If you end up in the water, stay safe with our man overboard (mob) range including personal locator beacons (plb) and automatic identification system (ais) beacons. While your marine plb will alert search and rescue teams and services of your location to get you to safety, your ais helps your vessel’s crew and nearby craft pinpoint your location. Our handpicked range of waterproof plb include the recently upgraded mcmurdo fastfind 220 and the world’s smallest plb, the ocean signal plb1 – both great options whether you need a plb for sailing, kayaking or hiking.
Our ais include the ocean signal mob1 , a combined ais dsc which has been designed for spinlock lifejackets.
Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB)
Plb (personal locator beacon) is for personal use by bushwalkers, 4wd drivers, other adventurers on land, employees working in remote areas, and crew in boats and aircrew.
This type of beacon is becoming a multi-environment beacon
epirb (emergency position indicating radio beacon) is usually for use on water
elt (emergency locator transmitter) is usually for use on aircraft. However, epirbs and plbs can be carried in place of an elt
the benefit of this type of beacon is that once you purchase one the battery will usually last for at least 5 years and in the case of hiking plb’s up to 10 years so you will when you factor the cost of the beacon the price works out at around $40/year.
Once you’ve purchased your beacon, you must register it with the australian maritime safety authority (amsa). Registration is free and in some cases it is mandatory by law. A registered beacon allows amsa search and rescue to phone your emergency contacts and look up important information to initiate a response as soon as possible. An unregistered beacon can cause a delay in the response. Once an emergency position indicating radio beacon (epirb), personal locator beacon (plb) or emergency locator transmitter (elt) is registered a confirmation will be issued via sms, email or letter so that you can prove registration when inspected by authorities.
Personal locator beacons (plbs) and emergency position indicating radio beacons (epirbs) are designed to pinpoint your exact location to search and rescue services during an emergency. Gtc provides a variety of gps enabled emergency locator beacons which use the cospas sarsat network of satellites to transmit alert information to the appropriate rescue coordination centre from anywhere in the world. See the gtc difference in action! ca2 class a ais transceiver 1 crew1 mob 1.
Personal Locator Beacon (PLB)
The smrt personal locator beacon (plb) range has been specifically designed to meet new international safety standards and combine industry leading 121. 5mhz, vhf dsc and ais technologies. Often used in addition to other mob (man overboard) protection equipment such as life jackets (pfd) or immersion suits , plb’s are an essential item for works in the oil & gas, offshore and marine industries. View products.
What is a plb? a personal locator beacon (plb) is a persoanl electronic transmitter used to alert rescuers that there has been a life threatening man over board (mob) situation with a need to be rescued. When activated, the plb sends out a signal on either a 406mhz frequency or local area system using 121. 5mhz, vhf dsc and/or ais*. * this will depend on model. Force 4 guides: f4 video: guide to plbs - everything you need to know read more.
Definition of plb: abbreviation plb comes from the words personal locator beacon. The equipment operates in the cospas-sarsat system using the same frequencies as epirbs onboard ships and elts onboard aircraft. Plb is, however, smaller in size and easier to carry. Plb equipment operates in the certain portion of the 406 mhz band, which is monitored by satellites. The majority of plb equipment also transmit on the aeronautical distress frequency 121,5 mhz for homing purposes. The latest models are fitted with in-built satellite positioning receiver; which means that the plb transmission already includes accurate position. This enables faster mobilization of search and rescue operations by authorities.
The idea behind a plb is that you won’t need to use it 99% of the time you carry it. So, you want your locator beacon to be as small and lightweight as possible. With the exception of the inreach explorer+, all of the plbs i reviewed weigh less than 6 ounces and fit in the palm of your hand.
121.5 MHz beacons no longer detected by satellite
Epirbs and plbs on the market today are dual frequency; the distress alert is transmitted on 406mhz and advises the sar authorities of an incident and the 121. 5mhz frequency is used as an effective homing frequency, once sar is near to the casualty. Nb satellite processing of 121. 5/243 mhz transmissions ceased as of 1st february 2009 and beacons which operate only on this frequency should no longer be relied on for distress alerting.
How does an AIS EPIRB or PLB work?
While epirbs and plbs give you the ability call for rescue via the cospas-sarsat emergency network from anywhere in the world, they fall short in crew overboard situations where an immediate response is required. This is why in addition to having an epirb or a plb you should also consider having a pab (personal ais beacon). These devices are intended to be attached to your life vest and activated if you go overboard. They use both gps and ais (automatic identification system) technology to send structured alert messages containing your precise location to any ais receiver onboard your vessel and to other ais-equipped boats or ships that happen to be within a typical four-mile radius.
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