Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) (with GPS receiver) vs EPIRB (without GPS)

PLB's are very small, lightweight and easy to carry on your body at all times when in remote/potentially dangerous situations, usually beyond communications coverage (after 2-way radio's, mobiles etc have failed to contact local rescue). They are pocket-sized  and have global coverage.

PLB's are designed for remote land or water activites - adventurers, 4WD, hikers, campers, kayakers, fishermen, sailors, aviators, mountaineers

They are similar to EPIRB's in technical operation, transmit a distress signal to satellites orbiting Earth, which is sent to Government Safety Authorities, who then mobilize  SAR (search and rescue) near your beacons location.

I was motivated to get the PLB by members of the Investigator 563 trailer sailer group online. Survival stories of sailors lost overboard or sunken powerboaters clinging to flotsam, saved thanks to emergency beacons. More stories of lost hikers, downed aviators, 4WD's in the desert being rescued (and the bad, often fatal, outcomes of those who couldn't communicate). 

To me the $305 for 7 years is a small insurance price on life and for loved ones at home. Peace of mind for all involved.

Recently bought a digital PLB (with GPS)  made in Australia by GME. It was on sale/club membership at Anaconda, reducing the usual $340-$400 price of PLB's here.

It's been on my wish-list for years, and like everything technical they (and the behind scenes system) have improved with time.

The first thing to do was register the beacon on my AMSA (Australian Martime Safety Authority) beacon account online. (Rego can be done by phone at first, they can set it up and walk you through the internet procedure/use side. AMSA Head Quarters is in Canberra, our national capital city, they cover the whole country). Registration is important and mandatory, data includes your phone/contact info, description of boat(s) and vehicles etc. 

The reason for this is when a beacon is activated the AMSA HQ merge the beacons 406Mhz distress data (ID, GPS position coordinates) with your AMSA account data, so they have a very good idea what's probably going on and what/who to search for. They phone you and your contacts, to determine if the activation is genuine (turns out 97% are false alarms!) if you are the genuine 3% they activate SAR (search and rescue) in your area. 

The SAR air/water craft can then head straight to the GPS coords. They also have an RDF (radio direction finder) to lock onto the beacons 121Mhz secondary homing signal and head straight for it at closer range. Also most beacons have a flashing white strobe light for night rescues.

Testing the PLB. Press the green T button. There are 2 tests. 1) General test (Are electronics ok?) and 2) GPS test (Is it sending coords?). The first test is a short press of the T button. The GPS test is a 4 second press of the T button. I found it easier to see the units response LED lights at night. The instruction booklet and videos detail eveything. (Overall: green  LED's = "good" and red LEDS = "not good") On the GPS test red led's flash while its aquiring satellites, takes 1-2 minutes, then it flashes green when ok)

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The antenna stows nicely around the PLB's body and covers the 2 buttons, so it can't be accidentally knocked/activated. 

In an emergency to activate. Setup antena, press red (on/off) button for 2 seconds. The white strobe and red led flashes while aquiring satellites. The red is replaced by green when it's operating (fixed your position and transmitting your GPS coordinates to satellites) 

Also bought a $26 hard hi-viz yellow protective case with caribiner clip to hold the PLB.

EPIRB

Aboard Teria i tested my old 2014 era EPIRB (GME MT400). Very simple to operate and test, just flip a cover and press yellow test button. The beacon beep/strobes twice, indicating it's working well. It's many times larger in size/weight than a PLB, but would fit in a daypack or carry bag easily.

MT400 manual EPIRB on Teria (note: tether line around base) 

It's a manualy activated unit designed to float in the water while transmitting and tethered to the boat, life-raft or person (for best signal strength).

An EPIRB in operating mode

However, It can transmit through the fibreglass deck if needed (eg the boat's wrecked on a reef in breaking waves with the risk of breaking the tether, safer to stay onboard ). The antena can be raised and the EPIRB stays upright in it's cradle in the cabin.

