Throw out your old beacon

Auckland Westpac rescue helicopter crew chief Herb Barnes with the ELT (emergency locator transmitter) that will be going into the new helicopter and Lloyd Klee, with the latest in 406MHz beacons. Picture / Kenny Roger

The word is going out to boaters, both recreational and commercial. Switch now to the new 406MHz distress beacon.

The reason? The widely used 121.5MHz Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRBs) are becoming obsolete.

In 1999 an international decision was made to phase out satellite monitoring of the 121.5 frequency by February 2009.

Because of the high number of false alarms, slow response, declining satellite monitoring and wider search area the campaign to switch from 121.5MHz is being accelerated. The outdated beacons inhibit the ability of search and rescue services across the world to do their jobs as effectively as possible.

A recent New Zealand alert illustrates the problem. On August 3 the Rescue Co-ordination Centre was notified of a 121.5MHz activation. After deploying three helicopters and one Coastguard boat a beacon was found in a ditch by the roadside in Tauranga. It had fallen off a boat that was on a trailer and accidentally activated.

The ensuing search involved enormous resources and time that could have been avoided if device was a new 406MHz beacon. The RCC could simply have called the registered owner and confirmed there was no emergency.

The new chair of the New Zealand Search and Rescue Council is Secretary for Transport Alan Thompson.

He says: "This is not something that boat owners and operators can ignore. The continued decline of 121.5MHz monitoring and the superior response times and safety advantages of 406MHz means the sooner users make the switch the safer they will be."

Duncan Ferner of SAR has the figures: "In the last two years alone the RCC has responded to more than 1300 121.5MHz distress beacon activations. Only nine per cent were from a real emergency."

From the end of 2008 the 406MHz beacons will be the only way to alert search and rescue services.

Then there is cost. Lloyd Klee from Safety at Sea in Westhaven says many of the 406MHz beacons available today are a third of the price they were three years ago. But he warns they will probably not get any cheaper than today's $599 including GST. This is because demand will inevitably exceed supply as the changeover date gets closer and any drop in the value of the kiwi dollar will increase the landed cost of the beacons.

For users and those about to change the price differential is important. The new 406 digital technology has yet to hit the same price point as 121.5 beacons and never will because of the different technology used. However, new and cheaper 406 beacons are constantly arriving on the market. In relative terms the 406 beacons are cheaper now than the 121.5s were in the 1980s and early 90s.

There's a warning for travellers thinking of buying a 406 beacons overseas. They must be coded and registered for New Zealand search and rescue services to enable them to contact owners in the event of the beacon being activated. Each country has an individual 406 code and beacons bought overseas cannot be registered here.

The 406 beacons prevent the sort of false alarms common with the 121.5 because the identity code can be cross-referenced with a data base of owners registered with RCC. This includes phone numbers, next-of-kin contacts, the type of vessel and how many people it usually carries and other information to enable the right response to be provided in the case of an emergency. It eliminates the false alarms that caused so much drama near Tauranga in August.