12/12/09, Hyak to Windy Pass

Way to get people trained! 
We were up at Hyak on Sunday, skiing wasn't bad down the newly cut run on the backside.  We did a quick beacon practice back at the car and found out that someone's batteries were too low!  I could find him easily, but he couldn't pick up my signal anywhere (5-50')!  A reminder to replace those batteries!  His tracker was at 82...

Interesting that the beacon read 82%.  FWIW, my experience with undamaged Trackers has never shown problems with reception, even down in the 50%'s, or less.  Be sure to check that particular beacon out with full batteries as I suspect there may be a bigger problem.  I too change out batteries when they get down in the 70%'s, but all beacons are theoretically able to receive or transmit,  for some period, even when down in the very low percentile range!  It may be that the antennas have been damaged - which can happen over time with normal handling (being jostled around in packs, in the car, dropped inadvertantly, etc.  I have been told that avalanche pro's change out their beacons after 3-5 yrs of use.  I have had one beacon (a rental) work fine when fresh batteries were put in, but only a short time later (less than several hours) it totally failed to transmit.  Because receiving and interpolating/processing signals requires even more electrical energy from the battery, it's possible there is some kind of internal circuit problem causing the premature battery discharge.
Gerry H.

Yeah, we were really surprised.  It didn't seem to be picking up anything, so we'll definitely check it out with fresh batteries.  We had 2 other beacons there, so we were able to test all the beacons, and all 3 were transmitting just fine. 

Hopefully it's not the death of the beacon, they're kinda pricey to be malfunctioning after 3-4 years... 

I have heard, but not verified that cell phones can throw off the waves and disrupt the ability receive a signal.
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Sorry to heist your thread Marcus, but can this be verified with some other data within our community?

No problem -- it's important stuff and "beacon use" was pretty much the theme of the day :)

I've had radios/GPS throw off my beacon, giving ghost signals when doing searches in patrol drills.  Haven't seen it with phones, but there are so many models with so many different bands/frequencies, that it seems prudent to shut down ALL electronics (iPods, radios, GPS) in avy terrain, or at least get them as far from your beacon as possible on your body.

author=trees4me link=topic=14828.msg62117#msg62117 date=1260827290]
Yeah, we were really surprised.  It didn't seem to be picking up anything, so we'll definitely check it out with fresh batteries.  We had 2 other beacons there, so we were able to test all the beacons, and all 3 were transmitting just fine.   Hopefully it's not the death of the beacon, they're kinda pricey to be malfunctioning after 3-4 years...   

I had a two year old Tracker "fail" last year.  Sounds similar - mine was transmitting, but not able to receive my partner's signal.  Turned out the problem was: I had used something other than Alkaline.  Once I installed new Alkaline batts, it sends and receives fine now.  Sorry, I forget the battery type that caused the problem.  One of the Tracker reps in this area chimed in on my tr and diagnosed the problem for me.

Sorry for the thread drift Marcus.

Rusty, that sounds like exactly the same symptoms.  I'll ask him what batteries he's been using.  Thanks.

Ha!  No worries -- how interesting can a conversation about the logging road between Hyak and Windy Pass possibly be?  This is perfect.

Hyak is a quick ride from Seattle, it's nice to warm up on the groomed runs and then go off to Silver peak or Catherine depending on conditions - this is a great no brainer solo destination..to continue drifting: I bought a tracker from a craigslist ad two seasons back - it was new in the box and worked fine. I never registered with BCA or sent a warranty card.  I recently pulled it out of its summer resting place and the on/off switch was broken off in a way that did not seem logical, I hadn't torqued it nearly enough that it would snap off. I called BCA in Boulder and their fast response was ship it to us and we'll send you a free new one. I suppose this could be expected procedure for this particular piece of outdoor gear but I'm impressed.

Believe me, I'm not spurning Hyak... but the groomed trail only bears so much chat.

My wife's first tracker eventually stopped turning from Tx to Rx (or some similarly large issue) -- it was out of warranty, but BCA offered her a new beacon at cost when we sent it in to them.  Pretty good deal.

so... got new batteries in and the tracker still didn't find anyone in search.  Previous batteries were standard alkalines, and were reading 89 in the warm indoors.  Looks like he's gotta get ahold of BCA.  The beacon is 4 years old, so we'll see what their response is.

...wish I was up at Hyak now...

Hyak alert. Watch out for metal spikes holding up some fence material on the cat track/landslide area. There is only about 12-18 inches sticking out, but when they are barely covered with snow and someone falls on them it's going hurt REAL BAD.

Damn, still?  I posted about those a month ago -- can't believe we've gotten so little snow.  They're holding up the landslide fabric that they put in last summer.  A recipe for injury, for sure.

last winter I toured with a friend who was using a Tracker and during a beacon check I could not pick up his signal until he was about 4 feet away. He could pick up my signal though. He replaced his batteries with his spares and it worked great after that. Thus our conversation was about beacons and batteries... he informed me to never use Lithium batteries in a beacon. The reason is something about when they run out of juice, the go all at once with no gradual fade out indicating to the user their condition, or rather they always read a strong charge when you first turn the unit on and check their strength, but reality is they need to be replaced.

I have not tested this theory, but since I find that regular alkaline batteries last a very long time in my beacon (ortovox M2) I dont see a need to use expensive Lithiums in my beacon.

Yep, check your owner's manual.  I believe this is specifically addressed.

...this thread is tied for most TR posts in December.  Yeah Windy Pass!

A group of us snowshoed up the Nordic pass route last night for a solstice party at Hyak Lake. There was light mist at Hyak then some fog. Snow is very heavy but most logs are covered. Met a groomer on the CC trails. It woud be pretty thick for skiing.