|
The
following is a true tale of terrific technology and good people badly
misused. One Sunday in October of last year, the global Search and Rescue
Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT) system picked up a distress signal from
an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB). In seconds the
electronic cry for help sped to NOAA’s Mission Control Center, where
personnel traced its unique identity number to the Seattle area and routed
it to the appropriate regional Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center
(RCC). Boat and helicopter crews were alerted for a possible scramble,
and an urgent VHF message was broadcast asking local boaters to be on
the lookout. RCC staff also called the phone number registered to the
EPIRB, hoping to both notify the owner’s family and confirm that
he or she was actually at sea. But the phone was disconnected, and the
signal—not yet located—suddenly ceased. The distress call, and
the related rescuer stress, went unresolved. No doubt many caring folks
slept less soundly that night, wondering if someone was out there in trouble.
Five days later the
very same EPIRB signal was picked up again, only this time long enough
for the satellites to get a fix good to about two miles via the Doppler
shifting of its 5-watt 406-MHz primary signal (the process takes 30 to
90 minutes), and then for rescuers to precisely home in on its secondary
121-MHz transmission. They found the device floating in a suburban swimming
pool, where its owner was apparently grooving on its flashing strobe light,
blissfully ignorant of the tool’s serious purpose and all the trouble
he was causing, not to mention his obligation to update its registration
information after he’d bought it secondhand at a garage sale.
This is unquestionably
an extreme example, the first owner’s irresponsibility only exceeded
by that of the second owner’s, but the truth is that most all of
us need a little schooling to best use the evolving system fully titled
COSPAS-SARSAT (COSPAS is simply the equivalent of SARSAT in Russian).
Now please don’t let disaster-at-sea thinking eat at your enthusiasm
for boating; you probably take a greater risk on your morning commute.
That said, you should consider how much an instantaneous, violent car
accident differs from a typical bad scene on the water. Be it sinking,
collision, fire, or man overboard, most marine accidents are two-stage
affairs.
In general the initial
incident is bad but not fatal. The second stage, when people or crew find
themselves in a suddenly hostile environment, can be very bad indeed—and
tragically frustrating to rescuers and rescuees alike who know there is
time enough to reverse the situation if only a distress call can be received,
located, and responded to fast enough.
That is what SARSAT
is all about. In operation since 1982, the system has contributed to more
than 15,000 rescues worldwide and over 4,500 in the United States alone,
according to NOAA’s informative Web site, www.sarsat.noaa.gov. But
the system is not perfect, and there are issues worth knowing about. One
is the discontinuation of the original 121.5-MHz EPIRB, whose signal is
much weaker and harder to locate than the newer 406 beacon and does not
contain the ID number that can lead to quick resolution of false alarms,
as what should have happened in Seattle. The worldwide cutoff date was
recently set to February 1, 2009, but the Coast Guard is lobbying to stop
listening for these signals much sooner. And experts like Doug Ritter,
founder of the nonprofit survival research organization Survive Foundation
(www.equipped.org), highly recommends replacing 121.5-MHz units right
away, simply for performance reasons. (Note that 406-MHz EPIRBs also broadcast
on 121.5 MHz because the rescue services, and some yachts, are equipped
to do final homing in on this frequency.)
Next page >
Part
2: “Despite some current limitations, SARSAT will really save your keister when needed.” > Page 1, 2,
3, 4, 5,
6, 7
|