Online found out that the "plain" budget 406Mhz beacon's (without GPS) like Teria's have their downsides regarding accurate positioning and SAR reaction times. It can take up to 4 hours for authorities to first calculate and fix the beacon's position (depends on passing aircraft's 121Mhz receivers, patchy at best and irregular polar satellites with 10-400 minute gaps gradually gathering "fix" position info) . The best final position coordinates accuraccy are only within a 5 kilometer radius, that's a large search area.  

Conversely a modern GPS enabled beacon transmitts it's GPS coordinates in a minute or two of activation, they are accurate to just 10-30m, a very small search area.

So "Hours and Kilometers" vs "Minutes and Meter's" (for GPS enabled) , the later costing about $50 extra to the boat owner. I'm betting on the later from now on, it would be far better to be found in a short time.   Also GPS enabled saves the rescue authorites time and millions of dollars per year too. ($5000/hr? helicopters, $100-500/hour? for Coast Guard or police boats). Teria's still has 3 years to go on my EPIRB's estimated lifespan (12 years, a fine unit), after that definitely getting a GPS enabled one (eg GME MT600G, about $305-$350 now, which also has an increased 10 year battery life)

The other difference between big boat EPIRB's and small PLB is tranmission time. Minimum 48 hours for the EPIRB's and minimum 24 hours for the PLB's. 

How to select between the 2 types? For boats going offshore/rough seas an EPIRB is first (perhaps with PLB backup). But if you adventure mostly on land, air or inside smooth water and 2nm of land limits then PLB could be the first choice. (My 2018-2019 Qld govt boating guide has maps of the EPIRB use limits, surprizingly in most popular boating locations you can get away without the big EPIRB, the govenment has set generous but sensible limits (2020 ps32-38). My guide also says small gps PLB's are good for "lightweight" or "beach" craft less than 6m length, as long as PLB floats and is worn on you. This 2019-2020 RMB guide has safety gear/PLB's, EPIRB's on p20 and 22 but the info is pared back 50% from my earlier guides edition) 

EPIRB free zones Qld, Magnetic Island to Mission Beach, NQld.

EPIRB free zones, Mourilian to Cooktown, FNQld

EPIRB free zones, WhitSunday Islands, NQld

My small PLB can float and is waterproof to go anywhere. But one of  it's weakness in the sea is it's aerial needs to be held vertical manually. So if you are swimming it needs to be held upright by hand, (or rest it on your life vest). It's better if it's placed on a flat surface like a boat deck, rocks or beach.  It's small enough to be worn at all times, so could be good in a man lost overboard situation. 

The big EPIRB is good for most and more extreme situations but especially if the boat has sunk/floated away far offshore.  It will float upright  and transmit for over 2 days. 

Safety harnesses and long tethers have the potential to quickly drown people as the hang over the side still attached to the boat if there is no-one else awake on deck at the time to stop the boat and haul them in.

LAST RESORT

Finally, need to emphasise that PLB's and EPIRB's are absolute "last resort" devices, only used after all other methods and avenues fail. (eg radio, phone, signaling devices (like flares v-sheet, mirror, strobes) waving, whistle, fog-horn etc)

Fatty Knees trailer upgrade/maintenance

 Recently upgraded my old Fatty knees 8 dinghy trailer. (It's a home-modified by previous owner 6x4ft box trailer) 10 years has passed since buying the FN8 and the motivation was to add a winch and aft roller because of a bad shoulder during 2022. Everything has to be made a bit less strenuous as the body gets older, so injuries don't re-occur.

Picked up a second hand dinghy winch locally online for $25. It has about 5m of flexible galvanised wire with stainless hook on the drum (so is probably rated for a 3-4m long "Tinnie" = Australian aluminium dinghy).

Then towed the trailer to the wyloyard for the loud dirty work. Fabricating the winch post/base and installing an aft cross-beam with 6" trailer keel roller welded on. The leftover's stockpile minimised expenses. Used a leftover black (Teria) roller, and bought high tensile bolts/nuts/washers/springwashers (four M10's 30mm long) to bolt the winch on (probably overkill but thats the maximum size the winch base holes could take)

The holes in the winch post base were drilled on my big drill-press. First a small pilot hole and then larger diameter bits used. Drill oil was put on the bits so they cut through without effort.

