Beacon that can't search

trying to be generous about it, but can't quite do it - terrible idea.  bet they sell a bunch, though.  Can you see resorts shops offering them for sale or rent?    www.snow-beacon.com/

$85 Australian = $83 US. This device isn't much more than a body locator.

Much more or nothing more?

PSA..

I have an orto d3. For no paricular reason, it lost it's search function. Looked operational, and sent a signal, just no searching ability. Orto warrnateed it, but a good reminder.

DO YOUR BEACON CHECK!!!

A poorly conceived idea.

I hope that the negative comments that being posted here and everywhere else on the web are enough to help educate those who might not know any better to stay away.

This device isn't much more than a body locator.

No more so than any full avalanche transceiver, right? You are just as likely to be located (dead or alive) wearing this device as you would be wearing a full avalanche transceiver.

Anyway, whatever else you may think of it, they definitely got the name right: "snow-beacon" is entirely appropriate for a device which is a transmitter only, and it appears to be the only device on the avalanche rescue market which should actually be called a "beacon". Perhaps the transmitters intended for dogs and lost skis (see www.ortovox.com/dog-rescue and www.google.com/search?q=Ortovox+Ski+Maus ) which operate on a non-457 kHz frequency also fit the term "beacon", but no full avalanche transceiver should ever have been referred to by that incorrect term.

The term "beacon" has many meanings, originally a signal fire lit on a hill or tower, and eventually in the 20th century the term was used for radio beacons (see for example Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beacon , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_beacon , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distress_radiobeacon ). The term "beacon" in the radio context properly refers only to a radio transmitter, and outside the avalanche industry, does not appear to be used for a transceiver (transmitter+receiver) in any other field.

For many years, I've thought that the needless dumbing-down of the correct term "transceiver" to "beacon" was one of the most foolish things ever done by whoever and whichever organization was responsible for it (avalanche education professionals, the avalanche equipment companies, does anyone know who started that trend??). It has caused numerous needless instances of user confusion between avalanche transceivers and personal locator beacons over the last several years, some of them well-publicized in the press, but countless other instances have certainly occurred and continued silently unknown and unpublicized. Yes, it's true that the people who are confused are ill-informed, intellectually passive, and clueless -- but that doesn't make it OK for the avalanche industry to allow a chance for such confusion by continuing to use an idiotic ill-defined term like "beacon" when an accurate term is available, and is only 1 syllable longer.

It is long past the time that ALL avalanche education classes, ALL avalanche professionals, and all backcountry travelers too, should stop using the term "beacon", and instead use only the proper term "transceiver" to eliminate this needless source of user confusion.

The term "beacon" should ONLY be used for devices that can't search.

Definitely not a useful tool for BC use, but in all fairness they are pretty clear about it on the website:

This is not a back-country product, it is ideal for in-resort family skiing in the northern hemisphere conditions.

Please be aware snow-be has no search function and you cannot find anyone with or using it.

If you wish to have a search function, you must carry a transceiver or receiver unit.

I don't think it's the worst idea ever for non-touring types skiing in-bounds on a high avy day or skiing in the trees when tree wells are hungry.

Hopefully someone doesn't unknowingly confuse it for a real beacon and head into the BC with it.  

Could also be a cheap beacon to put in a bag, chuck down a mountain, and do beacon practice.