Rogue personal locator beacon (PLB) goes silent

I found this to be quite an interesting story. The Colorado Mountain Journal website is reporting that someone has activated their personal locator beacon on 9 separate occasions between December 14 and January 5 of this year.

The problem is that the owner never registered the device, so authorities haven't been able to contact him or her.

After the fourth or fifth activation from the same device, local authorities decided not to alert Search and Rescue (SAR) teams anymore. Instead, authorities focused on trying to determine who owned the PLB, and on getting the word out to the public that there was a problem.

Specualtion is that the still-unknown person who owns the device has apparently gotten the message on how to use it - and how not to.

The key take-home message for PLB users is that they need to learn how to use these devices to prevent false alarms, and they need to register them so that a simple phone call might prevent inadvertent SAR-team call-outs.

Please click here to read the entire article.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com Detailed information on trails in the Smoky Mountains; includes trail descriptions, key features, pictures, video, maps, elevation profiles, news, and more.