Avalanche Transceivers

Making the full on commitment to B/C travel and exploits this season. I have decided to purchase an Avalanche Transceiver rather than rent from here on out. I am curious to everyone&#8217;s loyalties to this crucial item in the gear stash. I have been using an older ortovox the past few years, ear piece and all. I am currently considering the BCA tracker. What are you kind folks using day in day out. Has anybody had negative exp. w/ the BCA product? Just a general plea for insight from actual users not the sales folks and internet reviews I have found thus far...<br><br>Cheers<br>Chris<br>

I formerly used an old Ortovox F2; moving to the Tracker was a welcomed change. I got my first one the first year or two they came out. The clear advantage was the speed in which I could find buried beacons (I was much slower using the grid method with that earpiece). The obvious and important drawback, however, is the limited range of the Tracker relative to analogs like an F1. We've done field experiments and the differences are substantial for all angles of buried beacons. <br><br>All in all, I'd recommend a Tracker, especially for someone without a lot of experience with beacons. They're rather user friendly. I don't have any experience with other digitals or combo models, so I can't speak to any others.<br><br><br><br>As a side note: I am on my second one - after a couple of seasons my first Tracker quit working. I returned it for a free replacement. The second has worked fine for the past 3 seasons.

I decided on the BCA Tracker because I feel I need the easiest tool to use. <br><br>By the way.. last night I ran into this avy story where a guy got buried within twenty minutes of the Paradise parking lot on Rainier (his partner forgot his beacon): www.couloirmag.com/articles/avy/9lives.asp

And here is a story about a guy who fortunately had a beacon on his dog. Great description of how he felt as he used his BCA Tracker to find his buried dog: www.firsttracksonline.com/duffyavi.htm

A bit of a different viewpoint. I have a newer Ortovox which is both analog & digital. I used to have the Tracker and playing with both in mulitple burial scenarios (the most common!), the Ortovox was clearly superior. The Tracker, even with it's "special" features, took more than twice as long to find the burials than the Ortovox. In fact, the Tracker was so confusing vs. the Ortovox, many others I was with during the tests went out and bought the Ortovox and donated their Trackers.

Chris -<br><br>While not carried by as many retailers, I opted for the Mammut/Barryvox a couple years back and would recommend that you consider it in your selection process.<br><br>In some reviews it has been criticized as difficult to use, but this has not been my experience. It does allow for some user configuration options that other brands did not offer at the time I bought mine. Others may provide the same options now.<br><br>I personally like the user selectable options it provides, including the ability to switch between digital and analog modes during a search, good volume for work in the wind, and the manner in which it detects and communicates a dual or dual+ burial. I like the size also. <br><br>Good luck with your selection!<br><br>J.P.

Donating the Trackers? Jeeesh, who were the lucky recipients? I'd rather have that beacon anyday over a combo digital/analog Ortovox.