Well said, Darryl.

And, at least for me, I could care less if everyone knows where I am every
minute of the day, even if I land out. My PLB is for emergency use only
(not a land out) and will not be taken out of its pouch until I'm ready to
activate it if I can. I will not be futzing with it during flight or
parachute descent. If I have no cell coverage, I'll start walking. If I
can't walk, I'll activate the PLB.

"darrylr" wrote in message
...
On Thursday, April 3, 2014 7:27:46 PM UTC-7, Brian wrote:
What happens if you moving when you activate it?

If a GPS model how often does it update the postion?

Brian

Read the manual for your particular unit. Then read it again. And make sure
there is a manual or instruction sheet packed with the device. Any of these
devices including InReach and SPOT, if really in distress there is stuff in
the manual you may need to know.

Most modern PLB typically acquire a GPS fix fairly quickly (~ minute) and
then renew that every 30 minutes. So if you move PLB the GPS location will
be slightly inaccurate for some time. Obviously these are intended to deal
with walking/drifting speed type movements where it is not really an issue.
With many searchers that will also do final homing on the beacons (406 or
121.5... in many cases it will be 121.5 MHz). Regardless of GPS data, when
you activate the PLB a signal is sent and received within about 1 minute and
contains your PLB unique serial number registered to you, and the SAR
organizations will start things based on that even if it does not have your
location information (say you are down in a canyon or under a heavy forest
canopy and cannot get a GPS fix). And in that case the polar orbit SARSAT
satellites will start triangulating your fix if they can see the (relatively
powerful 406 Mhz beacon) signal and they'll often have a good location to
within a few miles within ~30 minutes or so. Put the PLB somewhere with a
good sky view and the beacon antenna properly erected and don't move it
around or dick with it, so the satellites can do their stuff.

And read the manual about how to do proper tests on these devices, and do
them.

The SPOT and InReach have more usability issues/confusion that a relatively
simple PLB. What do the different LEDs *really* mean? If a SPOT status says
there is no GPS fix are track, OK, or HELP messages sent at all? I know
everybody knows the answer to all those questions... right? In a bad
situation you will want the manual packed with you.

Darryl