[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by James Brown

There transmit frequency, 121.5, is no longer monitored by the faa and sarsat. Most commercial aircraft do monitor this but they have no duty to act if they hear one going off. So there might be a delay in getting found by having this watch. A better solution is a 406mhz EPIRB by ACR it transmits your position to a SAR satellite from anywhere in the world. And around $400 bucks. No yearly fee like the Spot unit.

Sorry but more and more the 406 units are not turning out to be reliable.

Look at Sen. Stevens crash in Alaska last year where the plane went down and the ELT did not activate. My copilot is a light bird in the CAP and he does searches all the time looking for downed airplanes. He says "when they work" the 406 is an excellent tool but they are not ready for prime time just yet.

We have a 406 ELT in the bird we fly for a living but also have a SPOT EPRB. We want to be found if there is a problem. We are not betting our lives on the 406 unit.