Hello RK, Say I know this sounds silly, but when you switched to search mode up on the hill, still having had a 99 battery strength read out, and it didn't indicate any distance change, are you sure your partner had his beacon on transmit? New partner, maybe less beacon savvy? Or did he/she realize it, and switch back to transmit only once you were back close again - hence the reading 0.1 - which typically indicates you're as close as you can get to a transmitting beacon. Perplexing, particularly if it worked once you got close again. This kind of situation is why its always good to do a transmit-receive check with your partner before leaving the trail head - which accomplishes three important things. 1. Makes sure everyones batteries and beacons work, 2. Insures that each beacon's transmit and receive functions are working, and that all party beacons are reading each other (old or broken beacons may drift out of tolerance, or not work), and 3. perhaps most importantly, demonstrate that everyone in the party knows how to work their beacon, or at least know how to switch it back and forth from transmit to receive. I always do this check right off, even with good buddies. Lacking any of the above situations, I wouldn't trust that beacon again, unless I'd tested it in the interim a half dozen times, or sent it back to BCA for testing. Hope this helps.
Gerry H
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