Personal locator beacons - Forums Archive

Drew

2014-01-05 10:27:40

The story of the east coast fisherman I posted made me think of how much I would have liked to have one of those in a situation like that.

Check this one out, I never knew they were so small. It's nearly the size of a tic-tac container.

http://www.landfallnavigation.com/rescueme.html

Once and Future

2014-01-05 16:33:38

Definitely read the fine print when choosing one of these. We were discussing another brand on this site last year. Upon close examination, it became apparent it was really designed for lost people on land and seemed to be not compatible with water.

Drew

2014-01-05 17:35:04

Yeah that is definitely something to remember. This one seems to be designed for boaters, it says waterproof to 15 meters on the company's website.

Drew

2014-02-13 22:32:39

I went ahead and bought that plb. I'm planning to pair it with an inflatable pfd. I think that this is small enough to keep on me at all times. Notice the card for size comparison.

Crawfish

2014-02-14 18:25:06

I went to the boat show and looked at three or four different models and finally chose the ACR Resqlink+ floating model. It was a hard choice because they all were pretty cool. It is larger than the Rescue Me model but it floats and has a strobe in it. I talked to all of the manufacturer reps about the different models and they were all pretty close to the same foot print in size. Rescue Me was the smallest. Rescue me has a cool wind up antenna that extends from inside the case. ACR non floating was the next size up and finally the floating ACR was about 3/8 of an inch thicker than the non floating model. Battery life is good for about six years and they need to be registered with NOAA. When I bought the ACR they had a special. They threw in a new ACR led strobe light, a ditch bag kit and some other stuff. The cost with tax was $300.00 What I suggested to all of the manufacturers I spoke with was a better tether system, this aspect on all of the models I viewed was a shortcoming. Cool thing about these things is they are small enough for hiking,sport fishing, snowmobiling, rafting, whatever. I have already taken mine on a few adventures. I am glad I bought mine. Hopefully I never have to use it. One thing to keep in mind is they will not self right like our larger epirb's will. You need to orientate the antenna up out of the water otherwise they will ground out and not transmit if the antenna is in the water. If you want one might look at Amazon they have them for $256.52 free shipping.

AMSEA

2014-02-14 19:11:37

At least one community in Southeast Alaska (Sitka) has a PLB loaner program through the Search and Rescue team. That might be a good way to try one out before making a purchase.

The Sitka Fire Department also loans out handheld VHF radios. These programs are similar to library book checkout systems, except you leave a trip plan instead of showing a library card. If your community doesn't have a similar program, you may consider encouraging your rescue organization or firehall to provide something similar.

Remember to register your PLB or EPIRB. Here's the address: [url=https://beaconregistration.noaa.gov/rgdb/]https://beaconregistration.noaa.gov/rgdb/

If you buy or sell a used PLB, remember to edit the registration.