Ortovox 3+

Just had a pair of new Ortovox 3+'s delivered to my doorstep. Mmmm... sexy little beacon.
Simple design, just one flagging button. Simple display with numbers and an arrow. Automatically goes into pinpoint mode at 2m.
Only 1 AA battery!
Although I never use harness systems, this is a design that might actually work for searching. It allows you to get the beacon out to arm's length... unlike many other harnesses.
All three antennas can transmit, and if you stop moving for a while, like if you were buried say, the beacon will begin transmitting from the most optimal antenna to give your rescuers the best chance of finding you.

One thing I find interesting: Ortovox recommends a single rescuer signal search pattern that is 20m from the edge of the debris and 40m apart. BCA and AIARE has been using 10m and 20m. Any thoughts on this topic?

Have you tried the flagging function yet? I wanted to take that beacon for a test drive at ISSW but didn't get the chance. I was able to flag/unflag pretty quickly and reliably at the booth, but I'd be psyched to try it out in the field.

Not sure on the search strip width. I wonder if there are some new protocols in Euro?

All three antennas can transmit, and if you stop moving for a while, like if you were buried say, the beacon will begin transmitting from the most optimal antenna to give your rescuers the best chance of finding you.

Just two, not all three -- the third antenna on all beacons is only for resolving nulls/spikes in the final search phase, and is probably too small to do any good for transmitting.

Just two, not all three -- the third antenna on all beacons is only for resolving nulls/spikes in the final search phase, and is probably too small to do any good for transmitting.

Thanks for catching that Jonathan. I didn't mean to put any misinformation out there.

I've been out twice testing with the 3+, still haven't decided if I'm going to keep it because I want to test against more beacons.

First time out was testing against my original model Tracker and a friends F1. We tried single and multiple with every combination...  The 3+ gave erratic results, but we couldn't rule out the problem was with the older F1 (which hasn't been tested for drift) or user error.  The 3+ needed to be much closer than 40M to pick up a signal. On one multiple test it picked the first signal up reasonably, but didn't detect the second until 17M.

On purpose I had not read the directions other than a quick glance of features. On reading the instructions, it talked about panning the beacon 30 degrees to each side and tilt moderatedly up and down to increase the chance of picking up the signal. I think I was doing something like that, but not as systematic.

Second time out was with the same Tracker and a different F1.  For whatever reason the 3+ seemed to work more reliably. Whether a different F1, more experience with it, I didn't get as many erratic readings. It still didn't pick up signals at 40M, but once it had the signal it was very quick and easy to locate the beacon.

Liked the harness and extension cord. I'll continue testing.. Almost forgot - the Marking button - awesome. When you find the first beacon, press the mark and move on to the next. No need to turn off the beacon.

Before testing any beacon's search function with an F1 target, the F1 transmission definitely needs to be checked.
Fortunately, the 3+ can do this for you (along with the S1, DSP, and Pulse). But although I agree that trying a beacon first w/o reading the user manual is a good test of the user interface's intuitiveness this, for the transmission check, you really need to read the manual first, especially for possible error codes.