On Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:52:32 -0500, Jim Logajan
wrote:

brian whatcott wrote:
Jim Logajan wrote:
Within 60 days of being published in the Federal Registry, use of
121.5 MHz ELTs will be forbidden by a re-write and re-title of
47 CFR section 87.195:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_publi...C-10-103A1.pdf

"The manufacture, importation, sale or use of 121.5 MHz ELTs is
prohibited."

The original text of 47 CFR section 87.195 may be read he

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-...E=47&PART=87&S
ECTION=195&YEAR=1998&TYPE=PDF

Two issues:
1) There are ELTs that support both 121.5 and 406 MHz, yet the
one-sentence regulation doesn't acknowledge their existence, so it
can be interpreted to mean their use too is prohibited.

2) There are going to be a lot of seriously annoyed and ****ed owners
of "older" equipment.

The basis for banning the sale of ordinary 121.5 ELTs (one exception)
is that there is no sattelite facility to listen on this frequency and
(apparently) the uch better success rate of locating 406.0 406.1 ELTs.

They didn't just ban the sale, they have also banned all "use." I quoted
the regulation in its (brief) entirety. The one "exception" appears to
exist as an official interpretation.

(Satellites were never the only entities that listened for 121.5 ELT
transmissions anyway.)

It seems evident that any ELT which can offer an emission which is
listened for (on 406.0/ 406.1) will be encouraged.

The regulation doesn't encourage 406, it mandates it. By August 15.

Jim
I dont know why you object so strongly. the new 406 machines are
encoded so that the rescue people can look up who's elt has gone off.
this allows a phone call to find out if the elt is in expected use or
just tipped over in the hangar.
the elt also sends the gps coords so the rescue effort isnt fly to an
area and do a hit and miss grid search, which may take ages, it is to
fly directly to the accident scene.

the reason why 121.5 elt's are banned is that the receivers are still
actually in place and the sar people cant tell if they are just a
nuisance from a thrown out unit or someone desperately in need of
help. by banning their use the signals can then be ignored as
spurious.

Stealth Pilot