Is it worth paying extra for a GPS EPIRB?
To answer this, we first need to take a closer look at the satellite systems that receive and process the EPIRB signals. The original COSPAS-SARSAT system was built around polar orbiting satellites, about 600km above the earth, giving global coverage with automatic position fixing, using the Doppler effect. At higher latitudes, where the satellites tracks are close together, the “wait time” for a satellite pass is quite short – typically less than an hour in Northern Europe. However, closer to the equator, the wait time could be a couple of hours or more. In recent years, the system has been augmented by putting 406 MHz receivers on geostationary satellites. These are the kind of satellites used for TV transmissions – they are placed at high orbit (32,000 km) above the equator and they orbit at the same speed that the earth turns, so they appear to be stationary above the ground, and can “see” about one third of the earth’s surface. This system provides a perfect complement for the pol
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