Would a personal epirb have saved the ouzo 3?

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I too am mistified to this statement.Personal EPIRB with integrated GPS has to be the best solution if only because the human factor element is eliminated when it comes to determining and passing the position.

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That would be true, the personal EPIRB is the best and if it has an intergrated GPS all the better. This is something similar to what aircrew of my period used but with out the GPS. Called SARBE it emitted a signal like the old style EPIRB. Aircraft flew down the bearing till they found you. It had the added advantage of short range two way communication.

My apologies to those confused by my statement above that EPIRBs crap over mobile phones and handheld VHF. I was using plain English but will try speaking slowly. EPIRBs are far superior to mobile phones and handheld VHF. Mobile phones have saved peoples lives locally but they dont give a bearing and can only be narrowed down to a cell. One splash and they are rat [--word removed--]. Handheld VHF are limited to line of sight and 5 watts and can be homed in on. EPIRBs are line of sight also, but commercial aircraft along the Australian eastern seaboard are transiting at about 30,000 feet. If you are treading water that gives your EPIRB a range of 225 miles. If you are treading water with a handheld VHF and the rescue boat has an aerial 20 feet high expect a range of 5.8 miles. The reality though is these ranges are often much further than that, especially in the EPIRBs case.
 
Just a few more points to an already good thread.

VHF vs EPIRB - VHF assumes you are concious and able to send and receive. An EPIRB/PLB will transmit continuously and can be set to do so automatically on sinking. Also the range of a handheld will be very small when the antenna is only a few inches above the water and having to radiate horizontally. VHF does not travel very well through water and lots of the time the waves will be above the antenna height. The 406 section of an EPIRB radiates vertically to reach the satillites so is not affected by being at sea level. Of course the advanage of VHF is that if you are in range and capable of talking you can do so which gives a certain amount of confidence. The lifeboats, shore stations and helecopters can direction find both 121.5 and VHF. 121.5 is monitored by the satellites but dopler position info is far less accurate and will be phased out from 1st Feb 2009.

EPIRBs with inbuilt GPS, obviously will give a very good position fix when the satellite is in range. BUT, the COSPAS-SARSAT system itself will give a position to within 3nm of a 406 EPIRB. See here. 3nm is well within the capabilities of the 121.5 direction finding systems mounted on the helecopters. Lifeboats will have less range though but may still pick up the beacon at 3nm range.

Timing - the COSPAS-SARSAT system will spot an alert within 5 min but up to 90 minutes to resolve the position depending on the positions of the satellites. They're continually orbitting and so one may not be in range when the EPIRB is activated.

So 121.5, 406 and VHF all have advantages and disadvantages. Newer IPIRBS have both 406 and 121.5. There are a number of PLBs that are 121.5 only.

When and if it's finally decided what happened, it may be possible to work out if EPIRBs would have helped. However, if you assume the guys were alive when they entered the water, an automatic EPIRB would have rasied an alert and may have been found within 2-3 hours. That doesn't meen the guys themselves would have been found within that time. Anything else is supposition.
 
I too am contemplating a personal epirb since the Ouzo incident- someting to do with being about to spend the winter wallying around the channel as a UKSA student. Have seen that there several on the market with/without gps. From the posts above it looks like if i go with my "wallet" as oposed to my "head" and get a non-gps unit i may have to tread water for somewhat longer but still have a fighting chance of survival. Does anyone have any personal reccomendations on the personal ones and has anyone ever had the misfortune to use one of the modern ones in anger ?
 
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