AKA they yellow box with 4 rubber duckies.
Anyone use this thing yet?
We tried it out last Monday and its a pain, took twice as long as a regular elper to find the elt that I hid. Its efective but when you get close its not even close to be as efective as an elper and body blocking.
Told my Squadron commander that we need to stick with the regular elper on missions and she said ok hahaha. She was also told this by a cadet GTM and GTL. It just acts real funny and is a lot harder to use then the elper. Even at NESA they had mixed reviews on it.
Are you talking about the profind?
Yeah thats its, forgot the name, I hope there is not another million threads on it now hahaha.
sure are check anything that say's L-per in the title and you will probably see some feedback for the profind as well
Thanks!
Nothing beat the old l-per. The sticks alone getting the antenna above your head adds 3 db to the signal. The old is crystal controlled...more sensitive, the antennas are full length vs. half size with the new L-per, tracker and the like. Hang on to the old ones...
I told my team that for the time being the yellow "thing" is staying the the box. :D
I must disagree, while the profind may not be the most efficient tool of the trade it does have its use. That being said "leaving it in the box" will only make your members lose proficiency. Just remember that training with the latest, greatest, most efficient tool of the trade generally tends to create a dependence, and false sense of security. And then what happens when that shiny new L-per's batteries die, or it needs to go back to the shop for upgrades, and then you get a redcap.
Well I meant for the time being. None of us are good with it at all. I still plan to try and get better with it and one day use it at the very least as a back up.
I feel it would be very stupid to take one on a mission right now untill I am better with it. It may end up being better who knows, from what I could tell you really can't body block with it when you are say within 20 feet of the elt.
Did notice that you can still triangulate with it. I just like the needle, I don't like the idea of LED lights. Again this kind of stuff is normal with new equipment.
Must say its easier to carry around and set up then the big elper hahaha.
I really wish the profind took regular battaries.........
You youngsters with your newfangled techno-wonders!
Nothing beats a Jetstream with analog tuning for true fun hunting ELTs!
Quote from: ZigZag911 on July 26, 2007, 05:25:29 AM
You youngsters with your newfangled techno-wonders!
Nothing beats a Jetstream with analog tuning for true fun hunting ELTs!
Don'tcha know it. I have two in my gear to supplement my L-per. The last time we had an exercise, I found the practice beacon before any of the mentored new folks using L-pers.
I have had some experience with the ProFind and have exchanged many e-mails with their development group.
One thing that finally came out is that the Profind does not work like an L-Per.
To get the bearing to a beacon rotate the unit until all of the lits on one side are lit and then that is the direction to the beacon, to the right or left of the unit Not down the centerline like an L-per. Do Not try to center the Right/Left indicators.
When in close use the signal strength to to get the line to the beacon. Maximum signal strength, beacon is down the centerline of the unit.
I hope this makes sense.
I have had some of the GTL out with it and once they stop trying to use it like an L-per they seem to like it.
The instructions sent with the Profind are terrible!
HAHAHA I was wondering about that, I was like hmm, I know its straight ahead but its telling me its to the right hahahaha.
Your way makes complete sense now.
Im not familiar with the Pro Find. However, our unit has had the new L-Per yellow cheese block for some time now. We find it works very well. The first day we had it we df'd an elt at our home airport before it had even been reported. I have used it many times and find the digital readout of signal strength to be invaluable in locating elts that are in hangers.
I personally like it a lot better than the old Little L-Pers. Its more compact and I think it works better.
We have not had much luck with our Pro Find. We have one called a "Tracker" that seems to beat them all. Our ground team refers to it as the "Bat Wings". It gives a better DF than the L-Per and wins over the Pro Find hands down. The Tracker is small and relatively easy to use with a little practice. Though we have found that it works better in the Manual mode as opposed to the Automatic mode.
I tried the Pro-find out at National in St. Louis and found it to be a bit deaf, and ambiguous in bearing readings. Not surprising considering an antenna "array" that has negative gain (loss) as opposed to the old L-per. Given the current trend away from conventional DF techniques beyond the 121.5 expiration ( yes, I know it is not really going away) It seems unlikely that many major manufacturers wil be developing new and improved DF gear. Too bad.
