Now I can do long distance paddles without my wife worrying too much, she can now find me if I get stuck or injured, hopefully I never need to use it?
Select to expand quoteEmeboy said..
That looks pretty handy Dave and not too big.... How much?
$249 and came with an arm band pouch and strap also free registration every 2 years.
Select to expand quoteDaveSandan said..
Now I can do long distance paddles without my wife worrying too much, she can now find me if I get stuck or injured, hopefully I never need to use it?
No she can't. She can only find you if you're conscious and aware enough to press the button.
For wifey to find you you need a SPOT or Garmin InReach tracker. With the SPOT she can track you. The InReach lets her send you a text message telling you to pick up some milk on the way home.
Nice work men.
had a KTI for about two years the antenna has rusted so give it a good wash regularly
Hard part is the tiny tiny hole at the top to attach it to something - NB when you let if off in distress - you want it with you, don't loose it or get seperated for it as that's your life line. No point in setting it off in a storm then having it drift off as the local search and rescue service will be looking for the beacon. Also KTI does not float which would make it useless if you drop it.
registration is always free for a PLB with AMSA
not a subscription based service like spot
also your wife can't find you unless she has a scanner running on 121.5 243 and 403 MHZ or a satellite system sorry mate
quite a process in responding to one as satellite has to be over the area, those not in a fixed orbit can take 60-90 minutes just to pass over you and pick up the signal, which is then sent to Canberra RCC. The staff at the rescue centre will then call your emergency contacts to see where you are and ensure it's not a false alarm, once this has happened Search and Rescue will be sent for you.
Realistically plan for a good hour in the water before anything happens.
Great device and well worth the money, but you have got to know it's limitations
also, get a tiny little mirror or bit of CD with it so you can signal with sunlight - works all day and is free
another consideration is just a old mobile phone in a good sealed bag with charged battery and no sim so you can call tripple zero when in need
Phone App Glympse will allow someone to follow your progress or see that you have made it safely to the pub.
Beware of using phone apps or emergency devices that use the phone network as a location system, these do no work well in open water locations such as bays, lakes etc. the poor coverage can put the location kilometres away from the actual. Amazingly there are some cheap systems that work this way.
also if you must have one, look for a device that has some indication that it is operating and transmitting when activated, again some don't.
^^ you can tell when there are three cop cars out the front, a helicopter overhead and the kids are playing in the boat
Select to expand quoteGorgo said..DaveSandan said..
Now I can do long distance paddles without my wife worrying too much, she can now find me if I get stuck or injured, hopefully I never need to use it?
No she can't. She can only find you if you're conscious and aware enough to press the button.
For wifey to find you you need a SPOT or Garmin InReach tracker. With the SPOT she can track you. The InReach lets her send you a text message telling you to pick up some milk on the way home.
Shhhh I don't really want her to always find me!!!
Quite a bit bulkier, but with a lot more features is the Standard Horizon HX870 VHF hand held radio: www.standardhorizon.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=85&encProdID=F074C5751E79473FCD911FF7D468A2E1&DivisionID=3&isArchived=0
On top of being a full featured and unusually powerful handheld VHF radio, it still has the one button touch to send out an emergency signal with your GPS location, name, craft, and inland emergency call numbers. It also allows you to talk to rescuers or other paddlers and boaters over VHF, allows discrete calling to other MSCI registered radios instead of open channel hailing, it is waterproof and also floats with a water activated strobe light that turns on to help you find it. It has a nice feature where you can send, or request, GPS locations to other VHF radios which will happen automatically without anyone needing to answer, and this one will display the compass course direction and distance to the other person's location. All this for about the same price as the PLB. My wife and I carry these on all of our downwinders on Maui.
As a cautionary tale, a husband and wife who are experienced paddlers were doing a Maliko run a few weeks back. She forgot to put on her leash and lost her board. He realized that she was missing and had no idea where she was. He paddled a mile back to land, and borrowed a cell phone to call emergency personnel while having no idea where she is. Meanwhile she is trying to swim in from a mile out in very rough seas with no flotation and no communication. Luckily she ran across some divers who helped her swim in until they flagged down the lifeguard on a jet ski. Very experienced paddlers, but how many things are wrong with this picture that were probably saved by the luck of the divers being there. Think of how many ways they could have used the HX870 to solve this situation. They could have called each other, he could have gotten an automatic location fix on her with course heading and distance even if she was not able to operate the radio, either one of them could have hit the emergency button and gotten a return call from the coast guard so that they could describe the situation, and the lifeguards would have her GPS location so that they could get straight to her on the jet ski.
the radio will turn on and flash SOS even if dropped in the water while the radio is turned off
Can you turn that feature off? I would have a light going off everytime I paddled otherwise
not sure about DSC calling if a yachtie can explain as it's more ship to ship v's PLB is 403 to search and rescue
I believe that you can change the setting for the light feature to different flash patterns, or just turn it off all together if you prefer. I leave mine on, since having the light flash inside my safety kit is not visible and does not use much power. That way if I need to pull it out of my pack in an emergency, the light is working both for finding the phone if I drop it, and for making me more visible to searchers
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Here are a few links explaining more about DSC (Digital Selective Calling) on newer marine VHF radios.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_selective_calling
www.boatus.org/marine-communications/
www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/how_tos.do;jsessionid=C559E205361BE43E70E67E1F1A0918CF.ajp13w1
Still think EPIRB / PLB is the go mate -
as quoted from website below -
If you are planning an offshore voyage, you need to know VHF radios and cellular telephones are limited in range, usually no more than 15 to 25 miles from shore. Emergency beacons.If you needed help or assistance in an emergency, a satellite Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) or a Personal Locater Beacon (PLB) may be your only hope for rescue.
These beacons are part of a worldwide distress system and are designed to quickly and reliably alert rescue personnel, indicate an accurate position, and guide rescue units to the distress scene when all other communications fail. When activated, these units transmit a unique signal that incorporates your location and in some cases, specific information about your vessel. By law, these beacons must be registered so rescue personnel have reliable information. PLBs are also useful for hiking and other adventures so vessel information can be changed to reflect another activity with a different description.
NB yeh your not going 20 miles off short but you also might be where no one else has a radio to listen to your mayday call
PLB / EPIRB can be used for other activity, and directly sends your GPS location to AMSA RCC then onto local search and rescue service who have a GPS and 403 system that can find your location rather than wait for another Mayday Call
its the weapon of choice for search and rescue services, it's what the staff all have and definitely something worth considering
also - consider a signal mirror - much more effective during daylight hours
Mand small flare for night - can get small one from local boat store that fits in your life jacket
good luck - paddle everywhere and always have Contingency plan
The KTI PBL comes with a reflective mirror in the case, I will also be using the same PBL for my Bushwalking and if I go to NZ to do the same I will carry it with me so no matter where I am I have the one devise, KISS principle!!
Select to expand quoteTardy said..
Great kit.
what about a hip flask .
port
I will keep that in the dry bag on the board and use my Camelbak to keep it handy, it's usually Vodka, same colour as water, lol..
There's a new type of laser/flare that would be better than a mirror for signaling and the lip-stick size devise puts out a fan of laser beams so you don't need to be pin-point accurate when aiming it.
Select to expand quoteDavidJohn said..
There's a new type of laser/flare that would be better than a mirror for signing and the lip-stick size devise puts out a fan of laser beams so you don't need to be pin-point accurate when aiming it.
Sounds good!!
