Comments on: Deep Snow and Shallow Batteries

By: Edge

Edge — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:53:12 +0000

Here’s a dirty little secret from BCA: the Tracker DTS will transmit for nearly 50 hours after it says 0 percent in the battery power display. However, we recommend changing your batteries before they hit 20 percent, mainly because the battery voltage can drop severely if they get very cold–and because most beacons use much (ie 5x) more battery power in search mode than in transmit mode. So it was a good idea to keep your beacon on even though the battery indicator was at zero. A trailhead check also would have confirmed that you were transmitting a strong signal.

The Wasatch delivers again! We scored huge both before and after the OR show.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:56:38 +0000

Thanks for the insights Jonathan. From what Michael at Pieps said, the Leatherman next to the beacon scenario mainly affects your transmit strength, which means it would be harder for your partners to find you (say, perhaps instead of getting a good signal at 60m, it could be something more like 30m).

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:53:28 +0000

Hi Dave – I’ll dedicate a post to it in the near future. I’ve been using custom chest packs for about the last ten years and they are an integral part of my BC set up.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:52:22 +0000

Fine idea D3. ;)

By: d3

d3 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:25:49 +0000

so batteries are like new cars in that they lose some of their zoom as soon as you “drive them off the lot”?

also, the ole “on at the car, off at the bar” means you probably need to go to more taverns so you’re sure to turn off your beacon.

By: Terry

Terry — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:58:58 +0000

Damn, AM!!!!!!!

Love the pics! Glad Utah is finally getting obliterated with snow!

By: dave

dave — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:50:55 +0000

Can you post a picture of your custom chest pack?

By: Jonathan Shefftz

Jonathan Shefftz — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:24:03 +0000

“The conversation with Michael started by discussing the “E04″ error that at times shows up on beacons. I use a custom-made chest pack, and as it turns out, placing a metalic item right next to your beacon can interfere with the power of the transmitted signal. Items like a cell phone (regardless of whether or not they are turned on) can cause problems, but even worse is a dense chunk of metal, like a Leatherman, which is what I often carry.”
– This is specific to the Pieps DSP, which runs a self-check at start-up that includes searching for its own signal. Since your check pack is inadvertently amplifying the signal, the DSP thinks something is wrong when it searches for itself, and hence returns an error message. Same issue if you start up the DSP in close proximity to another transmitting beacon.

“I usually change out my batteries when they get down to about 40%, although today I skied all day with 00 power and at the end of the day we did a beacon check and it was working fine. I hopefully won’t do that again, but it was interesting to see that it really does work and having battery power as low as the teens is nothing to panic about for a day tour. YBMV (Your Beacon May Vary)”
– That last point is the most important one. The DSP is very pessimistic with its battery strength indicator. Down to about 70%, it’s similar to other beacons. After that, it tends to provide readings way lower than other beacons for a given set of batteries. And even at 0%, it will run normally for a long time. This however is not necessarily true of most other beacon models.

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Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:48:01 +0000

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