#124918 - 12/08/0902:47 PMRe: Sounds Good To Me.
[Re: DJ2]
midnightsun03
member
Registered: 08/06/03
Posts: 2936
Loc: Alaska
DJ2... you might even want to include in your contingency plans when you will push the PLB button... that is, if you met your panic criteria and you're assured that your wife will have called the authorities, part of your plan could be that you will push the PLB at panic +48 hours regardless of your condition, if you are still not at your exit point. If the authorities already know that you have this plan they can alert the RCC to be on the lookout for your signal so when you push it and the signal is identified as you, they will know not to launch the troops without calling the SAR coordinator first.
Actually, this isn't a bad contingency plan for anyone who carries a PLB. Make sure all of the identifying information is left with your wife and when she calls SAR she can tell them that you have a PLB with you, and here are your conditions for pushing the button. They will give that info to RCC and if they pick up that signal they will know what the situation is.
MNS
MNS
Edited by midnightsun03 (12/08/0902:55 PM)
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#124922 - 12/08/0903:54 PMRe: Sounds Good To Me.
[Re: midnightsun03]
OregonMouse
member
Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6799
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
Sounds like a great idea, MNS, but I'd want to know if this is a legal option with the Feds for button-pushing, first. However, I can think of few instances in which being overdue at panic + 48 hours wouldn't be due to illness, injury or being lost. Especially if at panic time I were already 24 hours overdue.
The only situation I can think of right now that would be an illegal button-push would be if my dog got sick or injured. However, I never expect to be so isolated that someone wouldn't come along within 12 hours whom I could ask to notify a horse outfitter or (around my area) the Oregon Humane Society which has a pet rescue unit.
_________________________
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view--E. Abbey
I did some poking around and found this info from NOAA
Quote:
The following are some suggestions on how you (yes, you) can prevent false alarms. By doing so, you will increase the effectiveness of the very system your life may someday rely on! We can not stress the importance of this enough. Responding to the false alarms can cause large delays in responding to real emergencies. Unnecessary deployments also put the lives of search and rescue personnel at risk. Although Cospas-Sarsat is a high-tech, automated system, large volumes of false alerts can cost valuable minutes to people in real distress. Every little bit does help! So please, read the recommendations below and follow them. Above all, use common sense.
FOR PLB’s:
Always test your PLB in strict accordance with manufacturers’ recommendations. Most PLB activation switches have a test position. This test position allows the entire unit (electronics, battery and antenna) to be tested without generating a false alarm.
Ensure that your beacon is registered with NOAA. This does nothing to reduce false alarm rates, but does have a dramatic effect on the impact of a false alarm. If the PLB is properly registered, the situation will be resolved with a phone call most of the time. It will also help speed rescue in an actual distress. It's free, easy, and it's the law, so please register all of your beacons.
Maintain your PLB. Ensure that the batteries are within their expiration date and that all manufacturer recommendations are followed.
This is the money quote as related to the O.P.: If the PLB is properly registered, the situation will be resolved with a phone call most of the time. It will also help speed rescue in an actual distress.
In 2009, as of December 4, Number of Persons Rescued (To Date) in the United States: 178
-Rescues at sea: 139 people rescued in 56 incidents
-Aviation rescues: 8 person rescued in 5 incidents
#124928 - 12/08/0905:28 PMRe: Your Expected Return Time, and your PLB...
[Re: Rick_D]
midnightsun03
member
Registered: 08/06/03
Posts: 2936
Loc: Alaska
Rick...
Thanks for finding and posting that! I had started a response to OM but had to abandon it and got logged off. My point was that if you've met the criteria for your "home base" to call in SAR and you know that there is an active search underway, it is no longer just your health and safety at stake anymore - it is the health and safety of the SAR team to consider. Having the means by which to pinpoint your location and not using it when you know there are people looking for you puts people at unnecessary risk. Not to mention most SAR people are volunteers who may be taking time off from work to search for you... it really doesn't make any sense NOT to use the PLB at that point. Like Rick_D's post points out, the PLB signal triggers a phone call first - the people on the contact list could relay to RCC the situation and then they will coordinate with the Search Coordinator and decide what needs to be done. It may be that RCC relays the coordinates to the SAR team and then puts their own team on standby until called in by SAR. At that point it really isn't up to you, it is up to the SAR coordinator and the RCC to decide what to do.
MNS
_________________________
YMMV. Viewer discretion is advised.
#124954 - 12/09/0912:56 AMRe: Sounds Good To Me.
