Browsing: Search and Rescue

Electronics
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ACR Launches New Self-Testing for EPIRBs and PLBs

We all know that it’s a very good idea to have a working EPIRB or a PLB on a cruising boat, but how do we know that they’ll work in an emergency when we actually need them? Now, ACR Electronics, the safety and survival device company in Fort Lauderdale, has an answer for that – a new 406Link that lets you test your device in advance. The 406Link is meant to give you peace of mind, and to reassure you that search and rescue services can find you when you need them most. It gives 406 MHz beacon owners, people…

Cruising Life
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Now Coast Guard Using Your Cell Phone To Find You

With a new i911 program, the Coast Guard now can use your cell phone to find you if you’re in distress – but only with your permission and only if you have your phone’s Location Services function turned on. The way it works is that if you call the Coast Guard in an emergency, they will ask for your cell phone number and then send you a text message authorizing them to use your phone’s GPS to find you. Your location, using the phone’s GPS information, will be displayed on a screen used by Coast Guard watchstanders. At that point,…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Cadets Design New and Improved Helicopter Rescue Basket

Your chances of surviving a rescue at sea just got a lot better, thanks to some creative cadets at the Coast Guard Academy. A group of mechanical engineering seniors spent the last year working at the Coast Guard Research and Development Center in New London, Connecticut, to improve the existing helicopter rescue basket, which is limited in its ability to rescue a large number of people quickly and safely. The cadets came up with a new design that is large enough to hold two people at a time sitting in the basket, but is still small enough to fit into…

Cruising Life
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Navy Uses High-Tech Patrol Plane and New SAR Kit to Rescue Three Fishermen Adrift for Eight Days in South Pacific

The U.S. Navy just used a new Search and Rescue kit deployed from their latest high-tech patrol aircraft to rescue three fishermen who had been missing for eight days in the South Pacific. The Navy’s new SAR capabilities are certainly good news for bluewater cruisers who might need help in any kind of an emergency. The problem started when the three fishermen on a 19-foot skiff failed to return from an expedition near Chuuk Lagoon in Micronesia. Their boat had food and water but it did not have a radio or any safety equipment. The U.S. Coast Guard launched a…