
NOAA Satellites Helped Save a Record 421 Lives in 2019 - infodocket
https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-satellites-helped-save-record-421-lives-in-2019
======
jxcl
I have one of these beacons and take it with me most times I'm going out alone
into the wilderness. I don't want to be the guy who had to cut his own arm off
after it got trapped by a falling boulder.

That being said, this is an interesting spin on the number. I've been hearing
from friends on Search and Rescue crews that an increasing number of people
are going out hiking being completely unprepared for any possible emergency,
thinking that they'll just use their cell phone if anything goes wrong. I
wonder if any of these beacon carriers fall closer into that camp than true
serious conditions, though I suspect that simply carrying a beacon puts you in
a higher preparedness bracket than the cell-phone only crew.

~~~
reaperducer
_I 've been hearing from friends on Search and Rescue crews that an increasing
number of people are going out hiking being completely unprepared for any
possible emergency, thinking that they'll just use their cell phone if
anything goes wrong._

This is so true.

I live in the desert, and it's amazing the number of people who simply don't
take the natural world seriously.

The dead and rescued are almost always tourists. And for some reason, almost
always from Europe (I suspect because my observation has been that Asians tend
to travel in large groups on air conditioned buses). They drive rental cars
into deep sand and get stuck and die. They run out of gas and get stuck and
die. They never bring enough food or water and don't know what to do in an
emergency.

I was at a hotel on the Navajo Reservation (Arizona/New Mexico/Utah) about a
year ago and there was a British couple arguing with the manager that of
course their cell phone should work, they bought it in San Francisco. I tired
to explain to them that the whole reason people visit places like this is to
get away from technology. Even though I'm sure there are remote places in
Europe, they had no concept that there are places in the world where there's
no cell service.

A couple of years ago there was an article in the newspaper about a German guy
who decided to rent a Harley Davidson and drive through the desert like some
kind of David Hasselhof fantasy. It was 115° and he was in full-on black
leather gear. They found him dead on the side of the road, still sitting on
his motorcycle with his helmet on.

\--:--

Editing to add the results from a four-second Google News search:

 _authorities in California launched a search for Pi-Wei Hung, 40, early
Sunday afternoon... the woman’s vehicle was discovered stuck in the sand on
the shoulder... and then died in the heat as she tried to walk out of the
area. The high temperature that day was 113 degrees._

 _a 60-year-old tourist from Germany died from heat exposure... not far from
his where his motorcycle was parked, upright and in working order, in the
118-degree heat._

 _...two French tourists got their car stuck in loose sand... no one knew
their specific travel route, and they were out of cellphone range in
temperatures above 110 degrees._

~~~
rhcom2
A good read about being unprepared for the desert is "The Hunt for the Death
Valley Germans" which is an amateur's search for answers on how a German
family of tourists abandoned their van in Death Valley and then disappeared.

[https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-
hu...](https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-
death-valley-germans/)

~~~
tdons
This website cost me a weekend once :-)

~~~
sneak
That and the website of the desert hunter who found the crashed SR71 should
come with some rabbit hole warning labels. :)

~~~
mattkrause
I think it's the same person!

(I would check, but I've stuff to do and I've already been down that rabbit
hole once.)

------
AYBABTME
I bought one of these PLBs after spending 12h down a canyon with a broken
ankle and no cell reception. Friends had to hike back out of the canyon and
hike then drive for hours to get help. Never again.

Since then I got a sailboat and it's pretty standard in that field to have
EPIRB, PLBs and the likes. There's life-vests that come with mini-PLBs in
them. It's a bit pricey but it's essential in my opinion. I was lucky to be
with friends and within reasonable distance of help when I got my accident. If
something happens at sea, you need these NOAA satellites.

~~~
jxramos
How much does one of those go for if you don't mind me asking.

From the article... >By law, beacon owners are required to register their
devices online with NOAA. The registration information helps provide better
and faster assistance to people in distress, and can guard against false
alarms.

