Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 406 MHz Personal Locator Beacons

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 01:26:03 -0500

Taking the "Search" Out of "Search-and-Rescue"
June 29, 2003
By Brent Blue, M.D.,
Senior Aviation Medical Examiner

After years of bureaucratic delay, the FCC has finally approved the use
of 406 MHz Personal Locator Beacons in the United States starting July
1, 2003. For less than $1,000, you can now carry technology in your
flight bag or survival kit that will alert search-and-rescue agencies of
your identity and exact location within five minutes.
Updated August 24, 2003, with information on new PLBs from Pains Wessex.

I was ferrying my antique open-cockpit biplane -- a rare Flaglor High
Tow -- from my home base in Driggs, Idaho (just west of Jackson Hole) to
the maintenance shop at Idaho Falls. That's about 45 nautical miles,
which doesn't sound like much unless you're flying an open-cockpit
airplane for a half-hour in sub-freezing, 6 a.m. temperatures.
I started to think about what I'd do if the engine quit.

The terrain below was rugged and sparse. There's not much civilization
between Driggs and Idaho Falls, and the cellular coverage is spotty at
best. If I had to make a forced landing, how long would it take before
someone found me?
I silently chastised myself for being in too much of a hurry to file a
VFR flight plan. It sure would be reassuring, I thought, if I had one of
the new 406-MHz Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) with me.

Now I'm not a pessimist by nature, but I have had five engine failures
over past 14 years, with one leading to a short-of-the-runway landing in
Green Bay, Wis. Even though Green Bay is a large airport, the tower was
closed and nobody realized I'd gone down. It was a good thing that the
crash site was in an area of good cellular telephone coverage, because I
had to notify local authorities via cellphone that our current location
was 30 feet short of the runway threshold. By the time all the telephone
calls were made by the local "authorities," it was a half-hour before
the first rescue vehicle arrived.
That's why I will be first in line to carry one of the new GPS-augmented
PLBs as soon as they are approved for land-based use in the United
States on July 1, 2003. In fact, I've already got one on order. Once it
arrives, I don't plan to leave home without it. The new 406-MHz PLBs are
small, economical, and amazing. One prominent expert on search and
rescue remarked recently that they "take the search out of search and
rescue."

Not Your Father's ELT

For decades, our aircraft have been required by government mandate to
carry an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) that transmits on the
civilian 121.5 MHz and military 243.0 MHz emergency frequencies. Pilots
and rescuers have both become pretty soured on these ELTs because they
have been the source of thousands of false alarms and precious few
actual "saves" to their credit, not to mention being a source of mounds
of paperwork and maintenance cost. Most aircraft owners would pitch them
in a flash, and will be permitted do just that in 2006 when the
satellite system that monitors those two frequencies is scheduled to be
phased out.

While ELTs are known for their uselessness, 406 MHz PLBs offer a huge
technological advance. I predict their small size, economical prices and
advanced functionality will make them a must-have item for most pilots
to carry in their flight bag or survival kit, as well as when camping,
snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, and the like.

One of the primary differences between ELTs and these new PLBs is that
the 406 MHz units are digital. They don't just send out the familiar
anonymous "whoop whoop whoop" signal, but transmit a digital data stream
that includes the unique unit identifier of your particular PLB. If your
PLB is equipped with optional GPS capability, your precise GPS position
is also transmitted digitally. This information is received by an
orbiting satellite and digitally downlinked to a ground receiving
station called a Local User Terminal (LUT). If the LUT is not in range
of the satellite when it receives the PLB transmission, it can store the
information and forward it to the LUT as soon as it does come into
range.

This is significantly different than the analog 121.5/243.0 MHz ELTs.
For those, the receiving satellite must simultaneously have the ELT
beacon and ground relaying station in range, because the satellite
cannot store any analog information.
When the digital information from a 406 MHz PLB reaches the Mission
Control Center (MCC), the unique identifier is looked up in a master
database and the name, address and contact information for the PLB's
owner pops up on a computer screen in the MCC.  The MCC will then call
the registered emergency contact to find out where the owner is, what
that person is doing, and whether the signal is due to a genuine
emergency or a false alarm. The instant ability to identify the PLB
owner provides a dramatic improvement to the staggering false-alarm
problem that exists with analog ELTs. It is estimated that there are
1,000 false ELTs alarms for each genuine emergency activation. So far,
experience with the new 406 MHz beacons averages just eight false alarms
for each true emergency.

Another dramatic difference is the accuracy of location. Satellite
location of 121.5/243.0 ELTs is accurate only within a radius of
approximately 12 nautical miles, identifying a search area of 452 square
miles, and on average it takes six hours for search-and-rescue centers
to be notified of the beacon coordinates. Compare this to the new 406
MHz PLBs that can be located to within a radius of two nautical miles,
identifying a search area of just 12.5 square miles, and an S&R
notification time of one hour.  Add the optional GPS capability to the
PLB and the location radius becomes 0.05 nautical miles, a search area
of 0.008 square miles, and five-minute notification time!

Think about the significance of those numbers if you are the one being
rescued and the outside temperature is below freezing!
In addition to the 406 MHz digital signal, all PLB units also transmit
on 121.5 MHz so that rescuers can use their current equipment to home in
on a beacon on the ground.

