[FedCom] Civil Air Patrol to Expand Urban Directioning Finding (ELT) Teams

[Ken]

The "Civil Air Patrol Volunteer" magazine (Nov/Dec 2008 edition) has an 
article on page 6 "Make The Switch" which discusses the new 406 ELT beacon. 
Since general aviation isn't being required to replace their current 121.5 
mhz beacons only, CAP expects to be using more ground teams & aircraft to 
track down these beacons after 2/1/09, since the SARSAT satellite will no 
longer listen for VHF/UHF signals.  Mr. John Desmarais, CAP's Deputy 
Director of Operations,  stated in the article "...because the area will not 
be as well defined for these searches in the future, we will likely have to 
use more aircraft equipped with electronic DF equipment to help narrow down 
the search are for ground teams.."  The Article further states that "more 
ground teams may also be necessary especially when weather limits or 
prohibits flying".   After 2/1/09 pilots monitoring the 121.5/243.0 mhz 
frequency will notify the nearest FAA facility as to their location when 
hearing the ELT signal.

Sounds to me like a step backwards by turning off the SARSAT monitoring & 
not requiring general aviation to switch to the new ELT 406 ELT.

AOPA's position:  http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/regulatory/elt.html
ELT History: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Position-Indicating_Radio_Beacon

Information on the phase out can be found at:
http://www.cospas-sarsat.org/FirstPage/121.5PhaseOut.htm
https://ntc.cap.af.mil/ops/Phaseout_Overview.pdf   (other website listed 
also)

ELT signal sound example can be found at:
http://www.ipg-protect.com/sar/doc083.htm

Locations of CAP units can be found at:
http://cap.findlocation.com/
http://mt-milcom.blogspot.com/2008/06/civil-air-patrol-new-narrowband-freq.html


Potential CAP frequencies can be found at:
http://www.monitoringtimes.com/MT_Air_Show_Guide_mar08.pdf  (pages 9 & 10)
(Note:  CAP's new VHF radio equipment is rumored to be encryption capable, 
so it should be interesting to see/hear if encryption becomes this 
organization's standard communications method in the future)

K