The Breitling Watch Source Forums

sorry if it's a repost but thought it would be interesting news for emergency owners.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is prohibiting further certification, manufacture, importation, sale or use of 121.5 MHz emergency locator transmitters. The American Electronics Association sounded the alert Monday. The date of compliance would typically be 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. As we go to press it has not been published. AEA, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and other associations are working with FAA and the FCC to postpone implementation and resolve the issue. AEA will post weekly updates on its website to address what it deems a critical issue.

The prohibition was contained deep In the FCC’s Third Report and Order for 2010, adopted June 1, 2010, and published June 15, 2010, but the AEA only became aware of the matter on Monday.

AOPA also responded negatively, saying it is aggressively pursuing all options to have the FCC and FAA delay and re-evaluate the rule, highlighting the economic and operational impact to the more than 220,000 aircraft in the general aviation fleet, most of which still carry the 121.5 MHz ELTs.

“The FCC is making a regulatory change that would impose an extra cost on GA operators, without properly communicating with the industry or understanding the implications of its action,” said AOPA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Rob Hackman. “There is no FAA requirement to replace 121.5 MHz units with 406 MHz technology. When two government agencies don’t coordinate, GA can suffer.”

The FCC said, “Although this may force some aircraft owners and operators to terminate their use of 121.5 MHz ELTs sooner than they may have anticipated when they acquired the device, and impel them to incur the cost of purchasing a 406.0-406.1 MHz ELT as a replacement, the safety benefits of imposing an immediate prohibition on continued use of 121.5 MHz ELTs outweigh the costs. We note, moreover, that the users of 121.5 MHz ELTs have been on notice of the need to transition to 406.0-406.1 MHz ELTs for a long time. As explained [above in the report], Cospas-Sarsat announced the 2009 termination of 121.5 MHz signal monitoring in 2000, and the Commission specifically raised the issue of a domestic prohibition of continued use of 121.5 MHz ELTs in 2006.”

Owners of the Breitling Emergency Watch can breathe a sigh of relief since the FCC will leave intact the waiver granted to Breitling that permits marketing and use of the company’s Emergency Watch, which is considered a homing beacon and not an ELT, and was never dependent upon Cospas-Sarsat’s processing of 121.5 MHz distress signals. “The commission agrees that “Cospas-Sarsat’s termination of satellite monitoring of 121.5 MHz has no bearing on the utility of the Breitling Emergency Watch and has no impact on its functionality and safety benefits.”

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Bs: Code Yellow, SW Ti, B1
Seikos: Sumo/SBDC001, Baby Tuna/SRP231, and Big Orange/SNM037
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Yeah it has been mentioned before, one of the more ridiculous FCC edicts (and that's saying something).