Does this seem dumb to anyone else?

As for the OP's concern, I would be very surprised if someone who has never taken an avy safety course has somehow become proficient at a non-directional single-antenna beacon. 

I won the beacon search race at the Methow Valley Freeheel Festival one year using an analog beacon with an earpiece.  I had no previous formal avalanche training. 

Surprise

Which year?
(And does a freeheel festival mean all telemarkers? And what beacons were others using? And what kind of target configuration? And what was your winning time?)

Which year?
(And does a freeheel festival mean all telemarkers?  And what beacons were others using?  And what kind of target configuration?  And what was your winning time?)

1.Maybe 1999. 
2.Lots of telemarkers but not all.  I believe I was a telemarker at the time.
3.The original Tracker was the hot transceiver.  I remember catching some heat over my relic transceiver.  Several folks had the blue Orthovox with a speaker.
4.The target was one of several shallowly buried beacons remotely switched on (a 'beacon basin')
5.Time. I do not recall.  Faster than everyone else.  High probability of some luck on the pinpoint portion of the search.

Funny that as a result of that trip I bought a Tracker, and the next formal organized event I participated in was a Level 1 class this year where once again I had the oldest transceiver (as well as the shortest probe) so now I'm going to buy a new unit and probably a new probe.   Looking forward to further peer pressure to upgrade in 2026.