I just found out about some of those GPS's with two-way radios, etc. With a couple of them it will lead you to the other person with the same GPS. If you were in an avalanche, would you recommend using your GPS to find your partner, and then find exactly where he is with the beacon. Or would you just use the beacon??
Avalanche Questions. Help!
- Thread starter goodan
- Start date
C
cowboysedge
Well-known member
Use a beacon!
Just for kicks! Take your GPS and cover it up with a tarp or blanket and see how good the signal is. Then do the same with a beacon. After that you choose which one you want your life to depend on!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It works like XM or Sirius Radio. Hows your radio sound when you pull it in the garage???????
Although the radio gps does have its place. Great for keeping track of your riding group. A great tool but spendy!!!
Just for kicks! Take your GPS and cover it up with a tarp or blanket and see how good the signal is. Then do the same with a beacon. After that you choose which one you want your life to depend on!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It works like XM or Sirius Radio. Hows your radio sound when you pull it in the garage???????
Although the radio gps does have its place. Great for keeping track of your riding group. A great tool but spendy!!!
Last edited:
C
cpatts2000
Well-known member
Beacons are made for finding buried people, gps is not. Also take an avalache awareness class so you know exactly how to use your beacon properly.
With the Rhino radios they will only show the last location that the user keyed the mic not their location at the present.
Electronic devices such as cell phones, gps's, 2 way radioes, etc.......have been known to interfere with the beacon signal. Meaning, that using those devices near beacons may in fact hinder your chance at finding someone. It should tell you right in your beacon manual not to have other electronic devices near the beacon.
I've done some testing on my own, and found (and heard) the interference (I have 3 different brands of beacons). I've also contacted those further up the *ladder* about this issue, and was told that indeed interference can occur, but they don't know why. I did that contacting and testing, after it was discovered by a group that was searching for a person buried in '05, and had a tough time to get a signal/find the guy.
If you are searching for someone, have those devices off........or at least a long ways away (but remember if someone leaves to use those, that is one less person to help search, dig, etc.).
I've done some testing on my own, and found (and heard) the interference (I have 3 different brands of beacons). I've also contacted those further up the *ladder* about this issue, and was told that indeed interference can occur, but they don't know why. I did that contacting and testing, after it was discovered by a group that was searching for a person buried in '05, and had a tough time to get a signal/find the guy.
If you are searching for someone, have those devices off........or at least a long ways away (but remember if someone leaves to use those, that is one less person to help search, dig, etc.).
E
Ex-Member
ACCOUNT CLOSED
Any sharp rising or falling edge (digital signals) will trigger sensitive RF electronics. Has to do with harmonics, one pure sine wave has one and only one frequency. Superimpose a 2nd sine wave at twice the frequency, you've got two harmonics. A square wave is ideally infinite harmonics, comprised of frequencies from >0 to infinite Hz.
These digital signals exist on almost every device.... cellphones, pagers, GPSs, and will radiate from the traces on the circuit board. Generally a beacon isn't going to pick them up unless the antenna and radiating device are *very* close to each other, but when someone's life is at stake i'll put some distance between them or just turn them off.
(The FAA uses this same excuse for turning off laptops and other electronic devices during takeoff/landing. Unless the laptop is right on top of the nav antennas, they're not going to do a damn thing.)
These digital signals exist on almost every device.... cellphones, pagers, GPSs, and will radiate from the traces on the circuit board. Generally a beacon isn't going to pick them up unless the antenna and radiating device are *very* close to each other, but when someone's life is at stake i'll put some distance between them or just turn them off.
(The FAA uses this same excuse for turning off laptops and other electronic devices during takeoff/landing. Unless the laptop is right on top of the nav antennas, they're not going to do a damn thing.)
