Re: RE: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group 406 MHZ ELT

Helen,

Thanks for the correction.
It is obvious that my knowledge was very sketchy.
Your info has really filled in the gaps.

R. Williams



---------- Original Message -----------
From: Helen Woods <Helen_Woods@verizon.net>
To: Sport_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, 18 May 2010 06:55:35 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: RE: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group 406 MHZ ELT

>  
>
> Actually, that is not correct.  The only information that is contained in a 406 ELT is the serial number of the unit.  That number and the lat/lon of the unit if the unit also contains a GPS (or is connected to one in the plane) is tranmitted to the satelite.  This is the exact same information as is transmitted by an aircraft 406 PLB or boat 406 EPIRB.  When you purchase such a unit you go to a NOAA web site and fill out the serial number of the unit and all of your personal information.  That way when the Air Force or Coast Gaurd computer receives your serial number from the unit it will pull up all of your personal information from the computer database for rescuers to use.
>  
> The difference between ELTs, EPIRBs, and PLBs is the certification standards.  ELTs are of course held to exteremely high certification and reliability standards.  They must also have an auto activation feature with a G switch.  PLBs are not held to as high of certification standards.  They must also have a two step activation procedure to prevent accidental activation.  I am not as familiar with EPIRB cerification but I do know it varies by the class of ship on which they are carried.  Some are manual activation, some are triggered by water, and some are trigered by flipping upside down as they would if they fell out of a holster on a ship and started to float when the ship capsized.  The larger units are required to float.
>  
> As a side note, the combination of the frequency change and this databurst/registration process is was cuts down the false alarm problem on 406 units.  When the unit goes off, the RCC can look up and call the owner immediately.  The only two 406 units I ever searched for in my CAP days were not registered.  One was an EPIRB still in the shipping box in that was sitting in a freshly delivered boat in a guy's driveway that had filled with rain water triggering activation.  The other was an EPIRB I dug out of the county landfill recycling bin (gravity flip activated) that had been  decomishioned and someone had already deleted it from the database. 
>  
> Helen
>
<snip>

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