The Murphy Builders Site

Umm no that's old info on McMurdo. There is a new generation of PLB's on
the market.

THe $300. McMurdo Fastfind does indeed now have multi channel gps and it
picks up position quite fast. Have one right here and I've tested the
gps. It is something like a 40 channel receiver. Paid cdn$319. from
Aircraft Spruce.

I was not willing to pay the annual fee for a SPOT unit especially
considering some of the user reports that I've read. I've been told that
their later units have improved greatly but I haven't checked that out.

I'm disappointed to hear that the 121.5 signal on the 406 elt's is so
weak. Makes the gps receiver pretty much essential.

Ken

Mike Davis wrote:

Just want to point out that the sub $300 McMurdo FastFind PLB "does not"
include a built in GPS... the model with the GPS built in is the FastFind
Plus, and runs more in the $700 range.
snip

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It's great to hear there is an inexpensive GPS equipped PLB on the market...
I must not have found the current offerings.

I have the original Spot, and have been very happy with it. I have flown
all over Alaska, as far North as Fort Yukon or Kotzebue, which are both
around 66.5 degrees. It has always worked very well for me. The only time
I have had it not report regularly like it should was when I was flying the
Susitna river deep in the Alaska range... very steep hills all around me. I
have heard from a local FBO that the newer, smaller model was recalled for
some problem.

Best part about the Spot is that my wife loves it! She really likes that
she can check the map and watch my progress... and you can bet if I have two
reports in a row from the same location my cell phone is going to ring. ;-)

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken" <klehman@albedo.net>
To: <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 12:16 PM
Subject: Re: [rebel-builders] ELTs and PLBs

Umm no that's old info on McMurdo. There is a new generation of PLB's on
the market.

THe $300. McMurdo Fastfind does indeed now have multi channel gps and it
picks up position quite fast. Have one right here and I've tested the
gps. It is something like a 40 channel receiver. Paid cdn$319. from
Aircraft Spruce.

I was not willing to pay the annual fee for a SPOT unit especially
considering some of the user reports that I've read. I've been told that
their later units have improved greatly but I haven't checked that out.

I'm disappointed to hear that the 121.5 signal on the 406 elt's is so
weak. Makes the gps receiver pretty much essential.

Ken

Mike Davis wrote:

Just want to point out that the sub $300 McMurdo FastFind PLB "does not"
include a built in GPS... the model with the GPS built in is the FastFind
Plus, and runs more in the $700 range.
snip

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