RE: [Paddlewise] epirbs

Chuck wrote:
>A few days back, I learned about a new epirb paired with a vhf signal:
>www.mobilarm.com/page/about_mobilarm_v100.html This device attaches to
>your pfd and is water activated. It broadcasts to both satellite stations
>and on vhf channel 16. This means that any vessel nearby can respond
>immediately to the signal. This is a new Australian product.

G'day Chuck,

Seems to be an excellent product for people on yachts or rigs where its sole
purpose is to help someone cope with an emergency. Not sure if it's so
helpful to kayakers because of the water activation issue and because a
kayaker would be likely to also want a separate VHF/GPS for less urgent
tasks like logging on an off with the local Marine Rescue.

Last week I started thinking again about buying a GPS. We were in a thick
sea fog and a significantly choppy sea and we had encountered a small dinghy
that for a while seemed to be in difficulty. It occurred to me that if I had
to assist anyone at that point, then providing a verbal estimate to the
Marine Rescue of location would be useless and Lat and Long coordinates
essential. The VHF being simple could be operated one handed without rafting
up with fellow paddler. But I would have been loth to take both hands off
the paddle to cope with the added complication of handling a GPS that was
hard to read at a distance.

A number of my club are really taken with the Standard Horizon HX850s
handheld, which combines GPS and VHF with Digital Selective Calling to
automatically notify nearby shipping of trouble. It is a step down from the
device you describe but without the personal locator beacon (PLB or EPIRB)
and without satellite capability. It wouldn't suit me as the screen and the
button combinations look too complicated and difficult to operate quickly in
an emergency. In a non-emergency I'd be afraid of accidently operating the
DSC button. My preferred combination is a PLB with combined GPS, a simple
VHF radio without DSC and perhaps a wrist mounted GPS with decent sized
characters on the screen. I've seen one recently and it looked like a good
solution. BTW many thanks to Paddlewisers for their advice a year ago on
prescription sunglasses, they are great and the advice on getting non
polarised lenses so as to better see instrument screens was spot on.

After considering all of this I was on a kayaking course at the weekend and
we had a Canadian, an affable fellow, who expressed quite a bit of concern
when the discussion got around to safety gear and EPIRBs. It may be an
example of the validity of quite opposed viewpoints provided each is taken
in context. I just don't know what the contextual differences are in this
case. The Canadian described how problematic EPIRBs were in his country
where their use was associated with over-reaction and mobilisation of
extraordinary levels of resource to effect a rescue; whereas here in
Australia the rescue authorities encourage the community to take them on
substantial bushwalks and when boating, to minimise the time and resources
needed. 

All the best, PeterO
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