EPIRB from the USA??

[ryeham]

Hi all

Could be a stupid question but I am heading off to the states next year to appease the wife (and spend a heap of money on rods/reels) and was wondering if I can buy an EPIRB for my boat over there??

My understanding of EPIRBs is they transmit an emergency signal once activated, regardless of their location that any Coastguard etc in the greater area can pick up as long as it is a 406 mHz.

Is this correct??

Thanks for the input
Cheers
Ryan

[TheRealAndy]

They will pick it up, but your epirb in Aus needs to be registered with AMSA and I believe that US epirbs have a different country code than here, so you may have some issues.

[cormorant]

There are several brands that can be reprogrammed at the shop if they have the right equipment ( they aren't the cheap brands). Then what if there is a warranty issue the Aussie agent may be a pain to deal with.

Most of all the others are shipped to the country with the correct country code already in them.

The way I understand it is that when a epirb goes off the country where it came from gets notified so they can confirm ( by phoning the owner contacts) to ensure it isn't a false alarm.

Buy one here , get the warranty here and get saved. Buy a GPS model if you thingk the extra $250 is better than possible extra time while they try and accurately locate you or get an exact fix on you. Cheaper instead of treading water while they look. Exact location from GPS may mean quicker rescue and faster tasking of correct vessel, helicopter or plane etc.

To meet your safety equipment the epirb on the boat has to have the AMSA sticker ( reminder to anyone who hasn't registered or never received the sticker in the mail or ever those who's sticker has faded or fallen off ). If your epirb doesn't have teh sticker you will get fined. I don't think AMSA will register a foreign country number.

I wouldn't buy one overseas

Yes the companies gouged us and yes the retailers did as well but now they don't have such a captive market there seems to be better prices.about


Now in reference to non marine ones- well if they were at a significant discount ( like less than half Aussie cost landed after customs duty on the way in) and you were using them as personal epirbs and already had a Aussie one for the boat it might make me think.


2 other points - Any transmitting device that comes into Australia must meet certain standards and be labled as such. Even if it is made in Australia as a export model it may not meet the Aussie standard , CE Communications authority. It could be illegal

Transport- we were stopped taking a late model EPIRB both in carry on and in hold from NZ last year even though it was a model with the new battery that is not listed as a dangerous good. They wanted a declaration and indemnity from the manufacturer and were concerned by teh density of teh battery on the x-ray. We had phoned ahead to check with the airline and were told it was OK but the people checking bags would have none of it. We gave it to the mate seeing us off and it was airfreighted to us - Go figure as it was fullly declared. Bit weird as I am sure other people hiking , tramping would carry one?

Can't imagine you want the hassle at a USA airport or post office as they have a even tighter restriction on what is a dangerous good that can't be airfreighted and no post offices in airports ..

[ryeham]

Hey thanks Cormorant for all the info.

Weighing up all the info I'd have to consider.....and then yes getting it onto an aircraft.....it seems like way too much hassle for a couple of $$ saving.

Cheers and thanks.

Ryan

[mirage]

Hi Ryan, as said above it's not worth the trouble.
I am an airline pilot and EPIRBS are classified as "Dangerous Goods". It is illegal, as Cormorant found out, to just put one of these things in your luggage. They must be declared and packaged correctly by a cargo company and then placed on a special manifest, called a "NOTOC", which the Captain then has to sign.