"Little L" vs the "Tracker"

Started by whatevah, May 19, 2005, 02:14:29 AM

0 Members and 4 Guests are viewing this topic.

SARPilotNY

As with both units, training is key.  I had a class years ago from Bruce Gordon that builds the units.  Once you understand it, it works far above the Tracker and the old unit is better than the new.  I have seen so many people not understand how the l-per works.
The old L-per uses a beam antenna on a mast that gives the unit about 3db of gain.
On DF mode, the unit WILL tell the user if the signal is left or right of center and fore or aft form the user's position.
The receiver sensitivity is far superior than the tracker and the old crystal unit is better than the new.
L-per hands down better than anything else out there, add the L-Per optional beam antenna for even superior ears!
CAP member 30 + years SAR Pilot, GTM, Base staff

IceNine

I have an old school crystal based L-per, New school solid state L-per, tracker and Av radio.

My preference is the new l-per because as mentioned before even if you've never tracked an elt before there is little guess work with that unit. No more adjusting the sensitivity, volume etc to track the elt.  plus you get a signal strength meter, and the ability to plug the unit into an external antenna on your vehicle.

The tracker used to be the unit of choice for once you got close, due to several shortfalls in the l-per units. but with the new unit most of these problems have been addressed.

The other option is the Pro-find which I have had no experience with but apparently it is an acceptable substitute to the l-per??? anyone know about it?
"All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies"

Book of Bokonon
Chapter 4

RiverAux

Hmm, didn't realize they had a new version of the L-per.  Looks good. 

SARPilotNY

If Pro Find is the one from ACR...good for close in "man overboard" and that's about it.
CAP member 30 + years SAR Pilot, GTM, Base staff

sardak

The ProFind is made by Seimac.  I had a chance to field test a pre-production model three years ago.  My reaction was that it had a future, with a few mods.  The drawback was the MSRP of about $1400 for the DF and practice beacon.  Don't know what the actual price is.

Link to the ProFind.

Seimac, a Canadian company, is based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with a sale office and warehouse in the United States. Seimac is part of the Cobham Avionics & Survelliance Division, a member of the Cobham plc group of companies, a UK company.

This is from the December 2006 Cobham newsletter.

The US Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol (CAP), which performs 95% of the continental US inland search and rescue missions, has agreed to a contract for over 100 Seimac ProFIND Search and Rescue Direction Finder (SAR DF) kits. This is a follow-up to last year's order of 60 kits. CAP recently conducted field testing of the hand-held direction finders, which confirmed that the ProFIND SAR DF was the most suitable kit.

"This direction finder proved to be the easiest to use, requiring minimal training for our personnel and is designed for all-weather operation," said Colonel John W Desmarais, Deputy Director of Operations for CAP. "It also gives our search and rescue teams two detection modes to use, which provides more effective and efficient searching. As with any search and rescue mission, the quicker you find the survivors, the better off they will be."


So where are these?

Mike

SARPilotNY

Where are these.  Come on...don't you know???
60 units, that works out to:
1 each  Wing Commanders
1 each  Reigon Commanders
1 each for Tony, John and their close friends.

When our wing commander show up  on a mission in his new CAP Ford 4x4, he pulls out his new df gear...didn't you see him?
CAP member 30 + years SAR Pilot, GTM, Base staff

SARPilotNY

Ask the folks from Florida and California, I am sure they field tested it since they would seem to be the experts.
CAP member 30 + years SAR Pilot, GTM, Base staff

SarDragon

I have neither seen nor heard of any of these units in CAWG. I guess FL and TX got them all.  ;)
Dave Bowles
Maj, CAP
AT1, USN Retired
50 Year Member
Mitchell Award (unnumbered)
C/WO, CAP, Ret

RogueLeader

What? Not Iowa, with the close-knit ties to HEADCAP?   ;)