What does that registration process look like exactly?

~~~
flyGuyOnTheSly
> How much does one of those go for if you don't mind me asking.

They cost a few hundred dollars.

Which is well worth it if you've broken your ankle at the bottom of a canyon
imho.

------
jcrawfordor
COSPAS-SARSAT originated as a collaboration between the US and the Soviet
Union (COSPAS is a romanization of the Russian acronym), with several other
countries joining shortly after (France, Canada) and ownership ultimately
migrating towards the UN. In many ways it's a remarkable example of successful
collaboration between not-so-friendly powers in the typically tense domain of
space systems.

The EU Galileo system includes an enhanced SAR capability which will be
integrated with the COSPAS-SARSAT system. In the future, properly equipped
transponders will be able to receive a confirmation message transmitted from
Galileo satellites to provide the user reassurance that their call was
received.

There are also subscription services available, such as Spot and Garmin
InReach which rely on commercial satellite networks. They're not really that
expensive (Spot as low as $18/mo) and depending on the provider include
position tracking and two-way text-messaging. These extra features can be very
useful, but coverage of these commercial providers is not necessarily as good
as COSPAS-SARSAT, especially near the poles. This is particularly true since
COSPAS-SARSAT is augmented by a small set of geostationary satellites (NOAA's
GOES) which provide "worst-case" coverage, while the commercial networks are
LEO.

------
mmaunder
Posting this because it isnt mentioned in the article, but among mariners
these beacons are known as EPIRBs. The system has evolved significantly to
support individual beacons now. So search for EPIRB if you want one or want to
learn more.

[https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=mtEpirb](https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=mtEpirb)

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_position-
indicatin...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_position-
indicating_radiobeacon_station)

~~~
tjohns
\- EPIRB = Fixed unit, installed on a boat. Water activated.

\- ELT = Fixed unit, installed on an airplane. G-force activated.

\- PLB = Handheld unit for individuals. Manually activated only.

They're all the same technology, but the form factor differs depending on
which term you refer to them by.

------
jonah
The digital 406 MHz signals received by the satellites mentioned in TFA are
unencrypted and can be receive by ground-based receivers as well.

There are commercial receivers/decoders[1] but you can also do it fairly
easily with an appropriate antenna and SDR[2].

[1] [https://wst.ca/beacon_monitor.html](https://wst.ca/beacon_monitor.html)

[2] [https://www.bytebang.at/Blog/ELT+Testing+with+rtl-
sdr](https://www.bytebang.at/Blog/ELT+Testing+with+rtl-sdr)

------
linsomniac
in 2016 I got one of the ACR PLB-375 "ResQLink+" locator beacons. I did a
bunch of research at the time, and liked this because it was $250, and
required no subscription. Looks like they are $300 now.

The alternatives have more features, like sending messages or two way
messaging, and incoming messages, but also tend to require monthly
subscription fees. Some of them now have subscriptions that you can "pause"
when you aren't using it.

I bought the beacon for offroading, after one trip where my son was screwing
around and fell and hit his head pretty hard on a rock. He was ok, but it made
the ability to reach out much more real. Sometimes I can get cell phone signal
on the trail, but usually not. The medical kit I carry and my medical
abilities were not up to serious injury. My trauma kit stayed at home: my wife
is a nurse. :-)

I like it, but in retrospect I wish I'd gotten a 2 way Iridium one, because my
wife really worries when she can't get status updates. "Not getting a call
from emergency services means we're ok" is not good enough. <shrug> :-)

~~~
ghaff
>I like it, but in retrospect I wish I'd gotten a 2 way Iridium one, because
my wife really worries when she can't get status updates. "Not getting a call
from emergency services means we're ok" is not good enough. <shrug> :-)

When I was leading sea kayaking trips, there was effectively a similar
conundrum. The standard practice was that you were supposed to leave a float
plan with someone you trusted. (Planned route, planned time of return, etc.)

But what did that mean really, especially if no one on the trip had a partner
expected to move heaven and earth if something might seem wrong. You're an
hour past your expected arrival and no call. Do they drive an hour or two to
the expected takeout because something might be wrong? Or... wait for how
long? (Especially pre-cell phone.)

In my experience float plans were something you tended to do as something of a
formality and never really expected to use and sort of ignored the
practicalities if things had really gone sideways.

------
pgrote
Incredible service.

Is there a payment required for rescue services? For instance, does the Coast
Guard charge the six people rescued when the boat sank?

