Noaa epirb registration rant

[TQA]

I bought a boat with a USA registered EPIRB so the easiest thing was to keep it registered with NOAA and change the info.

Just had the registration come up for renewal and was informed of of this by email.

Well the NOAA website for renewal is one of the most baffling and frustrating I have ever used. After battling for an hour or so I finally got out with what I hope is a renewed registration.

The site does NOT react as the notification letter says.

It does not confirm that you have succeeded in making a renewal.

With something as important as EPIRB registration things need to be crystal clear.

GRRRRRRHHHHHHHH

Oh yes just received a SECOND email from them; an exact duplicate of the first one so maybe I did not up date my registration after all. No indication of the problem.

 

[duncan99210]

No problem with my registration - found the site a little clunky but did what it was supposed to. Only thing was, they wrote to me a couple of days later remarking that the address given was in UK and that, whilst they were happy to keep the registration active, it would be better if I got the number changed to a UK one. Not going to happen as it will cost more to replace battery and change number than to buy a new one, so the registration will be quietly allowed to lapse and the EPIRB disposed of......

 

[prv]

the registration will be quietly allowed to lapse and the EPIRB disposed of......

Just make sure it's disposed of in a fashion that prevents it going off. Apparently a non-trivial number of EPIRB alerts are traced to rubbish dumps. The battery has a fair bit of safety margin so it might still transmit even after self-test says it's flat.

Pete

 

[TQA]

No problem with my registration - found the site a little clunky but did what it was supposed to. Only thing was, they wrote to me a couple of days later remarking that the address given was in UK and that, whilst they were happy to keep the registration active, it would be better if I got the number changed to a UK one. Not going to happen as it will cost more to replace battery and change number than to buy a new one, so the registration will be quietly allowed to lapse and the EPIRB disposed of......

This was why I wanted to keep my reg with NOAA.

Well I guess if you can do it I should be able to too. Afterall I was an IT pro for 20+ years and built websites for dosh.

Get my remaining braincells in a row and well cafeined up tomorrow morning, switch to Robert the Bruce mode and try again.

PS a bit clunk is an understatement. It is not intuitive, the error messages do not lead to obvious solutions and you are not told clearly if you have succeeded or failed.

Grade C-

 

[nimbusgb]

Replacement battery and 'service' quoted yesterday at £140. They said they'd reprogram it to my UK number at the same time - included in the price.

Not quite the same as buying a new one, perhaps 1/2 the price?

Next time round I'll just unscrew the casing and replace the battery myself.