldn't it be about the same?

[Mano]

On how long a search takes, I thought how useful a PLB would have been in the search described in the attached link. In 2000 four teenagers were lost for 8 days in the Budawangs. It took muliple aircraft and 100 ground searchers four days to find them once they were reported overdue. They knew they were lost on day 2 and could have activated a PLB then!

http://www.shoalhavenbushwalkers.org.au/bud00.html

[wayno]

interesting, one of the biggest problem with people with plb's is activating them because they can't be bothered walking back out or waiting for the weather to improve...

[Ent]

Hi Wayno

Found a good article where the PLBs were trailed in remote Alaska with multi year study to be done before general release but it was cut short as they proved to be a very good thing so waiting for the study would have cost extra money and lives.

Still be nice if current search and rescue statistic and experience would confirm this. Yes there will always be rabbits, some using them too soon for the wrong reasons and other rabbits endlessly critising the use of them.

Cheers

[wayno]

in NZ the searches can be pretty labour intensive, rugged terrain plus thick bush, even if they are sure of the area someone is in they can still fail to find anything.
PLB's make a massive difference, plus hypothermia can get you anywhere in nz at most times of the year before the searchers can find you in a manual search.
unlike aus, dying of hunger or thirst or heat stroke is virtually unknown in nz hypothermia will be far more likely to kill first.. the terrain just retards searches massively even though the search area isnt necessarily that massive by overseas comparisons.. plus the weather often stops helicopters operating or stops deployment of searchers.
the authorities can charge people for the cost of searches but almost never do. i'd favour charging for searches for anyone without a PLB who's out of mobile range or charging them the cost of the PLB and giving them one.... i mean if you have a PLB it's like saying "beam me up scotty"

[MrWalker]

I've seen reports that searches for people without a PLB cost roughly 4 times as much as rescues using a PLB.
So even if some people activate them when it is not really necessary we still come out way ahead compared with discouraging anyone from having/using them.

I've been involved in orienteering and seen how often relatively experienced people get exhausted and then mistake the north and south ends of the compass, or mistake that hill over there for this one over here. My feeling is that if someone is totally exahausted and they activate their beacon they may have saved the rescuers a lot of bother compared with those who struggle on and get themselves into a worse situation. I'm not suggesting that everyone who gets tired should push the button, but I'm not over-critical of some cases reported here.

[Blueberry]

Hi,
I think I voted wrong.
Selected "I take one unless it is an easy track" which WILL be true as soon as I get mine (ordered one from Adventure Safety and should arrive soon). Should I have selected that I don't take one as that is the case at the moment (soon to change though). Sorry to mess things up for you!

I saw some comments about the ACR ResQLink+ and that's the one that I ended up choosing, too. The way I understood the reviews etc is that you could actually use that on water, too???

This is probably a stupid question, but would it work ANYWHERE in the world. What I did not think about was my next years Lapland hike... wonder if it would work there, too? Do you / anybody know?

I've seen reports that searches for people without a PLB cost roughly 4 times as much as rescues using a PLB.

Very interesting. Where did you read that?

[wayno]

i think it should work anywhere in the world but you'll get a delay in rescue response overseas. since its registered to aus , aus rescue services are notified first, then they have to get hold of the rescue services close to where you are if you're overseas.
but i think there was some issue buying ones from overseas if you live downunder to do with registration. in theory it would alert rescue services in the country of purchase if you activated it

[north-north-west]

Hired one once for the trip up Hannel's, and then bought before doing the WArthurs. Since then it's become a standard bit of kit. Even gotten into the habit of removing it from its little hole (it's kept in one of the outside mesh bits of the Aarn's balance pockets) and shoving it in a shirt pocket for sidetrips without the pack.
It got upgraded to "don't go without" status after the second last walk on the last Tassie trip, where I did something similar to Tony (albeit on a steep, rough, off-track descent) and spent the next 48 hours dealing with concussion.