On Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:04:57 -0800 (PST), Frogwatch
wrote:

In prep for my upcoming sailing trip, I bought a new battery for my
406 Mhz EPIRB and ran thru the self test sequence, IT FAILED. This
insanely expensive piece of equipment does not work? This coulda
killed me. I sent it via next day mail to the place here in FL for
examination and they say they might have to send it back to England
costing nearly $300. Like Hell.

You can buy a personal EPIRB for that money.

Then again, a new SOLAS EPIRB is going to cost you close to $800 so it
might be worth it.

I'm surprised they have to send it back to England for repair.

Options........hmmm. There is something new out there called SPOT.
For $150, one can buy a beacon that when activated sends a signal to a
satellite (I think it must use the Iridium network) and that sends a
signal to some emergency station with your GPS location. Am not sure
how this differs from EPIRB.

I don't believe they are automatcally deployed as a normal EPIRB
would.

It has other features too. One can use it to send a recorded message
back to home saying "I am ok, my position is........". It can also
send a signal back home so someone can track your path on Google
Earth. It does require a subscription service of $100/yr.
Anybody know about these things?

Wayne does - he's used it on his cruises often. It's very cool and
you can link it up with Google Maps.

I'm sure Wayne will be along to describe it.