The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Are the first gen of breitling emergency and emergency mission outdated technology

That depends...The Cospas-Sarsat satellite system stopped processing signals from the 121.5-MHz ELT's in 2009. The FAA followed up by prohibiting the development of new units that rely on the frequency for aircraft use. Many aircraft still carry 121.5-MHz ELTs, but signals from those transmitters can only be processed by ground-based receivers or aircraft flying overhead.

If you want to be visible to Cospas-Sarsat satellites, you need a 406MHz ELT.

I seem to recall the Emergency was made available with a 406MHz beacon, but I've never seen one.

Original military issue Emergency was 243, civilian version is 121.5, Emergency II is 406. The talk of the Emergency being obsolete because of satellite monitoring ceasing is a red herring simply because unless you have perfect conditions (and high elevation) the signal from the Emergency isn't strong enough to be picked up by the satellite anyway so you were always looking at aircraft / land / marine monitoring only.

No, it's not obsolete. As Roffensian stated above, the original Emergency 1 was never powerful enough and not intended to be picked up by Sar-sat. Airliners are still required to monitor 121.5 en route as well as all ATC units. If they know an aircraft is missing, they will definitely be monitoring 121.5 while searching, as even with 406mhz the satellites (don't quote me) will only pick up the signal with each rotation and I have heard the time between satellites passing overhead can be up to an hour. It will initiate the search then they home in on the 121.5 beacon.

Good info to know. I've been looking at the Emergency as a possible next watch.


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Along the same lines, I searched the forum but came up without an answer...

Any documented cases were an Emergency was activated and due to its locating capability the person(s) was/were rescued?


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I am pretty new around here myself so I will offer up that I recall reading about an adventurer in Alaska that got lost or injured and ending up deploying the signal with his emergency. I think it might come up with a Google search? Good Luck.
Kevin

There are many, including some documented here.

No, it is definitely not obsolete but you do need to understand the limitations of whatever Search and Rescue beacon (SARBE) you are using. UK military pilots still currently carry separate 121.5/243 Mhz and 406 Mhz beacons and would use the former for scene-of-search homing. As stated above your 121.5 Mhz beacon isn't going to trigger any SARSATs so someone needs to fly near enough to you to hear your transmission. Fortunately many aircraft radios have the ability to always monitor the emergency frequencies as well as the tuned frequency (it is in our interest to, one day it could be me!) so I reckon with the traffic density in Europe you have a good chance of being heard if you set off your Breitling Emergency. Of course it would be ideal if you got lost on the top of a mountain or out to sea for best results!

As Roff said, not obsolete. I work as a helicopter rescue doc, and have tested mine (using the test button) with our helicopters' search and rescue radio - works perfectly fine (although the pilots hate it!)

Here's some pics of it from last night, mixing it on on an emu strap this week.

Say that's a nice watch

Time to slap a UTC module on that baby...

_________________
HeadOffice...
B1+UTC
B1+UTC
B2+UTC
Chronomatic 49
Emergency+UTC-Yellow
Emergency+UTC-Black
Emergency+UTC-Blue
Super Avenger
SuperOcean Heritage 46

-- Looking for B4B Le Mans

I wish! But too expensive though!

Just put mine on a Pro3 rubber with Deployment

_________________
HeadOffice...
B1+UTC
B1+UTC
B2+UTC
Chronomatic 49
Emergency+UTC-Yellow
Emergency+UTC-Black
Emergency+UTC-Blue
Super Avenger
SuperOcean Heritage 46

-- Looking for B4B Le Mans