~~~
wbl
Not on the sea. By old and ancient tradition all who sail come in aid to their
brothers in need.

~~~
glitcher
Off topic, but this reminded me of the stark contrast between this and my
state's "stupid motorist law"

> any motorist who becomes stranded after driving around barricades to enter a
> flooded stretch of roadway may be charged for the cost of their rescue

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupid_Motorist_Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupid_Motorist_Law)

~~~
hanniabu
That sounds reasonable to me.

------
MayeulC
> the impact of the crash of a small aircraft near Skwentna, Alaska, activated
> the emergency beacon onboard.

I wonder how that kind of event is detected by the beacon, and if I could buy
one for a person I know flies with visual flight rules (this means no
recurrent fee, at least for 10 years).

~~~
tjohns
For the aircraft units (ELTs), it's triggered by g-forces.

Almost all aircraft in the US are required to have an ELT beacon installed on-
board, though many are still equipped with the old analog (121.5 MHz)
technology which isn't monitored by satellite anymore.

If you want to carry a backup or want to have a modern digital beacon (406
MHz), you can certainly carry a PLB. Many pilots do, myself included. Note
that these are manually activated only, no g-force sensor.

For a PLB, I recommend picking up an ACR ResQLink. They retail for about $300.

~~~
tialaramex
Even if you have a digital ELT, make sure you know how to manually activate it
and teach any frequent passengers. The automatic trigger is not reliable, it's
better than nothing but survivable impacts may not trigger the beacon.

PLBs tend to have pretty easy to follow instructions written right on them,
but again people who'll be with you when it's needed should be told about it
during safety briefing. Kids too young to learn the radio or other potentially
life-saving apparatus can be shown how to use the beacon because of how simple
it is.

------
valgor
Nothing worse than an article with acronyms without stating what those
acronyms are.

~~~
lucb1e
I know what NOAA is but I didn't (from the headline) understand what a weather
satellite does for saving people (at least in tangible numbers, I get that a
hurricane prediction helps but 421 people is awfully specific).

So I would agree that the headline could use some work. It's also not as if
NOAA is the only provider of this service (see Galileo), but I'm not sure if
there are stats published for other systems.

~~~
tialaramex
The stats will be for the whole COSPAS SARSAT system but limited to rescues in
the United States because Americans only care about other Americans (not all
of them but in general)

The system doesn't present users with "This beacon was detected by this NOAA
satellite". You could trace it back, but it's generally not relevant and
people are focused on stuff like Do we have a good fix? / Does the
registration tell us anything useful? / Who is available that can be tasked to
go look? Also do you then count scenarios where five satellites were involved
and one was NOAA? A lot of alerts will be "seen" by more than one satellite.

NOAA has some geostationary birds, which can be enough for sole alert if the
beacon has GPS, because GPS tells the beacon where it is (if it can see the
sky well enough) and then the beacon tells the geostationary satellite its
location as part of the distress beacon message. For those obviously they're
"parked" over America so maybe some central American or even Canadian
incidents but mostly US stuff. For a beacon without GPS the geostationary
alert is not much help. "Joe needs rescuing from somewhere in your
hemisphere". With 406MHz digital beacons you might perhaps try calling Joe's
wife "Oh! Joe is out on the lake, actually he's a bit late for dinner" and
that might be useful but mostly alerts with no location are not actioned.

But lower orbits mean a non-geostationary NOAA bird could be over anywhere in
the world, and those low orbit satellites can measure doppler shift (ie
determine location without GPS), it's just that the rescuers wouldn't
necessarily be American and in most cases neither would the victims. Australia
has lots of wilderness and so lots of alerts for example.

------
Dowwie
My FastFind PLB doesn't seem to have replaceable batteries so I just left it
in storage and haven't used it. Has anyone managed to replace their batteries?

~~~
Zenst
[https://www.sparesmarine.co.uk/mcmurdo-plb-battery-
servicing...](https://www.sparesmarine.co.uk/mcmurdo-plb-battery-servicing/)
that any use?

~~~
Dowwie
Yowsa. Do I spent the additional $100 and go with a new one? I wonder how much
technology has changed in 10 years since I bought this..

~~~
throw0101a
May be better GPS processing: more channels for a quicker fix. Perhaps lower
power or better battery chemistry so the '2.0' unit may last longer?

~~~
Dowwie
great points

------
TurkishPoptart
Anyone know of a good hand-held NOAA unit to buy in case of emergency?

