Originally Posted by
Jonathan S.
I've always found it kind of interesting that each alpine nation has had one and only one avy beacon company (at any one time), which kind of reflects the national character:
- Skadi = A research lab in Western NY designed the first effective avy beacon . . . but then the Euros adopted a different frequency.
- Ramer = Dared to be the different and super innovative American, going up against the stodgy Euros.
- BCA = Inherited Ramer's mantle and totally changed the stodgy Euro beacon design by adding a second antenna and digital processing for directional information. (USA! USA!)
- Ortovox = All sorts of German high-tech innovation.
- Barryvox = Swiss sophistication.
- ARVA = Some good models, some not-so-good, and over the years has sometimes been ahead of the tech curve, sometimes behind . . . has historically shown little interest in selling beacons outside of France, especially in the U.S.
- Pieps = Okay, so I can't think of any relevant Austrian stereotype.
- SOS = Lame knockoff of Ortovox F1 (even the model name too -- F1-ND, hah, Find, get it ... how not-so-clever) and now defunct ... doesn't Canada deserve better than this?
- Fitre = Italian, dropped out of the beacon market long ag.
- Snow-be = For the sake of Australia, I sure hope this isn't symbolic of the national culture and/or technological state.
That said, all that's new about this is the price and marketing. Ortovox previously had the D2, and somebody else had a similar model, but they were marketed toward dogs (bad!) and finding your tent or gear stash in super-harsh weather conditions. (SOS had a special version of its F1-ND with a separate frequency for finding your sled, Pieps now has a separate-frequency beacon for finding your dog.) The Pieps Backup transmit-only device is intended to, well, back up any regular transceiver that lacks an emergency revert mode, and although it could be misused by itself, Pieps has the Freeride which like the name implies is intended for those more focused on being found that finding -- plus it's lighter than the Snow-be (when slipped into a pocket w/o its harness, which is the only option for the Snow-be), about the same size, and although more expensive, still way cheaper than any other beacon.
The only good thing about the Snow-be is the significant cost savings if you wanted to build your own beacon park with lots of transmitters, and you didn't have access to lots of discarded cheap old beacons.
The FAQ puts on a pretty interesting spin. Maybe I'm missing something, but I didn't see any suggestion anywhere in the website that if you're skiing so often in terrain with avalanche potential that you feel compelled the purchase a transmit-only device yet "are not capable of being involved in a rescue" then perhaps you should invest some time/effort/money in becoming capable?
Question: If I only carry a transmitter (snow-be) am I just being selfish?
Answer: No. If you are not capable of being involved in a rescue or, with your presence you put yourself or others at greater risk because of your involvement including delaying the rescue, it may safer for all if you move away from an incident to a place of safety.
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