Anyone In the Portland Area Here the ELT On 121.5

[NW_PILOT]

About 11:20 am my scanner that monitors 121.5 started hearing an awful sound
of an ELT is still going its strong I called Portland tower to make sure and
they said they are hearing it intermittent and week I am 5 miles to the
north of PDX and I here it loud and clear.

Did anyone else here it?

[Kevin Dunlevy]

Local towers, approach controls or centers will often call ELT signals into
CAP, and CAP will dispatch aircraft with radio direction finding equipment
to locate the ELT transmitter. I've worked with the ATC system to find ELTs
as a CAP Mission Pilot. It is good for all pilots that controllers pay
attention to ELT signals and call them into CAP. Pilots should also call
ELT signals into ATC.



In the last year I helped find a hard landed experimental and a King Air
with a low battery which set off their ELTs. Both of these ELTs had been
picked up by the satellite receivers and the searches were dispatched by the
Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.



In this past year I also helped search for two fatal hard crashes with no
ELTs broadcasting. The overdue VFR aircraft without flight plans were
called in to CAP by family members. I've also heard several ELTs set off by
pilots changing their own ELT batteries and mystery ELTs that were on for a
while but went off the air before they could be located.



Generally speaking, it is a good idea to find and shut off all ELTs as soon
as possible, so their signals don't block other ELT signals. Kevin Dunlevy,
Maj. CAP




"NW_PILOT" > wrote in message
...
> About 11:20 am my scanner that monitors 121.5 started hearing an awful
sound
> of an ELT is still going its strong I called Portland tower to make sure
and
> they said they are hearing it intermittent and week I am 5 miles to the
> north of PDX and I here it loud and clear.
>
> Did anyone else here it?
>
>

[C J Campbell]

ELTs go off all the time. If you hear one, report it to ATC or to the
police. They will send someone (probably the Civil Air Patrol) with
direction finding equipment to investigate. It is almost always a false
alarm. The most annoying one I can remember was an avionics repairman who
had loaded a defective ELT into a van and was driving around all over the
place -- to lunch, shopping, etc., before heading to the shop to repair it.
The thing would not shut off, and the technician didn't know it was on. CAP
guys were looking all over for it, "Now it is coming from over there..."

[John Clear]

In article >,
C J Campbell > wrote:
>ELTs go off all the time. If you hear one, report it to ATC or to the
>police. They will send someone (probably the Civil Air Patrol) with
>direction finding equipment to investigate. It is almost always a false
>alarm. The most annoying one I can remember was an avionics repairman who
>had loaded a defective ELT into a van and was driving around all over the
>place -- to lunch, shopping, etc., before heading to the shop to repair it.
>The thing would not shut off, and the technician didn't know it was on. CAP
>guys were looking all over for it, "Now it is coming from over there..."

The UPS truck is a frequent source of ELT signals. Not only is it
moving, but the entire signal goes up (the roof is plastic, the
sides of the truck are metal), so it is near impossible to track
from the air or ground, but hits the satellites just fine.

When I was in CAP, I stopped going out on ELT searches since they
are just a waste of time and resources. Unless there is an alert
notice, an ELT signal is 99+% likely to be a false alarm.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

[William W. Plummer]

John Clear wrote:

> In article >,
> C J Campbell > wrote:
>
>>ELTs go off all the time. If you hear one, report it to ATC or to the
>>police. They will send someone (probably the Civil Air Patrol) with
>>direction finding equipment to investigate. It is almost always a false
>>alarm. The most annoying one I can remember was an avionics repairman who
>>had loaded a defective ELT into a van and was driving around all over the
>>place -- to lunch, shopping, etc., before heading to the shop to repair it.
>>The thing would not shut off, and the technician didn't know it was on. CAP
>>guys were looking all over for it, "Now it is coming from over there..."
>
>
> The UPS truck is a frequent source of ELT signals. Not only is it
> moving, but the entire signal goes up (the roof is plastic, the
> sides of the truck are metal), so it is near impossible to track
> from the air or ground, but hits the satellites just fine.
>
> When I was in CAP, I stopped going out on ELT searches since they
> are just a waste of time and resources. Unless there is an alert
> notice, an ELT signal is 99+% likely to be a false alarm.

That echoes what I heard at a Wings seminar years ago. Most ELT
signals are from boats, not planes. And they are false alarms.