EMERGENCY POSITION INDICATING RADIO BEACONS OPERATING ON 2182 KHZ

Commandant (G-OTM) has been conducting a Study of Altering and Locating Techniques and Their Impact (SALTTI). One of the techniques investigated was the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB), a self-contained radio transmitter which broadcasts a distress signal to both alert a search and rescue force and to guide that force to the distress scene. Candidate EPIRBs can operate on many different frequencies (2182 kHz, 121.5 MHz, 243 Mhz, etc.), and thus have widely varying characteristics, such as physical size and transmitting range. In 1975 a number of representative, commercially available 2182 kHz EPIRBs were evaluated by the Coast Guard. Test results presented in this paper lead to the conclusion that no EPIRB evaluated meets U.S. needs in the Coastal confluence zone. Further, characteristics of 2182 kHz communications requires excessively large antennas and/or primary power supplies to achieve a reasonable propagation range.

• Corporate Authors:

  United States Coast Guard

  2100 Second Street, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20593
• Authors:
  • May, W K
  • Wilder, F N
• Publication Date: 1976-10

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 21-32
• Serial:
  • Coast Guard Engineer's Digest
  • Issue Number: 193

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Emergency radio equipment; Radio beacons
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00148509
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: United States Coast Guard
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 23 1977 12:00AM