Personal Locator Beacons

[ron1863]

Originally Posted by richardkm

I use a satnav in my car and motorhome constantly when travelling to places that are unfamiliar. One of the problems I believe is that people don't set them up properly. When I'm in my car I set it to "car" and, depending what I want to do, I switch between "Shortest distance" or "Fastest time" - the latter tends to use more motorway routes. When I'm in my motorhome, I switch it to "Truck". This means that I avoid narrow roads. However, it's not foolproof. When travelling between 2 wildlife areas in East Anglia, the satnav wanted to take me down this tiny road (more of a track) that ended at a drain, with no bridge. As I has a trailer on, it would have been hell to have turned round. As I had familiarised myself with the route beforehand, I knew that this was a wrong turning, so ignored it.

Blackpatch, there is a considerable difference between walking the South Downs (where I grew up) and walking on the Peak District moors. Lack of navigation skills on the former won't make much difference if the weather changes, but when bad weather hits the Kinder or Bleaklow plateaux, conditions can be life threatening. Knowing how to use your map and compass or having and being able to correctly use a gps can mean the difference between an enjoyable day out and misery, even death.

I too use sat nav and love it, but as you say it isn't foolproof. I use mine, like you for unfamiliar car journeys and I also use it in Spain and it has let me down several times. I have been down single track lanes and had to reverse for miles to get out, visited quarries and driven around in circles in city centres but I still wouldn't be without it as it beats using a map hands down. Have you ever driven and let the wife use the map great way to get totally lost.
As for any device that helps save lives, I am certainly in favour of it. Technology won't go away so we should embrace it and use it.

[Oookster]

PLB's are used by nautical types when it all goes pear shaped out at sea, once activated it informs the coast guard and or air sea rescue and lets face it if you had fallen overboard five miles out at sea you need help or your dead. The problem arises when you apply this service to the land because most "emergencies" are not actually emergencies. You fall and you break a ankle climbing Mam Tor, yes it hurts and yes it causes a lot of problems BUT you are very unlikly to die, do you need immediate evacuation?

I fear if they were used on land then the emergency services would spend most of their time rescuing people who simply didn't pack a waterproof when the were walking in the peaks

[davetee]

Has anyone considered or does anyone own the Spot Messenger...does this work?

SPOT Europe :: English

[jenniwren]

Ookster, if you had broken your leg, you seriously couldn't walk out of the situation. With respect, don't be daft! I've broken my leg twice this last year! I was fortunate to not be in an area at the time where mobile phone reception was down.

I have looked at SPOT and don't rate them quite honestly. The panic button is not protected so could cause a false alarm. Their power output is much less than the Personal Locator Beacons used at sea and in the air and you stand a much better chance of rescue with these than SPOT (which is also a tracking device). Do you want to be tracked? Plus the SPOT tracking can loose sight of you for quite some time so is still not as accurate to the ones we are trying to legalise.

As to if a waterproof has been packed or not this is trivial stuff! There are powers in place to prosecute in cases of misuse which has be used for those on water. A guy was repeatedly using a AA map to navigate the coastline and getting into trouble needing coastguard help. He eventually got taken to court for it!

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Oookster

I fear if they were used on land then the emergency services would spend most of their time rescuing people who simply didn't pack a waterproof when the were walking in the peaks

the MR teams already spend a vast ammount of time looking for people (a fair proportion spurious or trivial) - at least if mr numptie had a plb the team would be able to find him quickly , rather than spending half their natural lives combing the countryside because he isnt where he thinks he is - and neither location is where he said he was going in the first place

[jenniwren]

A guy was repeatedly using a AA map to navigate the coastline and getting into trouble needing coastguard help. He eventually got taken to court for it!

Correction: he was navigating in his boat!

Very vald point Eeyore!

[davetee]

Jenniwren

I believe it has an on/off button, you wouldn't switch on until you needed it. As for tracking...with the amount of cctv cameras here in the UK we're all being tracked anyway!

[jenniwren]

The on/off button with SPOT is not protected from accidental activation when it's in your pocket/bum bag. This was the case with PLBs when they were first used but they now have a cover protecting the button.

I thought the idea of getting out in the countryside for leisure was to get away from being watched! You don't really need to be tracked. If you have a full bown PLB you don't need to use it till the emergency arises and then it's more accurate than SPOT.

[davetee]

Quite possibly...but untill the make PLBs legal, if ever, I would rather have something than nothing...whether it tracks me or not...it may save my life. I've not seen any reports of the SPOT switching on accidentally...can you cite any specific instances e.g. links to reports in other forums, etc.

As for tracking...I'm tracked when I go out in my car, when I use my credit card, bank card, post a recorded item, etc. We all leave a trail whether we acknowledge/like it or not....why be paranoid about it...it's a sign of the times and it will more than likely get worse rather than better...we're all sheep in this country and THEY can do what THEY like and get away with it.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by davetee

it's a sign of the times and it will more than likely get worse rather than better...we're all sheep in this country and THEY can do what THEY like and get away with it.

funny how you are able to criticise "them" so openly with no adverse consequence isnt it

returning to subject i tend to agree that spot is better than not - but it would still be better to have full plb legally , and the more people go to spot the more the govt will be able to point to it as a reason for not needing plb on land.

[jenniwren]

Compare the power outputs on both units. McMurdos are the company that manufacture them in the UK. The Fastfind Plus has a battery output power of 5 Watts. This means it can transmit a more powerful signal to two orbiting satellites on low and high orbit. Even if there is no clear sky the signal can be picked up by a lower orbiting satellite. The potential of being rescued quicker than SPOT.

The Spot has a battery output of 0.4 Watts and relies on GEOS satellites that only pass over once every hour. Time is lives.

System Concept

The campaign is not against SPOT, if that's what you want, but for the choice of a superior PLB if you wish. As to the police having to acquire the equipment to set up a dataase, this is not entirely true. RAF Kinloss are eager to expand their database to cover land use PLBs.

[davetee]

eeyore..THEY obviously haven't read my postings yet

[jds2mpo]

Originally Posted by cybershot

Am I right in thinking it is possible to locate any mobile phone (off or on) via the means of a GPS system. (I seem to remember my daughter was located on an auto breakdown call out by a similar method)

David

P.S. And now I believe there are on-line agencies to which you can register for tracking purposes.

Hi I do understand the importance of a PLB but not on land. However I have heard of people tracking other people location via mobile phones with companies that allow you to do this buy just entering someones phone number. This is scary, especially because I heard it on Radio 1 a show called secret stalker...