[FedCom] Re: [AirCommSouthwest] ELT Alert Beacons Can Hobbyists Help Locate?

[gary]

It's really a good idea to have 243MHz in your scanner. There is some 
air to air chatter on that frequency. [Oh yeah, Bryan was the one that 
pointed this out to me.]

Bryan Herbert wrote:
> Back in the mid to late 90s when I was in CAP we used anything we could 
> get our hands on to communicate with one another, 49MHz, ham radio, 
> cellphones even CB and FRS (now ISR). Because SARSAT makes one pass 
> roughly every hour we had to standby for 3 hours in order to triangulate 
> the general area of where the beacon is coming from. There was one 
> mission where we didnt wait the three hours,  I started out in Palmdale 
> near Plant 42, drove through Lancaster, then Rosamond, followed by 
> Mojave, finally ending up at Edwards AFB waiting for the second pass. 
> The second pass took us out to Lake Los Angeles, El Mirage and Phelan. 
> Finally the third pass put the beacon in the area of SoCal Logisitics 
> where we came upon a very strong beacon blasting throughout the 
> airfield, after a couple of hours we located the aircraft in a locked 
> hanger. Nowadays, I still tend to monitor 121.5/243.0 and any beacons I 
> come across I immediately phone in to China Lake Tower or LA Center. 
> Sometimes when the search missions are large enough to open a mission 
> base they will give out the base phone number over the air or in packet 
> traffic, this is when they appreciate direct contact, it saves having to 
> go through the channels.
> 
> Ken wrote:
> 
>> Are scanner radio hobbyists in the position to help in more quickly
>> resolving these situations.
>>
>> Interestingly, my understanding is that 95% of all Emergency Locator
>> Transmitter activations are false primarily due to electronic/battery
>> problems.
>>
>> As many of you know Civil Air Patrol http://www.cap.gov/ 
>> <http://www.cap.gov/> is tasked with
>> locating these beacons. All of the beacons (including the new PLB's)
>> transmit a homing signal/sound on 121.5 mhz and may sound like this
>> http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/MAEL/ag/elt.wav 
>> <http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/MAEL/ag/elt.wav> BUT if the batteries are 
>> low, no
>> tone may be transmitted, only a carrier. Unfortunately, when the SARSAT
>> satellite hear's the transmission it doesn't know if it is a 
>> malfunctioning
>> unit or a real problem. Info on sarsat can be found at:
>> http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/ <http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/> &
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Position-Indicating_Radio_Beacon 
>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Position-Indicating_Radio_Beacon>
>>
>> Civil Air Patrol uses specialized direction finding equipment in 
>> aircraft,
>> vehicles, & portable operations see: http://www.ltronics.com/ 
>> <http://www.ltronics.com/> &
>> http://level2.cap.gov/documents/u_081503135122.pdf 
>> <http://level2.cap.gov/documents/u_081503135122.pdf> for more information
>>
>> Sometimes if you monitor CAP's VHF FM/P25 radio network you may hear them
>> coordinating trying to find these ELT beacons with air, mobile, & 
>> portable
>> units. It's been rumored that CAP may also use cellphones in some areas
>> rather than their radio network in tracking down ELT's to include
>> sprint/nextel nationwide walkie talkie and off network functions.
>>
>> The system does have some alert lag time in it with the older ELT units.
>> First and foremost, the SARSAT satellite might have to make more than one
>> pass before the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center actually sends an 
>> alert
>> out to CAP. My understanding is that this may take anywhere from 3 to 5
>> hours. CAP units will than be sent out on an authorized AF mission to 
>> find
>> the ELT beacon. The goal is to identify the source & silence all false
>> beacons as soon as practical to ensure that if there's a real 
>> emergency the
>> satellite will pickup the actual distress signal.
>>
>> So perhaps all monitoring hobbyists could provide some assistance in
>> alerting authorities and assisting with ELT beacons being found more
>> quickly. Just place 121.5 mhz into your mobile, portable, and/or base
>> station scanning sequence and if you pickup an alert beacon signal 
>> contact
>> your nearest airport control tower, flight service station, air route
>> traffic control center watch officer, etc.. and provide them with you 
>> exact
>> location. My understanding is that if you call CAP directly they will 
>> have
>> to get authorization from higher headquarters & the USAF before actually
>> dispatch UDF teams.
>>
>> BTW Civil Air Patrol is always looking for technically inclined potential
>> members both seniors and cadets. Urban Direction Finding Team training
>> (see: http://level2.cap.gov/documents/u_052704140516.pdf 
>> <http://level2.cap.gov/documents/u_052704140516.pdf> may be provided
>> to all members that are interested. Local CAP units can be found at the
>> website: http://cap.findlocation.com/ <http://cap.findlocation.com/>
>>
>>
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