Shutting sarcasm generator off. . .
WYWG DP

GRW 3340

whatevah

I've seen a few of the ProFind units, DE Wing got 4 or 5 of them.  they all come as a kit, one practice transmitter, and one tracking unit.  not too bad, but the new L-Per is definately superior.  I still like the old L-Per, though.  nice and realiable.   The Tracker is neat, but the range isn't as good.  a lot easier for airport checks, though.
Jerry Horn
CAPTalk Co-Admin

SARPilotNY

There goes my therory that the wing commanders have them.
CAP member 30 + years SAR Pilot, GTM, Base staff

whatevah

I'm sure there is a good chance of that, but... not in DE Wing at least.  they're usually pretty good about getting equipment issued to the active ES members.
Jerry Horn
CAPTalk Co-Admin

sardak

There is a "Learning Lab" on the ProFind scheduled for National Boards in August.  Lab leader is Paul Steward, SAR Products Program Director for Seimac.  This is supposed to be hands-on training with the ProFind.

Paul retired from the USCG SAR office a few years ago.  He was one of the major proponents of 406 MHz beacons, and led the push to get 121.5 EPIRBs banned well before the Sarsat cutoff in 2009.

Mike

SARPilotNY

no conflict there...what ever happened to Frosty Morgan?  Is he working for L-Tronics?
CAP member 30 + years SAR Pilot, GTM, Base staff

sardak

You can read about him here:
Scott Morgan and PROCON

PROCON Inc, a Tennessee company based in Knoxville, is developing the world's first private search and rescue service center in conjunction with United States Air Force. Dr. Scott Morgan, Vice-President of PROCON in charge of the GES division stated that this is a perfect application of a Global Emergency System (GES) solution as it provides global communication to search and rescue responders.

Among other things, PROCON rents/leases PLBs. To take the load off AFRCC, PROCON now operates the first Rescue Sub-Center.  Alerts from PROCON registered PLBs are routed from the USMCC directly to PROCON, bypassing AFRCC.  In its role as an RSC, PROCON, a private company, reports to AFRCC.  PROCON has made another RSC related proposal to AFRCC and others, but the reception has been rather mixed from the others involved.

Mike

SARPilotNY

That's great...I am sure that takes a huge load off the AFRCC.  I am sure they do that for free.   I can't wait til I retire and can become a high paid consultant.  I am going to sell private ELTs and see if I can contract to search for them.  Who do I need to talk to at the AFRCC to get my foot in the door?
CAP member 30 + years SAR Pilot, GTM, Base staff

SoCalCAPOfficer

As I stated in another post on L-pers.   The new unit is superior hands down.   We got quick finds the day we got it in.   Love it.   The digital frequency strength meter is invaluable in narrowing in on the target.
Daniel L. Hough, Maj, CAP
Commander
Hemet Ryan Sq 59  PCR-CA-458

SARPilotNY

Quote from: SoCalCAPOfficer on August 02, 2007, 07:53:33 PM
As I stated in another post on L-pers.   The new unit is superior hands down.   We got quick finds the day we got it in.   Love it.   The digital frequency strength meter is invaluable in narrowing in on the target.
You had more than I signal at the same time?  How did that work?
CAP member 30 + years SAR Pilot, GTM, Base staff

SoCalCAPOfficer

That was a misprint, it should have read "find" .   We  had an elt going off at our home airport in the big fbo maintenance hanger.   Our building is about 2000 ft away.   We were able to use the direction finder to take us to the hanger and then when we got inside by watching the digital frequency meter rise we found the right airplane in a matter of minutes.    Been to that same hanger once since and also found the elt going off on the bench, we walked right to it.

At another airport we found the right hanger the first try among rows of metal hangers, using once again the frequency meter.   I have used it at night at a small airfield and it led us right to a jump plane where the elt was going off.   This is a good piece of equipment.
Daniel L. Hough, Maj, CAP
Commander
Hemet Ryan Sq 59  PCR-CA-458

RiverAux

Hmm, I wonder what the states think about the AFRCC bypassing them and sending alerts about SAR events to a private company?  I hope this company is alerting the state to take the mission when they call and find out there is an actual problem.