[Re: midnightsun03]
DJ2
member
Registered: 01/06/02
Posts: 1348
Loc: Seattle, WA
Excellent suggestions.
I'm going to leave a "decision tree" with my wife so she'll know what my plan is in case I'm hurt or late. It will help her figure out the possibilities should I press or not press the PLB after she sicks the dogs on me (bloodhounds that is).
#124965 - 12/09/0911:56 AMRe: Your Expected Return Time, and your PLB...
[Re: phat]
Zalman
member
Registered: 10/25/09
Posts: 97
Loc: Olympic Peninsula, Washington,...
I've been slowly absorbing all this SPOT, PLB, and SAR talk, never having any experience with any of this stuff myself.
Instead of a device that signals a central office (corporate or government) for rescue, I think I'd want a pair of devices, one of which can signal the other via satellite. I get one, and my emergency contact gets the other. Such an arrangement would allow for a variety of signal plans and could include an 'OK' button (perhaps pressed at regular intervals, so that not pressing the button on time would be the emerency signal.) It seems to me that makers of SPOT devices could expand in this direction relatively easily.
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It's easy to be a holy man on top of a mountain. -- Larry Darrell
#125058 - 12/11/0908:26 PMRe: Your Expected Return Time, and your PLB...
[Re: Jimshaw]
OregonMouse
member
Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6799
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
Assuming one isn't too incapacitated to crawl around and collect fuel, smoke signals might just work better than the 11-oz. PLB. Certainly lighter weight! Especially in times of high fire danger, guaranteed to get attention (Smokey Bear pops out from behind a tree wielding a shovel....)!
_________________________
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view--E. Abbey
#125062 - 12/11/0908:52 PMRe: Your Expected Return Time, and your PLB...
[Re: OregonMouse]
DJ2
member
Registered: 01/06/02
Posts: 1348
Loc: Seattle, WA
An old long gone friend of mine grew up in Idaho in the early 1900s. He said during that era people often signalled for help by setting an isolated snag on fire. Hopefully one that didn't start a forest fire.
Registered: 02/23/07
Posts: 1735
Loc: California (southern)
Heh-heh...A major fire in southern California started as a distressed hunter's signal fire, as did another in Arizona a few years ago. There are times and conditions when you should never even think of striking a match.
I am sure this will spark some discussion, but I hope not to start a flame war....
#125090 - 12/12/0912:07 PMRe: Your Expected Return Time, and your PLB...
[Re: Jimshaw]
Zalman
member
Registered: 10/25/09
Posts: 97
Loc: Olympic Peninsula, Washington,...
Originally Posted By Jimshaw
How bout smoke signals
Great for Injuns like you Jim ... but what about all the cowboys/girls that read this forum? They're gonna want PLB GPS SAR MSR and a bunch of other TLAs.
(Here I'll liken your incongruous love of GPS with the Quinault tribesman who wears an old hat gifted by Captain William Clark.)
_________________________
It's easy to be a holy man on top of a mountain. -- Larry Darrell
#125107 - 12/12/0904:07 PMRe: Your Expected Return Time, and your PLB...
[Re: phat]
OregonMouse
member
Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6799
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
Yes, the usual campfire precautions are in order! Actually, you want to make a smudge with lots of smoke, so you don't need a big fire--get a small bed of coals going and add grass or green branches. Of course, clear the ground around first.
The incident that finally persuaded me to get a PLB (on top of big fussing from family and friends about going out alone) involved a hiker getting pinned by a boulder in the Wind Rivers. He couldn't free himself and eventually died of dehydration. No, this wasn't the guy who cut his arm off! Wandering_Daisy mentioned this incident in one of her trip reports and I found the complete story here.
_________________________
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view--E. Abbey
Just curious--and maybe this should be a new thread--but how many people on these boards backpack alone? And how many of those leave the trail behind to do some serious cross-country hiking on their own?
Happily, I am almost always accompanied by my wife these days. But I am curious about this solo hikers...
And I am sick of seeing that bearcan headline on this topic!
bigfoot2
member
Registered: 09/17/06
Posts: 1432
Loc: Eugene , Oregon
Originally Posted By phat
Originally Posted By oldranger
Sounds like your best option is to have a nice cup of tea (perhaps enhanced with one of your magic elixirs)ready for the heroic, selfless, self sacrificing SAR workers (who in reality are enjoying the change in the routine and the chance to get out)speeding to your location.
Heh.. Interestingly as a good subject of Her Majesty, that's pretty much *exactly* as I usually start these situations. Sitting down and "brewing up" is almost always what I have done for many years when outside and confronted with.. hmmm... now what..
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