ACR Rescue link plb

[Mutley]

There are some cheap acr rescue link plb's on flea bay at 275 plus shipping, from New Jersey USA. Has anyone bought these and can they be coded to Australia, or do I need to make sure I buy one locally ? The govt plb website isn't clear about this. In aust, price is close to 400.

[wayno]

i think theres been comments in the forum in the past to the effect that its better to buy in australia, if you do a search they might show up..
i think they are coded to contact the search and rescue for the country of origin.. and when you register it you're supposed to log all your contact details and three contact people for you with local search and rescue so they can ring round to see if its a genuine emergency before launching into action...
in theory you can still get recued using a locator beacon bought anywhere in the world. there can be a bit of an extra delay , but not necessarily amajor delay as the search and rescue coordinators from the different companies contact each other to transfer the information to the correct country...
i just bit the bullet and bought locally so i'm registered in my country of residence...
dont know what the delay times will be exchanging information to the correct country. someone commented they'd been rescued withint the hour using a locator beacon in nz when tehy bought and registered in aus. i can't say if it will be the same scenario using a us beacon in aus......

[Mutley]

Thanks wayno. Couldn't find a previous thread on this but please point me in the right direction if you can find one. Looks like I will also have to bite bullet and buy locally. The price difference issue for everything in aust vs USA gives me the &@$@'s, but I guess that's the price you pay for a high standard of living and n $17 min wage instead of $7

[wayno]

a plb isnt something i wanted to dick around with, i'd prefer minimal issues, if you need to use it you really want to make sure the service will work so i bought it in teh country i'm most likely to use it in,,, NZ
otherwise buying just about anything else , if i can save money i'll buy from wherever in the world gives me the best deal...

[Rob A]

Well it says;

Cheapest Epray ad.png (26.96 KiB) Viewed 15153 times

Why dont you phone AMSA and find out instead of asking people who arent qualified to answer.

[ninjapuppet]

... but I guess that's the price you pay for a high standard of living and n $17 min wage instead of $7

sorry to be a smartA$$
Minimum wage in Australia is currently $15.96 per hour: http://mywage.org.au/main/salary/minimum-wage

a cheaper beacon bought from the US can be registered in Australia, but will require recoding even if it has the same model number.
The cost of this recoding, however is prohibitive. As off April 2012, it was around the $125-160 mark depending on make and model. Actually, it still works out slightly cheaper than buying one locally, but I didnt want to bother with the international shipping and the wait for it to be recoded.

Even a beacon bought from NZ, can not be registered here without recoding.

[Mutley]

Thanks for the input. I think buying locally is the go, but will double check with AMSA and report back if different to the above.

[sim1oz]

Costs aside, once you register a beacon with AMSA you can put details of your walks on the website. I don't bother for any walks we do in my homestate but when we take our beacon interstate or overseas, I register my walk plans so that if we ever did need to activate our PLB the authorities would be able to quickly see whether the location matches our trip intentions. BTW, we got our ResQlink at a marine store in Melbourne. I'm hoping we never need to use it!

[paddlpop]

Bought a Kannad Solo PLB on eBay for under $250. Aussie stock
It all registered now...ready to go. Hope never to use but since I hike and kayak solo
you just never know.

[Wolfix]

No consumer protection when buying internationally. That's something I would want with a piece of life saving equipment. Or should I say it's something my next of kin would want!

[Wolfix]

We do earn more here, it's true, so we can afford to pay more. It's all about PPP. Fork out the $400. Buy locally. Keep the rest of us in a job, please.

[wayno]

thats if you happen to have the $400 to spare, in nz its at leasst $600

[FatCanyoner]

thats if you happen to have the $400 to spare, in nz its at leasst $600

A$400 is worth about the same as NZ$600 these days isn't it!

[Strider]

thats if you happen to have the $400 to spare, in nz its at leasst $600

Everything in NZ is expensive. The price of meat, especially, is astronomical!