The aft beam was made from scrap 4x4cm box section with 2-3mm walls. 

Final metalwork was straightening a bent mudguard corner.

Workshop

Clamping components into position

Welded up, 10.5mm holes for M10 winch bolts

Winch test fit

Metalfix converter/primer

The trailer needed some rust treatment and painting too. Used scraper, wirebrush and "metalfix" (converter primer). Then spare grey "Rustkill" primer paint, leftover acrylic primer and grey exterior paint from a house renno for the wooden cradles. The winch and welds got zinc primed.

Painted, aft beam with 6" roller bracket and it's roller pin

Winch fitted 

The 10 year old pool noodle pads for the cradles were disintegrating. So bought two 4ft pool noodles at big W ($24), slit them lengthwise on one side, parted them and squeezed them onto the wooden cradles. 30cm zip ties secured them on. 

Final touches. Fixed number plate light wiring connectors. Silicone sealed holes here and there. Drilled an oil hole and squirted some car engine oil into the aft beam box to reduce internal rusting out. 

The Fatty Knees 8 (stored on protective heavy cardboard and neoprene rubber pads) was winched on from the concrete floor easily and the aft roller seemed to work ok. The trailer is not a marine one, so never gets immersed in seawater. It's not hot-dip galvanised, the previous rust repair/treatment painting i did after first purchase lasted 10 years.

Final test was hitch the dinghy on trailer up to the ute. The clearance for the utes tailgate when lowering and the winch base was just 1 cm, enough for now.. It's far easier to back the empty trailer down a boat ramp with the tailgate down as its in full view from the driver's cab. (almost impossible with view obstructed by tailgate up). 12V lights still good too.

The old trailer coupling was a bit loose and rattles because the adjustment screw never worked. It is welded onto the frame. Got the measuring callipers out and the inside witdth of the couplings ball-cup was 50mm.

Old coupling, no ball-fit adjustment screw

So bought a new 2" coupling at RTM for $34 with M12 HT galv bolts/locknuts $6 more, but it will need a fabricated base with boltholes (as it's not allowed to be welded on, according to a stamp on it's side). 

Tested it on the Ute's towball and it fit perfectly (adjusted the ball-fit screw so there was zero loose movement but with good swivel ) Another job for another day at the wyloyard workshop, (might add a 30cm extension towing tounge to mount it, but still use existing length 12V light wiring plug lead). The 2000kg coupling weight rating very strong, 6x4ft trailers are usually rated at 750kg's and Jai dee's trailer is only about 250-300kg's fully loaded. Plenty of bush-engineering safety margins there.

New coupling and 2 high tensile locknut bolts

Compass

 Finally fitted a decent navigation compass to Teria.

It's a Silva 70P bulkhead compass from Whitworths Cairns store.

First removed the old rectangular sum log readout, then made a 3mm plywood adapter plate with a round hole to hold the compass on the cockpits bulkhead. Non-magnetic screws used (stainless and brass). Sealed it all with silicone.

Silva 70P Bulkhead compass

Compass located on bulkhead next to companionway.

Covered with aluminium foil container for laid-up weather protection.

It can be read from standing or seated helm positions. 

Silva is a swedish company, and their compasses quality is high for a reasonable price point. It has a jewelled card bearing, liquid dampening, a lubberline and can heel 30 degrees and pitch 30 degrees (heaven help us then!) Once the boat is heeled over on a tack, the lubber line can be manually rotated to the new vertical, so you get 30 degrees sideways tilt on card either way.

Had to remount the VHF's microphone about 2ft away from the compass as it is magnetic and caused about 5 degrees deviation when its next to the compass. The compass is also mounted away from 12V electrical system which also avoids compass deviation.

Also bought a Silva field compass at Tentworld for handheld bearings or  hiking ashore. 

It's an entry level baseplate compass and also high quality. It has a rotating bezel with north indicator , so you can easily stay on course. Bearings can also be taken of landmarks which can be used for map/chart navigation, a reliable backup for GPS nav. It's not quiet as accurate as a marine hand bearing compass by a few degrees either way, but the price is certainly many times less. It's also very lightweight and compact. Should do for coastal sailing or hiking.