One of my friends races sailboats off the coast and attended a meeting with the US Coast Guard (USCG) to discuss race communications and search and rescue. We had been discussing SPOT and personal locator beacons (PLBs) and so he went armed with a bunch of questions. The USCG really cares about this stuff because some of these races are really treacherous and rescues are not uncommon. In fact for one of the races they actually position a cutter offshore to cut down on time and saved one crew this year.

Note that when I say the USCG says or does something, I mean the USCG here in the San Francisco area.
There are some differences between offshore sailboat racing and the BWCA. For one thing, they don't worry about tree cover offshore. And they do worry about being able to hold up a device above the water. So, here are their comments and they include a new, cheaper PLB that they actually use.

Their primary desire on the sailboats are for EPIRB's that automatically deploy when a boat capsizes and float on their own. These are too big for canoeing and aren't even appropriate for ocean kayaking as just capsizing isn't an emergency. The reason the Coast Guard likes them is that they are automatic and communicate directly to the Coast Guard. They cost about $1000.

Personal Locator Beacons such as the ACR Aquafix and ResQFix and the McMurdo FastFind communicate with 5 watt transmitters via 406MHz to satellites providing both the ability for the satellite to approximately locate the transmitter and also broadcast a GPS fix. In addition, they also broadcast a honing radio beacon that can be used by search and rescue aircraft to find the beacon more accurately than the satellite fix. I think the McMurdo also has a flasher on it. One concern for the USCG is that in the water you have to hold these up on your own. These units communicate to the Air Force that then relays the info to the local search and rescue units. The ACR units cost $500 to $600 and weight 10 to 12 ounces. The McMurdo is cheaper at $300 and lighter at 5.3 ounces. It saves the weight because it only transmits for 24 hours while the ACR units can transmit for 40 hours.

Bottom line on the PLBs: The USCG carries the McMurdo FastFind units on their PFDs. These are how they intend to get rescued themselves if they separate from their boats which carry EPIRBs.

On SPOT: the USCG likes them but because they don't include a locator honing beacon they consider them less useful for Search and Rescue. Of course, they provide other services like OK messages, letting people track your location, and two levels of emergency messages. My friend points out that the track following capability could be very useful for the race coordinators and provides a last known coordinate in case a boat vanishes and the EPIRB fails.

Bottom line for me: I'm getting a McMurdo FastFind. That the USCG is using them gives me faith that they are well tested and I like the lower price and weight compared to the ACR units. Heck, at that price we might get two as it would be easy to get separated when ocean kayaking. One would be plenty for the BWCA. I'm not interested in SPOT because I'm not personally interested in sending OK messages.

Hope this helps someone decide what they want to do.

Thanks for the info!

butthead

i'll second that..good solid info on a tough subject.i'm still undecided-

Also keep one eye on http://www.equipped.org . Doug Ritter works hard to keep the web site up to date on the latest info on PLBs. There appear to be great things happening in smaller packaging and easier to use PLBs (with less chance of false alarms).

I don't think you'd go wrong with either the McMurdo or ACR units.

BTW, I'm still waiting for pay phones to be installed next to each camp area. Maybe some of the stimulus package $$ will help in that. :-)

I'll add that the PLB registration web page includes a comment field that can be filled out prior to your trip. I leave comments on my trip location and route, this info is checked if you activate the unit.

butthead

A couple of years ago I had my appendix give out on me one week before a trip. That made me realize that had it happened on the trip I very likely may not have lived to talk about it. This year I am giving a SPOT rental a try. I would not use one enough to justify the expensive PLBs or yearly spot charge. For roughly $50.00 I get a two week SPOT rental configured for me to take as piece of mind.

Does anyone rent the SPOT in Ely?

I have a spot that I am going to use on a trip the second week of july. I would be willing to rent it out to someone after that to help pay for my service. If anyone is interested, you could email me at kevlar7@yahoo.com I'm located in the twin cities area.

John and Lynn at Voyaguers North Outfitters in Ely had said they were going to order some to rent out. I stopped in after my trip in April and I discussed it with John and showed him how mine worked.

Great,
VNO is my outfitter; good people!

I'll contact them.

I just contacted Lynn at VNO and they did get two SPOT tracking devices and have them for rent. I reserved one for my solo trip; the charge is very reasonable.