If you have, or know someone who has, an unregistered PLB

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tenpins
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If you have, or know someone who has, an unregistered PLB

Post by tenpins »

please register it. when hits come up, they inevitably go down to our volunteer SAR teams. We have to begin a response, even if we end up being able to do nothing about it. This is trending towards becoming a massive sink in volunteer hours. Each one of us can only give X number of hours until work and family demand we miss the next call. Thanks.
glacierPaul
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Re: If you have, or know someone who has, an unregistered PLB

Post by glacierPaul »

With this seemingly becoming more of a problem, shouldn't the store selling the item have to register the PLB for the customer(similar to a cell phone)? I could see buying one as a gift a problem, unless you gave the store all pertinent info for the user. This just seems easy to resolve, so SAR, sheriff's, etc. won't waste time or money.
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BobbyFinn
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Re: If you have, or know someone who has, an unregistered PLB

Post by BobbyFinn »

What does the registration do and how does an unregistered PLB cause SAR a headache? I thought they just sent out a signal saying someone needs help at these coords. Thanks.
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Jim Davies
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Re: If you have, or know someone who has, an unregistered PLB

Post by Jim Davies »

The problem is false alarms, like the guy from Boulder earlier this year who thought his PLB was an avalanche beacon. If SAR doesn't know who owns the unit, they can't tell him to stop.

What they could do is refuse to answer calls for help from unregistered PLBs, but that goes against the nature of the search & rescue community. It's a conundrum, for sure, but maybe a little "tough love" is in order.
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tenpins
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Re: If you have, or know someone who has, an unregistered PLB

Post by tenpins »

when the signal is moving(say, Denver to COS in an hour), or from somewhere in town, it is obviously not a legitmate activation. If a unit is registered, we can pursue a normal investigation with phone calls or sending a deputy to an address.

Having said that, ponder for a minute the liability of not responding to an activation, regardless of registration or location.

A better process during the sale, and more education for sale persons handling this merchandise would go a long way to help.
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Jim Davies
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Re: If you have, or know someone who has, an unregistered PLB

Post by Jim Davies »

But you'll still be vulnerable to false alarms from unregistered units. And are volunteer SAR teams really liable if they don't respond to a call, especially if that call is suspect (because it's unregistered)? Many local police departments won't respond to home burglar alarm calls without verification; why should SAR be any different?
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Re: If you have, or know someone who has, an unregistered PLB

Post by BobbyFinn »

Thanks for the info! I have a PLB; though still in the box at home. I'll be sure to register it.
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tenpins
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Re: If you have, or know someone who has, an unregistered PLB

Post by tenpins »

PLBs are a new-ish tech, and while your analogy to the false home alarms is a good one, there are probably hundreds of thousands of such instances on which they can rest their procedures. PLBs dont have that history. To cut to the chase, if all PLBs were registered, which they are supposed to be, we would have options other than mounting a response. The whole deal about PLBs looked good on paper. Seems the big monkey wrench is the unwillingness or inability for folks to register them.

BobbyFinn, please dont foget to register that unit [-o<
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