KEY POINTS:
Trampers and climbers are being warned to make sure they have the right technology before buying the increasingly popular personal locator beacons.
LandSAR New Zealand, the volunteer search and rescue organisation, expects use of the beacons to rise dramatically over the mountaineering and tramping season.
But it warned that not all distress beacons were designed to do the same job.
"There are more and more radio-based and satellite locator devices coming on the market at wildly different prices," LandSAR spokesman Phillip Melchior said.
But before buying or renting one, users needed to be very careful that they knew just what each type of beacon would do, and what it would cost to maintain.
Only the digital 406MHz beacons will transmit a signal that will automatically be picked up by satellites and transmitted immediately to the Government-run Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Wellington.
They should not be confused with several variants which operated on a limited radio frequency, he said.
Older beacons, transmitting on the 121.5MHz or 243MHz frequencies, become useless from the end of January when international monitoring of those frequencies will end.
In mountainous areas, signals from the new beacons can be restricted but a GPS-equipped beacon will direct rescuers to within a few square metres of the subject's location. That compared with about 20 sq km for non-GPS 406s, or an extensive 1260 sq km for the old 121.5/243MHz beacons.
LandSAR volunteers in Wanaka have already responded to five beacon alerts in the past three months, compared to one last year.
Mr Melchior said LandSAR joined RCCNZ in urging people to buy 406MHz beacons and to register them with RCCNZ.
Registration is free and can be completed online at www.beacons.org.nz
- NZPA
