One of the frustrating parts of owning a 406 MHz EPIRB, PLB or ELT has been that it is nearly impossible for the average consumer to actually test their beacon, at least affordably. We have been pretty much forced to rely on the beacon’s own internal self-test mechanism. It’s not that I don’t trust [...]

Some revealing information being reported today on the recent off-shore boating tragedy (from St. Petersburg Times originally and FOXNews.com). The difficulty is, we cannot verify the facts, but it makes for a plausible explanation and is entirely consistent with reports of others acting in the same manner in similar survival situations, so worthy a discussion [...]

ACR Electronics announced their next generation PLBs at SHOT Show in Orlando, Florida. All the specifications provided below are preliminary and subject to change.
Click on photos for higher resolution images.
This device has not been authorized as required by the Rules of
the FCC. This device is not, and may not be offered for sale or
lease, or [...]

Last week I received a sample of the new Swiss Army issue Swiss Army Knife from Victorinox and played around with it a bit this weekend. This will be a very brief review, at least in part because there’s nothing earthshaking new here. The decision by the Swiss to upgrade to a more capable [...]

It seems that Kirk Ezell and his shipmate on a delivery voyage woke up Christmas day with water ankle deep in the sailboat and rising rapidly, some 200 miles south of Jamaica. The boat was sinking and abandoning ship was their priority now. They apparently had a life raft on board, a good start, and [...]

Two pilots flying a Cessna 337 to Sweden from Canada survived a harrowing 18-hour ordeal recently after they ditched in frigid waters south of Baffin Island, Canada and climbed onto an ice floe. They have received a great deal of well-deserved credit in the general media for surviving and not giving up.
The articles below provide [...]

ACR Electronics has issued a “limited recall” on their recently introduced GlobalFix iPRO EPIRB. The following is from the ACR release obtained off the U.S. Coast Guard web site (UPDATE: ACR now has a link to the notice on their home page) :
ACR has discovered that a small percentage of GlobalFix™ iPRO™ EPIRBs may [...]

Orion has issued another update in the Skyblazer XLT Flares saga. (The previous blog entry can be found by clicking here):
ATTENTION SKYBLAZER XLT OWNERS — SAFETY NOTICE UPDATE
PRODUCT QUARANTINE LIFTED
Orion Safety Products, manufacturer of the Skyblazer hand-launched red aerial flare (“Skyblazer”), previously received a report from the field indicating the safety sleeve on [...]

Earlier this year, Ultimate Survival Technologies, manufacturer of the popular mil-spec StarFlash signal mirror, introduced a “new” signal mirror, the StarFlash Ultra. The Ultra mirror was claimed to be significantly superior to the regular StarFlash; UST claiming it was 90% as reflective as a glass mirror, the gold standard. They also claimed other improvements [...]