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Equine Ramblers UK

personal locator beacons

BREAKING NEWS - SUCCESS!

We have just had confirmation that Personal Locator Beacons will be legal to use on land in January 2012. See email below.

Hello,

Just to let you know we have published our statement on our decision to make licence exemption regulations, the document can be found at http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/licence-exemption/statement/statement.pdf . The use of PLBs on land will be permitted from 12 January 2012.

Regards

:: Paul Chapman
Spectrum Policy Manager
020 7981 3069
paul.chapman@ofcom.org.uk

:: Ofcom
Riverside House
2a Southwark Bridge Road
London SE1 9HA
020 7981 3000
www.ofcom.org.uk

21st December 2011

Forwarded email from Ofcom

Hi Jenni,

I have received a reply back from Ofcom on allowing the use of a PLB unit on land now in a emergency their reply to me is below.

Regards Anthony.

********************

Dear Mr D,

Thank you for your email, the details of which have been noted.

I have now spoken to our Spectrum Policy Department who have advised that while it is not currently lawful to use PLBs (406 MHz beacons) on land, we are currently consulting on allowing this by way of exemption.

Please note this consultation closes on 21st November 2011. If you wish to view this please visit the following link:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/
notice-wireless-telegraphy/summary/main.pdf

I hope this helps.

If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind Regards,

:: Kelly Cox Licensing Officer SE&E Spectrum Licensing 0300 123 1000
Spectrum.LicensingEnquiries@ofcom.org.uk
mailto:Spectrum.LicensingEnquiries@ofcom.org.uk

:: Ofcom Riverside House 2a Southwark Bridge Road London SE1 9HA www.ofcom.org.uk

For more information on licensing visit http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/

17th November 2011

Email from a very keen hill worker

Dear Jenni,

Hi Some time back I signed your petition to have PLB's used on landin the UK in an emergencyit now looks like your hard work has paid off, I am very happy you have kept up your fight to have the use of them on land allowed.

I am a very keen hill worker as well as a keen mounting biker I live in Northumberland and spend a lot of mytime on the hills the only problem is I loss the cell phone signal very quick on the hills here.

Now in an emergency I will be allowed to use my own Fast Find 210 GPS PLB on the hills when Ofcom allow the use of them this year.

I am also a trained first Aider but there is only so much you can do on the hills and now I know soon I will be allowed to use my own Fast Find PLB in a real emergency I got my version about a year ago but could not take it on the hills but soon will be allowed.

I have sent a photo of my devise as I think they are fantastic and they can save life's.

Best Wishes Anthony.

Northumberland UK,

11th November 2011

OFCOM update 2011

Licence exemption of wireless telegraphy devices. In 2007 Equine Ramblers UK campaigned for legal use of Personal Locator Beacons on land. It looks like this will be finalized very shortly. We received an up-date Email today. "Ofcom today published draft regulations to permit the use of a range of new devices on a licence-exempt basis. These include the use of personal locator beacons on land; wireless road safety systems; wireless access terminals in the 3400 to 3800 MHz band; mobile satellite services operating in the 2 GHz band; and mobile terminals connecting to the 2012 London Games Tetra Network." So if you like riding in wild and woolly places and have no mobile phone reception in the event of an accident these devices will get you a swift response from Search & Rescue Services.

20th October 2011

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Our Personal Locator Beacons Campaign is Supported By:

CTC supports personal locator beaconsAircraft

Legalising personal locator beacons for land use in Great Britain

Permission Glencoe Mountain Rescue - personal locator beacons

Like a lot of people I go exploring the countryside, very often on my own on horseback and in May 2007 I was completing a long ride with a friend and fell off the horse and broke my leg. I was lucky that I wasn’t alone and also that we had mobile phone reception.

Search and rescue Framework for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 2002

Poor reception in mountains

Permission Glencoe Mountain Rescue - personal locator beacons

Among the mountains mobile reception is quite often un-obtainable and this impairs any prompt rescue an injured outdoor pursuiter will receive. I learned of Personal Locator Beacons from a member of Equine Ramblers UK who lives in Australia where they have been legal for use on land since 2003. The same goes for the United States of America.

On investigation I found that we could purchase them in Great Britain but could only legally use them for marine purposes, for example at sea or on land locked water and rivers. The unit has to be registered with the PLB registry and licensed for use with OFCOM. At present if you use one on land you can have the unit confiscated, be fined and even imprisoned for unlicensed use of a transmitter. My Australian friend cannot use hers when she comes to the UK.

What are personal locator beacons?

outdoors

For those who don’t know what they do…. they are about the size of a mobile phone and have a button, when pressed, that sends a GPS signal (in this country) via satellite to the coastguard. The coastguard know by this signal the exact location of the emergency and will send the emergency service straight out to it.

We want to legalise the use of PLB’s on land and help the Search and Rescue (SAR) save lives and money by finding their emergencies quicker, taking the Search out of Rescue. The misuse of PLB’s will not happen due to the cost of the unit and continuing registration of PLB’s. The penalty for misuse through the licensing would be the same as for illegal use.

This January (2007) PLB’s were legalised for use in recreational and sporting aircraft 10 minutes plus from land indicating a relaxation of these archaic rules.

Background Information on Locator Beacons

Permission Glencoe Mountain Rescue

From Peter Dymond (Chief Coastguard)

Personal Locator Beacons (PLB’s) and similarly, Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB’s) used for maritime distress alerting, and Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT’s) used for aeronautical distress alerting are radio transmitting devices which operate in the 406 MHz band for sending distress alert signals to Cospas-Sarsat satellites. The satellites relay the signals to a Ground Station and then on to the Mission Control Centre where the signal is processed for onward transmission to the Rescue Co-ordination Centre who will activate and then co-ordinate the appropriate SAR response.

The processing of the beacon signal at the Mission Control Centre determines the identity of the Beacon ie maritime or air, whom it belongs to and the location of the beacon the latter being the most important item of information.

Location is determined in two ways ie if the Beacon is fitted with GPS then the position from the GPS is included in the distress alert signal or if no GPS, then the position is determined by the Doppler techniques which is complex but in simple terms is about the movement of the satellite(s) (which are polar orbiting) in relation to the stationary beacon. Many Beacons also transmit a homing signal which help eg SAR helicopters, to home in on the beacon when approaching the position given by the Rescue Co-ordination Centre.

Air Ambulance statistics supplied by Shropshire and West Midlands

MISSIONS COMPLETED BY COUNTY

24th May 1991 – 31st August 2007

West Midlands 3496
Staffordshire 4673
Herefordshire &Worcestershire 5139
Shropshire 2815
Warwickshire 1241
Powys 498
Gloucestershire 3258
East Midlands 373
Other Services 95

Total Incidents 24952

These figures do not cover the Mountain rescue where air ambulance was not required or couldn’t be used

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