The "old" style, 121.5 units are not necessarily just "a glorified boat
anchor". All of our SAR aircraft still have the VHF trackers installed that
still work very well. The satellites are being switched over to UHF because
the system was completely saturated before. The friend with the helicopter
only needed to wait for enough of the bogus signals to fade or be turned off
before his call could be handled. Sort of like being put on hold when you
call the fire department.

We will still get a call-out based on an overflight (or two or three)
reporting a VHF signal. Just because the Satellites don't hear the signal
doesn't mean that everyone gave up. In parallel with the FAA announcement we
received an admonishment to constantly monitor Guard.


--
Jim Carter
Rogers, Arkansas