Capt. Lord
Quote from: SoCalCAPOfficer on July 26, 2007, 08:20:29 PM
Im not familiar with the Pro Find. However, our unit has had the new L-Per yellow cheese block for some time now. We find it works very well. The first day we had it we df'd an elt at our home airport before it had even been reported. I have used it many times and find the digital readout of signal strength to be invaluable in locating elts that are in hangers.
I personally like it a lot better than the old Little L-Pers. Its more compact and I think it works better.
How does the new l-per work around hangers and harbors?
I dont know about harbors, but it works well around hangers. When you get in the general area watch the digital strength meter. Even through metal doors, the strength has always peaked at the highest digital reading when I found the right hanger. Just move from door to door and watch the readout, when you find the one that gives the highes reading thats the one. Same thing with airplanes on the tarmack or in hangers find the one that is giving the highest digital reading. I find it a lot simpler than the old L-Per.
At my last SAREX I tried both the Pro Find and the L-Per and I have to say there are advantages and disadvantages to both.
PROS:
Profind:
Takes thought out of finding direction of signal
Less Bulky
Headphone adapter
L-PER:
Body Block
ability to adjust sensivity (sp)
get to look cool with this huge metal hanger looking doo-hicky
On the body block for the pro-find, we have foiund that if you take the rubber duckies off, you can marginally body block.
After 2 tries with each piece of equipment, I found the ELT's in about 15-20 minutes with the Pro-Find, an dabout 30 minutes with the L-PER.
It comes down to personal choice.
No matter which df unit you use, it helps to bring a portable transceiver as well, so you can push the antenna under the hanger door or do some real body blocking.
Cadet Program Guy...
If you use the L-Per in the DF mode, the L-per WILL tell you if it is Fore or Aft AND left or right...everytime....
I haven't seen the new trackers yet. We prefer our old LPer Unit. What we also use for short range once we're sure we're in the imideate area is a police/fire scanner that can also pick up the Air band. And ofcourse the old stand by Jetstream radios.
Used the profind at the SAR Eval this weekend and it took me to the ELT after I figured out how to work it good. It is a little tricky figuring out it you are pointed towards or away from the signal (might just need more work with it). I forgot to try body blocking it. Once you get in close it works great going off the signal strength.
I personally love the new lper, works great on hangers (especially t-hangers) and really active airports like San Francisco when you may not have to much room to work in the vincinity. Oh and that digital signal strength readout is like winning the lottery hit the money everytime. If you learn how to read the digital strength numbers you can interpet the distance. Its almost like TomTom, it will take you right there. I'd buy another one no questions asked... If you havent tried the new cheese bar l-per boy your missing out...
As I responded to SJESOFFICER's post in another thread, the new cheese bar Little L-Per is useless if you're somewhere cold.
lol have to rub it like a genie then your three wishes would be 1. please work, 2. give me a map to the elt, and 3. get home before 12am..
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Quote from: SJESOFFICER on September 19, 2007, 09:06:37 PM
lol have to rub it like a genie then your three wishes would be 1. please work, 2. give me a map to the elt, and 3. get home before 12am..
You have missions that start before 12am? :P
once in a while lol but that could be your fourth wish...only btwn these hours lol... Had a night that I was signing off people on veh inspections and after the meeting we were alerted of a elt in the area so its roughly 9:30pm so I asked who wants to go along got 5 people together... long story short went to two airports found it at the second one in no time at all but it was a t-hanger and the fbo had to go to the office to get the info..poor guy is wheelchaired bound gets to his office and we are waiting by the hanger. He's taking forever and here he comes around the corner in his wheel chair down the ramp...locked his keys in his office so he couldn't get in, couldn't drive his car, so he wheeled himself all the way back to the hanger and was like oops.... so we found it in record time only to have to wait for his assistant to come and get him into the office and procede to find the owners info and get him out there to meet us... long night
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