Thread: Personal locator beacon suggestions?

Looking to purchase plb due to hunting most of the time bymyself. Any recommendations or storys of why its worth buying?

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bought mine from Tony at KiwiGPS. Solid bloke, local business and cheaper than any shop. Any issues he stands over his gear. He's on the GPS mapping forum and maybe on here, defintely on the other forum too. I bought an ACR.

why is it worth buying? Because I don't usually pre-plan a hunt. If I come home from work and the weather is right I'll just go, so don't have time to book one. My wife says YES a lot more because of the peace of mind.

The ones that are GPS encoded are better (accurate) than just a straight 406 MHz beacon.
Smaller the better so there is less temptation not to take it.
Look into whether the batteries are serviceable by the end user as they have a finite life.
We use Kannad XS3, and the GME ones at work. I'd rather have a smaller one for hunting/fishing but my Kannad one was free.
Make sure you register it. I was impressed with that High Country Rescue program with how quickly they got to people with beacons. I think they should be subsidised with how much more efficient a search becomes.
Great peace of mind but not infallible.

Yeah a great bit of "piece of mind" kit for the solo hunter or the outdoors going person. Ive had an ACR for a couple of years & it's a good small unit with a decent case, worst part of it's design is the test & activate buttons - both are black & next to each other Who ever designed that was a complete farken moron

I've got a gme , very light but a wee bit bigger than new ones now . I've got a boat so this one floats and has strobe light . Also has 7 year battery . I'm also told they will replace battery for free if you activate it for good reason .

I have an ACR and thankfully I have never had to use it. What ever you get don't put it at the bottom of your pack. It needs to be easy to get out in an emergency.

Originally Posted by Philipo

Yeah a great bit of "piece of mind" kit for the solo hunter or the outdoors going person. Ive had an ACR for a couple of years & it's a good small unit with a decent case, worst part of it's design is the test & activate buttons - both are black & next to each other Who ever designed that was a complete farken moron

battery only good for 20 tests I think so don't do a test each time you take it out. Once a year maybe?

Have a GME, a little bigger that some others, but not actually an issue. Some of the smaller ones appear to be a bit easier to accidentally activate - not that you hear of this actually happening.

Good news is they are all getting cheaper.

I have an ACR. Battery life could be better and that will happen as technology improves.
Like Rushy said, dont put it somewhere inaccesable. Even putting it in your pack is risky as if you fall your pack is quite likely to end up away from you and if you get busted up you dont want to have to crawl to retrieve it. Mine goes on my belt or in zip up pocket

Its basically insurance. Its 500 (or whatever) bucks you ideally don't ever want to use, but if you need to it will be the cheapest 500 you ever spent.
The other thing is - you may not need it for you, but you might come across someone else who needs help.

I got mine second hand from Southland locator beacons for about 300 I think- mainly because I am just getting into hunting and have spent an obscene amount of money getting kitted out. It does everything the newer ones do, its just a bit bigger and clunkier. Keeps the missus happy though. When it expires I'll get one of the super tiny ones. (Oh, and I use mine for offshore ocean ski paddling as well - added bonus.)

I chose the Ocean Signal



Cheers
Pete

Originally Posted by P38

I chose the Ocean Signal

Attachment 23757

Cheers
Pete

This is about as small an light as you can get and i have one. Buy it from Australia, it will save you $100.

Originally Posted by scottrods

battery only good for 20 tests I think so don't do a test each time you take it out. Once a year maybe?

Yeah good point, I only test it every few months or so. I remember when I first got it and was playing with it while I had a few beers, decided to do a battery check & after seeing how close the buttons were together I decided not to risk it lol

This is about as small an light as you can get and i have one. Buy it from Australia, it will save you $100.

406 beacons are serialised by country, you'll just have to register your details with the Australian authority if it's purchased from there. Simple to do online, some good supplementary info on there too.
AMSA Beacons Information - Registration
The NZ site:
Home

Originally Posted by Philipo

Yeah good point, I only test it every few months or so. I remember when I first got it and was playing with it while I had a few beers, decided to do a battery check & after seeing how close the buttons were together I decided not to risk it lol

I use to play wit it after a few beers when the missus was out to..
......oops are we talking the same subject?

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