Avi Beacon Questions

[Bannick]

Hello gang....

You have any thoughts on avalanche beacons?
Which is easiest to use? (I know pieps but know nothing about BCA, mammut, ortovox etc.)
Do all the different brands work together (prolly an obvious answer I know but I saw one that was "dual frequency" so it started me thinking).

Any thoughts and experience would be helpful.

B

[Justin]

Yes they all work together... Any "modern" beacon will do fine -- in otherwords, make sure you don't get an analog only unit... I like mammuts the best personally.

[Jolly J]

I have a BCA which according to them it's the original digital beacon, the best, the easiest, blah blah blah.

Personally I don't know how they could make it any easier. I'm super happy but have never, and hope to never use it in a real life situation, but I'm confident it'll get the job done. It finds beers buried in leaves very quickly. Haven't lost a beer yet. :D

Here is a link (http://www.bcaccess.com/bca_products/tracker/tracker_demo.php) to there Demo page which gives you an overview.

Happy Beacon hunting.

[pulverschwein]

Which is easiest to use?
Only used Mammut, DTS trackers and Ortovox F1. I own the Ortovox and like it lots, but bear in mind I've used that much more than Tracker or Mammut. Out of the six or seven places I've gone on guided trips, all but two used ortos, so the familiarity with that unit definitely makes me biased toward it. Tracker kind of intrigues me a bit - the directional arrows actually work and I've seen people familiar with that unit find hidden beacons real quickly.


Justin's right - they're all standard frequencies as long as they're less than seven or eight years old.

[BeerMouse]

From what I understand, the Tracker (and other dual antenae digital one's like it) have a shorter range than the analog ones (like the Ortovox M2). Ortovox was supposed to come out with one that you could switch between the two modes to get the best of both worlds- longer range analog with shorter range directionals. I think it's called the X1. I own the tracker & it's super easy to use but when you're farther away is can be a little tough to zero in on the right direction to go.

I've played with the "beepy" beacons a bunch and really liked them once I got the hang of it. There's definitely a learning curve associated with those. I can imagine that if you're a little rusty with the operation and panicked b/c your buddy is buried, it might be awfully frustrating and time consuming to use.

[steep'n'deep]

I got to play around with both the M2 and the Tracker a bunch when I took the AIARE Level 1 course with EMS last year. Admittedly I'm not super familiar with either model, but I found the Tracker significantly easier to use. It seemed far more intutitive/idiot proof and I found it less frustrating during practice searches. Indeed, it seemed to me like the people with Trackers were always the first ones to the burial site when we were practicing. I especially liked the multiple burial function and found the basic operation (on/off switch, harness, panic button, etc) better also.

[Justin]

I don't like Ortovox beacons in general -- i too found them confusing. The Tracker was my second choice to my barryvox.