Don't stand still in this techno world - or something will trample you as it rushes past ;-) As of two weeks ago (July 21), the FCC approved for sale the American ACR ResQLink. It's slightly smaller & lighter than my McMurdo Fastfind 210 - and has a user-re-foldable antenna as well as compatibility with an optional service for sending the occasional message home. It's only about 12% lighter and 8% smaller - so I'm not rushing out to replace the Fastfind - and it has taken ACR 2 years to catch up. Their older models are all twice the size. http://www.acrelectronics.com/news/product-announcements/2011/07/resqlink-pe rsonal-locator-beacon/ Looking at this new service for sending occasional messages home - using a standard PLB instead of a Spot - it is clearly in answer to the advantage enjoyed by the Spot. There are a few gotchas. It appears that this service is run by a separate company 406link.com - who seem to have worked out a deal to piggy-back on the SARSAT system. Good on 'em - but the buggers don't seem to have made it work with my McMurdo 210 unit. They do with about 40 other McMurdo models - so who knows why no 210... Note that all the PLBs seem to allow about 10 fully functional checks (including a GPS lock-on) - that's built into the unit & supported in the battery-life specs. Of course, each test consumes some battery power - which will come out of your final transmission window. That's why they limit the # of tests. Under the new 'send a message home' service for 406 PLBs, each one of the messages sent counts as a 'test'. So after 10 messages, you looks like you are either cutting into your 24-hour transmission rating or you are up for a 100+ $US battery replacement. That might temper your enthusiasm for keeping mum up-to-date with your location & well-being... Nice little unit from ACR though. The new champeen 'baby' PLB. But no extended waterproof rating ;-) Best Regards Paul *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Aug 06 2011 - 05:10:50 PDT
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