Personal Locator Beacon – Repeated activation in Colorado

[Craig]

I’m sure some of you were following the PLB debacle in Colorado over the holidays so I thought I’d post the conclusion.

Article

From December 14 to January 5, the ACR PLB-300 beacon was activated nine times—eight times near Berthoud Pass, and a ninth north of Crested Butte. Unfortunately, the owner never registered the device, so he or she couldn’t be contacted.
After the fourth or fifth activation from the same device, the Clear Creek County Sheriff decided not to alert SAR teams anymore. Instead, authorities focused on trying to determine who owned the PLB, and on getting the word out to the public that there was a problem.

…It was further determined that 12 of these beacons where sold in Colorado between July 1 and December 13. The Clear Creek County Sheriff’s office made contact with the 12 owners that purchased the PLBs. Although no one has come forth and admitted that this was their beacon, there has not been an activation since these folks where contacted.

Lessons Learned:

Woodward said the take-home message for PLB users is they need to learn how to use these devices to prevent false alarms, and they need to register them so a simple phone call might prevent inadvertent SAR-team call-outs.

A conversation on 14ers also

 

[tb69wemt]

Read the Directions!!!!!!!!!

Not sure if this guy should be laughed at or have his butt kicked.....

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14501974


The guy thought he had an avalanche beacon

remember if all else fails read the directions!!!!!!

 

[Jay H]

Not sure if this guy should be laughed at or have his butt kicked.....

My vote (is this a poll?) is both!

Jay