When to activate your EPIRB

[WalrusLike]

Fellas I really don't reckon we ought to be worried that Satnav is putting people off activating an Epirb when in trouble.

In that kind of situation people won't be worried about offending some far off character on a keyboard.

If they are concerned for their passengers or themselves. they will use whatever means is at hand.

And we all know that the authorities will not ever prosecute a legitimate activation.




(Using Tapatalk on iPhone so can't easily 'thank' or 'like')

[SatNav]

1. People get back to the actual issue and stop trying to distract and sidetrack from the relevence as it does nothing more than highlight some are only to happy to cut corners and take risks.

2. Some still winge even today about having to be made to carry an Epirb, let alone having also to be made to register it let alone having to be told to service it as well, rather strange how some are very selective when it comes to quoting legislation sometimes it serves their purpose, sometimes not

[team_mongo]

1. Not VHF country at that range for a little vessel at all regardless of VHF make/model or length of antenna, height is what you need but you don;t have. This then leaves as first choice HF radio, Satphone or last on the list maybe something like SPOT?

Spot??? - you'd trust your life to globalstar????
Good luck with that...

[ftrucker78]

Great topic,pitty about the bull$hit that has came with it. I see this satnav fellow likes to blow his own trumpet a little, which is fair enough a lot of fisho's do, but satnav are you really a fisho? I see you have been on this forum for a little while so you either like fishing or fishing related topics,or your on here purely to cause trouble. So my question to you is can you even catch a fish? my guess is no, any fish in ear shot of your self pleasing dribble would turn tail.
Ps this is my first post on this forum,I fish wide of DI regularly,will be reporting my safe returns from the deep regularly. Cheers Brett PPs I Have Red fever

[Back In Black]

Great topic,pitty about the bull$hit that has came with it. I see this satnav fellow likes to blow his own trumpet a little, which is fair enough a lot of fisho's do, but satnav are you really a fisho? I see you have been on this forum for a little while so you either like fishing or fishing related topics,or your on here purely to cause trouble. So my question to you is can you even catch a fish? my guess is no, any fish in ear shot of your self pleasing dribble would turn tail.
Ps this is my first post on this forum,I fish wide of DI regularly,will be reporting my safe returns from the deep regularly. Cheers Brett PPs I Have Red fever

Brett, good to hear your views. How wide of DI do you go, & If you still get reception, do you mind if I ask what gear you use??

Tony

[ftrucker78]

G'Day Tony we use a GME unit the ariel would be around 2mtrs. we are only fishing up to 30 mile from the bar in any direction mainly north/north east. we have always had good radio signal,we will soon be upgrading to 6 meter plus boat with a couple of four strokes so we can head to the shelf or further up fraser.At the range we go at the moment we mainly have phone range not that we want it or relie on it. I think the mobile phone tower is at Eurong on Fraser,which i guess is why we still get phone service up there. Brett

[SatNav]

"Spot??? - you'd trust your life to globalstar???? Good luck with that..."

1. I would agree with that but as another level of communication SPOT does have a purpose, but certainly not as a primary or distress system, battery limitations and third party call centres involved.

2. Purchase and operating costs are also not favourable compared to an Epirb.

[ftrucker78]

Short Fuse I forgot to say a thanks for the info. As well as we all plan our much anticipated fishing trips, no one/ thing is perfect things can be over looked, a radio or motor that worked perfect one minute may fail the next. When things go as bad as the situation with your mate it's comfort to know you won't be facing a grilling for using your safety equipment.More to the point it's safer/ less cost for your rescuers to set it off. Before reading this post I would of done the same as your mate. cheers Brett

[lethal098]

Tony,
You can always call the Coastguard/VMR to get the weather updates,
They will happily give it to you over the phone, Yes it might cost you a couple of dollars but hey, your safety doesnt have a price tag.

Cheers Lee

[mattooty]

I've just spent nearly an hour with my local Wespac lifesaver Helicopter pilot chin wagging about EPIRBS in regards to NSW based emergencies (I assume it would be applicable elsewhere though Australia but I really am not 100% sure, one of the few things I didn't ask him).

I brought up this topic and questioned the ethics/rules behind activating my EPIRB in certain scenario's and how it is dealt with post-rescue.
He couldn't emphasize enough that if you are in a situation that you cannot get yourself out of on your own/with your own comms then set it off. He emphasized that even if you have food and fresh water for a month, that it is still a life threatening situation whether its immediate or potential for it to become a life threatening situation.
One of the biggest issue's they have at the moment is spending countless hours hovering over strange locations searching for land-based EPIRBS that have been set off in rubbish dumps after being dumped.
He told me that if a rescue is intitiated due to your partner calling the Police and saying that you went fishing and didn't come home that it is a state funded rescue effort and as such has a finite quantity of funds. Eg, if they don't find you in a few days then they've run out of money and will call the search off. However if you activate your EPIRB then it is a Federally run rescue operation (based from Canberra) that largely has an open cheque book so they will search non-stop until they locate the EPIRB.
In this instance he said that when an EPIRB is activated it is much easier to send one aircraft to that location and search initially on a relatively low cost operation and locate the vessel and co-ordinate the rescue/salvage operation from this point.
If a search and rescue is implemented and your location is vague at best (and lets face it, how many of our partners would be able to say, he went to the north grounds off the Goldy, and if he doesn't go well there he'll go wider and failing that he'll head south before fishing the bait reefs and coming in) then the operational capacity is suddenly at 20 fixed wing aircrafts, a dozen choppers all searching an area that could well be hundreds of kilometres from one region to another. Obviously this chews through the funds and the search is cancelled within a few days.
In conclusion, he told me that I am best to activate my EPIRB rather than wait for a co-ordinated search and rescue from Police.
Straight from the horses mouth. I'm taking it as what it is, a proffessional reccomendation, and sticking to it.

[Crunchy]

VII. Nah mate, satnav knows more about these things than some Westpac rescue helicopter pilot.....

[WalrusLike]

I'll bet that pilot didn't even number his points.


(Using Tapatalk on iPhone so can't easily 'thank' or 'like')

[TREVELLY]

I'll bet that pilot didn't even number his points.


(Using Tapatalk on iPhone so can't easily 'thank' or 'like')

Thanks for that - bloody funny.

Good night

[mattooty]

I'll bet that pilot didn't even number his points.

I'll get onto him!