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Common:
EPIRB is an abbreviation and stands for: Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon.
An EPIRB transmits signals on the main frequency (406 MHz) to satellites, that are either geo-stationary or polar-orbiting. For homing purposes, most EPIRBs also transmit signals on the international aviation emergency frequency 121,5 MHz.
There is only one system at present: 406 MHz (which is operated by COSPAS SARSAT and presently the most used system world wide including merchant marine and aviation).
Category I: transmits on406 MHz + 121,5 MHz
EPIRB is in a special float free bracket, mainly for merchant marine,
EPIRB activates automatically, if the bracket (with the ship) sinks below 4 meter water depth.
Category II: transmits on406 MHz + 121,5 MHz
EPIRB has to be activated by hand.
Class I can be operated up to -40°C
Class II can be operated up to -20°C
There are different types of 406 MHz EPRIBs:
EPIRB with built in GPS
EPIRB with infrared-connection to an external GPS
EPIRB without any possibilty of transmitting its own position
There are now several PLBs (Personal Locator Beacons) available that can be registered in the name of a person and thus are not restricted to one vihicle (ship, etc)
All EPIRBs / PLBs with built-in or external GPS are by far exeeding the conventional EPIRBs (without the ability to transmit their location) in alert time. This can be as fast as three minutes due to the geo-stationary satellites of COSPAS SARSAT.
NO.
The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmosperic Authority) is the authority that registers EPIRBs and PLBs in the U.S.A. Due to the increasing number of EPIRBs the authority has restricted the registraion to U.S. nationals and the people with an address in the U.S. only.
If you purchase an EPIRB od PLB in the U.S.A., you have to register it with the authorities of your home country. This is also important the you, the owner, because without a registration there are no contact details and a search may be unduly delayed.
EACH EPIRB is progframmed with a UIN, a unique identification number. In case of ships this is in most countries the MMSI No. (marine mobile service identity).
For Germany and Austria and Switzerland only MMSI Numbers are allowed for ships.
For details in some European countries see the followilng link:
www.kk2.de/registrieren/index.htm