Snohomish County Shows Off New Beacon Locator

Helicopter Beacon Locator:

KOMO News Video:
www.komonews.com/news/local/87597167.html?tab=video

Text Story:
www.komonews.com/news/local/87597167.html ?

Great resource for the area -- love that helicopter.

Any connection to the gentleman who tried to get lawmakers to require PLBs for climbers, a few months back..?

Am interested in the efficacy of the RECCO approach, though.  You SAR guys got a take on that?  If it works well, such a passive approach may be a much better solution, with regard to cost, and shouldn't step on the toes of civil libertarians too badly.

Who do you mean re: connection, David? The RECCO receiver was donated. Beacons and RECCO have the same problem, of course -- if you're not wearing them, you're out of luck. The RECCO reflectors are a lot cheaper though, for sure.

I got a Recco reflector built into my jacket... It's been added to some of the clothing and boots. They are about $25 buck to purchase separately. People probably are wearing them and don't even know it.

Who do you mean re: connection, David?  The RECCO receiver was donated.  Beacons and RECCO have the same problem, of course -- if you're not wearing them, you're out of luck.  The RECCO reflectors are a lot cheaper though, for sure.

Marcus, i was referring to the businessman (PLB distributor, I thought from Snohomish Cty.) who was lobbying local legislators to sponsor the bill that, so far, went nowhere - I could search the threads here, but I'd only screwup the copy/paste thing anyway.

What really sounded cool about the KOMO news report was that the search chopper had RECCO capability.  "Lots" of clothing/gear come with the reflector, but I've minimized the utility because I rarely hear about organizations (SAR?) with the other half of the system.  I think I read some while ago that it's used more in Europe (?).

So, what do we know about how well the 'pinger' works from a chopper?