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.