beaconing anyone?

thx all for the answeres. I probably could afford one so I will look into getting one. Probably for when there is just no cellfone and its raining so not many other people are around. I hope I will never need it but its good to have. cheers kai

Just to finish off this subject when i did the caples and greenstone march this year i took a beacon,i think it cost $50 cheep insurance. When i got the tickets from DOCS one of the question was do you have emergency communications i pulled out the beacon from my bag and she well done,and i will say the DOCS intentions form has got better over the last 4 years since i have used them. In the end you cant beat telling friends and family where and what you are doing

Jono51 try this site locatorbeacons.co.nz/ i hired mine from Mobil Service Station TeAnau

cool thankyou, theyre alot cheaper then the other ones i have looked at, another website I looked at was 95 for 7 days which isnt to bad just a once off but im wanting to tramp more solo now so will have to look at buying one during winter next year

While its only about $50 per week to hire one bare in mind that in the small print they say with these new beacons they will hit you with a ~$200 "battery replacement" charge if you should happen to activate your beacon. I always hire but Im less then impressed with the new ones. No remote activate switch? How bloody stupid!

What do you mean by remote activate? I asked this question in an earlier forum http://www.tramper.co.nz/?id=382&view=topic&offset=21 and madpom's reply was that remote activation was a myth.

Hmmm interesting. I was told with the old beacons (both by DoC staff Te Anau, and Mobil Te Anau whol I hired them from) should you be past your panic date and not out yet then SAR HQ would switch on your beacon at 12pm and that you had 60 seconds to turn it off or else they would assume you were incapacitated. If you were simply running late due to bad wheather/understimating the amount of time required for your trip then switching the beacon off before the 1 minute was up meant SAR knew not to come looking for you. Mobil Te Anau have told me the new beacons dont have this feature. Surely they should have known if the old ones didnt as well? *shrug*

Hi Yarmoss I was told the same thing when i hired one from Mobil TeAnau in March.I am thinking of buying one in Brisbane for a Christmass preasent to myself

Putting a Epirb/Beacon/whatever in your pack won't necesarily provide for all circumstances. People can become separated from their packs in a fall or in a river crossing and in accidents perhaps around camp. You may not be able to retrieve the device and there are accounts where this has happened. I'm not trying to be negative but one has to be aware and perhaps having the device closer to your person could save you trouble. Obviously there is no one answer for every circumstance. Due to the expiry of my Epirb i need to make decisions myself. Previously i have carried one to minimise risk to a group. It is all about risk management. It shouldn't be about cost as the alternative is likely more costly. I've developed other skills in so far as risk management for myself. I wonder what percentage of risk is minimised by carrying one for myself. Maybe i'd rather die in the bush than in a hospital bed.

Yes but having a Emergency locator beacon can and will potentially save your life. You could do all the risk management planing to make sure nothing can go wrong but due to nature of the terrain weather whatever an accident may occur at anytime. You could lose your pack but when one of our party slid 400m down the ice he managed to keep his pack on, if you were to lose your pack in the river then bugger me how your going to survive then with only the clothing on your back in the middle of the wilderness and yes it could get trapped under a log but by crossing the right places to cross you should have a good run-out so you can float to the other side or back to the side your where on then again should you really cross this river? Having beacon is better than nothing...I don't know much about the history of the beacons but would say alot more people are surviving accidents in the backcountry because of them. Although that could also be attributed to better search and rescue methods etc etc but it could still take days for them to find you if not longer...where as with a beacon as long as it takes to relay the signal through the satelittes