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Equine Ramblers UK

personal locator beacons

Government response to E-Petition

We just recieved a government resonse to the e-petition and it can be viewed here
A measure of our success

29th September 2008

Woman rescued in 4,500-mile alert

Distress signal picked up 4,500 miles away by a Scottish RAF base.

8th September 2008

Email from Dylan near Chester

Hi Jenni,

Just a note of support for your work I was referred to your site while looking at plb's on McMurdo's website.

I am actually a mountainbiker, sometime climber and once showjumper and horse rambler, and like yourselves are surprised by the lack of coherent coverage in the UK. Being a member of Treble Three supporters the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation it is amazing the callouts the team gets, and I myself broke my collarbone out on the Clays (I live in Chester) and know the hassles of getting emergency remote assistance.

Having done a REC remote first aid course I am better placed than most to appreciate the severity of any incident in backcountry conditions and wish there was a more solid support network for land based emergencies over here like North America has.

I'm gutted I missed the deadline for the petition,

Keep up the good work,

Regards,

Dylan

9th September 2008

Climbing accident reports

Having read the article on accident reports on the UKC website I am very surprised to learn that there has been no record of reports of accidents in the UK for climbers. Speaking as an outsider of the sport but having common ground in going into the unpopulated areas of the country I would have thought that less experienced climbers would find this information to their benefit.

On top of this the thread I posted about Personal Locator Beacons recently on UKC got such a ridiculous anti and macho response to it that I wonder at the sensibility of the climbers in the country not passing on their experiences so that others may stay accident free! Most of the comments on the thread were about going it alone and getting away from it all. There were a number, as I recall, quoting accident rates when all along there is no record of reports!

Why am I not surprised? Are the police not involved in investigating as in road traffic accidents? Do they log these incidents or is this a big black hole?

The equestrian comunity are all too keen to pass on their experiences to more novice riders to the extent that the poor rider can become confused, but one thing is certain we do need a PLB for our own safety when exploring remote parts of the countryside wether on horseback or the end of a rope! This doesn't mean we are being tracked, just a shout for help when we need it.

Author - Jenni Miller 29/06/2008

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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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