Fair? I say Poor to Nil
frankh said:
So while the satellite coverage of ELT's will be going away, there is still fair chance of "Someone" picking up your ELT signal, assuming it actually worked.
thanks for the info! Frank
I see a lot of justification for being cheap. I think this fits the old saw, penny wise pound foolish. I think rationalizing of how it won't be that bad after Feb 2009 is kind deluding your self, no offense. Counting on non satellite based DF from other planes is kind of wishful thinking in my opinion.
A fair chance? OK I fly airliners and yes you are suppose to monitor 121.5 on #2, but in 15 years I have heard two or three ELT's. You report it to ATC and they yawn (faults alarm assumed as it's 99% of the time). However many crews, airline, corporate, GA don't set #2 to 121.5. Some can't because they have ATC and company set. Others crews are casual and #2 will still be set to ground, company, ATIS or last freq used not 121.5. Trust me, it's not a sure deal by any means. Airline crew's job #1 is not monitoring #2 for ELT's. When I fly over the water I have to set 121.5 per the airspace regulation, more for other airliners. Never heard an ELT over the Atlantic or Pacific, once over the caribbean. The latter was weak and by the time I called ATC it was gone.
With a whopping 100 milliwatts from an old ELT on 121.5, unless a plane is overhead (an not too high) they may not hear you, even if they do tune their radio to 121.5. How well does you 5 watt VHF line of sight com radio get out? On the ground, pushing 1/50th of the power your range will be poor. The 121.5 is the homing freq, good for a mile or two tops. 243 Mhz is moot for commercial aircraft, don't have it.
As far as military planes, coverage wise, is peanuts compared to commercial traffic. I am not in the AirGaurd or active military, but I doubt their main mission is flying around looking for ELT beacons, when not on a dedicated SAR mission. Still, it would be LUCK that any plane, military or commercial picked up your 121.5/243 signal directly (not through a satellite).
Let's say at FL 350 a crew hears your ELT. Assume direct over head 6 miles, which is pushing the range of 100mW, assuming perfect conditions. I've got doubts 100mW goes more than 2 miles or about 12,000ft and most jets are not flying at 12,000 feet unless on initial approach or arrival, but lets assume the best. So they report it. How big of a search area will that be? Conceivably a circle 100nm dia or more, call it 8,000 sq miles. They don't know they are right over you, say its half that size, 50 nm circle? (2000 sq miles)
The scenario above assumes a plane tuned to 121.5 heard it, reported it and action was taken. The 406 units get to about 2 miles and yards with GPS.
I think the real saviour will come from satellite alarms which we are losing in 2009.
Not sure why pilots are so cheap?
Gosh sakes go get a 406Mhz PLB at least, better a PLB and a 406 ELT as well by Feb 2009. If you fly local around flat populated areas than an ELT is not as critical, but remote and mountain country flying is a different deal.
When
ACK comes out with their unit, when and if, it will not be $225 and will not likely use off-the-shelf alkalines. I know, I asked and they are using Lithium for their certification. Why? Because of
the 5 watt pulse the 406 units are sending out, is more power than alkalines can give, under the time and temp limits. Will the ACK be less than ME406 $995? Probably. But a PLB is $700. May be that has been the problem all these years CHEAP ELT's. May be its time we get real quality ELT's that actually do some thing.
Even on a good day with satellites, 121.5/243 was not that good precision wise. To be real, 406 Mhz is no magic bullet either, but the rescue community and other countries have been pushing this technology for a long time. The 2009 date was announced in 2000! Only the USA is holding out. Granted we have a huge fleet, boats and planes, compared to say Switzerland. The US coast guard has their stuff together, 121.5 was illegal on Jan 2007.
If you are hoping 121.5 saves your behind than I would say POOR to NIL. 243 Mhz? I don't know. Counting on military? The international SARSAT's will not process the 121.5/243 after Feb 2009. It's conceivable the US NOAA SARSAT's may continue to process old freqs after Feb 2009, but don't count on it.
I am a libertarian (not liberal) and think people should do as they like with out government interference as long as its legal and not hurting any one else. However the waste in money to search for people with marginal info, especially searching faults alarms, is a huge waste. It also risks the lives of the search crews. The 406 units are registered to owners, which will cut down on the waste; plus the improved accuracy alone is a quantum magnitude better. We should embrace it, not fight it. However if you want to fly with an old ELT or no ELT of any kind, I say fine, but don't expect people to look for you, because they already said they won't.