Eyes In The Sky

All locating beacons utilize the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) satellites that carry payloads supplied by Canada
and
France called Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT)
systems. Russia operates similar satellites known as COSPAS. A few years

ago, all the countries involved established a cooperative rescue effort
known as
COSPAS-SARSAT. The low-earth-orbit COSPAS-SARSAT satellites have
recently been joined in the rescue monitoring by high-orbit
geosynchronous
GEOSAR satellites and its global network of ground receiving stations.

The SARSAT satellites circle the earth every 102 minutes while the
Russian
COSPAS satellites circle every 105 minutes. They view a circular area of
the
earth of about 2,500 miles at any one time each. Because they pass the
poles
on every orbit, coverage is most frequent at the poles and least
frequent at the
equator but coverage is global. Average time for a 406 MHz transmission
location in the mid-latitudes is 30-45 minutes (without GPS input). Now
that's
technology.

The GEOSAR satellites are geostationary and can receive the 406 beacon
and
recognize its identity, but cannot help with actual location because
they have
no relative motion to earth which is required for the Doppler shift
technology
used for position location. The ground station can try and locate the
registered
owner of the PLB and activate S&R groups while the orbiting satellites
establish a position fix. If the PLB has GPS capability, however, the
GEOSAR
can relay the GPS supplied position immediately.

You can bet I'll be carrying a GPS-enhanced PLB just as soon as the July
1
release date arrives!

What's The Delay?

This 406 MHz digital technology has been in use for quite some time in
marine applications, but terrestrial use of this technology has been
forbidden until now. Why? Bureaucratic bungling.

To quote survival guru Doug Ritter of Equipped to Survive, "It's been an
uphill battle against bureaucracies that haven't given a damn about the
lives lost by their inaction ... the U.S. Air Force and the FCC deserve
credit for the dubious distinction of holding up PLB approval ..."
Apparently, the U.S. Air Force had fears of too many false alarms
(apparently not understanding that the new technology offers a dramatic
reduction in false activations) and didn't feel saving civilian lives
was part of the Air Force mission. Who knows what splinter the FCC had
up their butt.

Although there are several manufacturers of 406 MHz marine Emergency
Position Indication Radio Beacons (called EPIRBs just to confuse you),
only two of them are going to have 406 MHz PLBs ready for the July 1
release date: ACR Electronics and Pains-Wessex. Other manufacturers
expected to enter the PLB market later on include NAT, Kannad, and
Microwave Monolithics.

(The primary difference between a marine EPIRB and a terrestrial PLB is
battery size: The larger marine unit is required to operate at -40º C
for 48 hours while the pocket-sized PLB only has to function for 24
hours at -40º C. These times are extended considerably at warmer
temperatures.)
PLBs from Pains Wessex and ACR

At this writing, I have evaluated four PLB models: two from ACR
Electronics and two from McMurdo Pains Wessex. My hands-down favorite is
the "Fastfind Plus" from Pains Wessex (pictured at left), because it's
the only one on the market (so far, anyway) that has an internal GPS
built right into the unit ... so it's the one I now carry.

With the Fastfind Plus, there are no cables or external GPS to worry
about, and I think that's a huge advantage. Most pilots I've spoken with
do not want to mess with hooking cables up to their aviation GPS, nor do
they want to buy a dedicated GPS just to stick in a bag with the PLB.
The Fastfind Plus is easy to operate, with a simple on/off switch that
is turned on after breaking the seal on the antenna. It also has a
self-test feature, which tests both the 406 MHz and GPS portions of the
unit. Suggested retail price for this unit is $1,199, but you should be
able to find it at discount for under $1,000.
Pains Wessex also offers a low-end model (the "Fastfind") that lacks the
built-in GPS but is otherwise identical. At $400 less than the "Fastfind
Plus," it's one of the lowest-cost 406 PLBs on the market.

ACR Electronics offers a basic 406 MHz PLB (without GPS input
capability) priced about $600, and a GPS-enabled "GyPSI" model with a
GPS interface for about $100 more. The ACR GyPSI does not have a
built-in GPS, but can interface with any GPS that supports an industry
standard NMEA 0183 serial output (and almost all of them do). Expect to
pay an additional $115 "street price" for a dedicated GPS like Garmin's
eTrex, plus $20 for an interface cable to hook the GPS to the GyPSI's
NMEA 0183 interface.

Although these prices are more than 121.5 MHz ELTs, keep in mind that a
406 MHz PLB is very likely to get you rescued in time to do some good,
whereas the same can't be said for a 121.5 MHz ELT. A 406 MHz PLB is
also portable and self-contained, so you can carry it on your person --
not only when flying but also during any remote-area activity such as
snowmobiling, backcountry skiing and hiking, canoeing, and climbing.
Some outdoors enthusiasts now carry satellite phones, but they are quite
expensive, comparatively fragile, and do not have a shock-resistant or
waterproof case like a PLB. Unlike a satellite phone, carrying a PLB
involves no cost for registration or monthly subscription fees.

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Rent DVDs from home.
Over 14,500 titles. Free Shipping
& No Late Fees. Try Netflix for FREE!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/I3w.vC/hP.FAA/3jkFAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/