FAST FIND
3
GET FOUND WITH
INTRODUCTION
Congratulations on purchasing the Fast Find Personal Location Beacon
(PLB). When carrying a Fast Find you enjoy the reassurance of a last resort
safeguard against any life threatening incidents that may occur anywhere in
the world. If you find yourself in a remote area without any other form of
emergency communication, on land or at sea, your Fast Find can call for help.
Fast Find will transmit a unique emergency identifier to the Cospas Sarsat satellite
system which can determine your location anywhere on the earth's surface. In most
cases the emergency alert is received within 5 minutes of activation but depending
on satellite coverage at the time this can sometimes extend to 45 minutes.
When the emergency alert message is received at a Rescue Co-ordination Centre
(RCC) it is cross referenced using the unique identifier (often called Hex ID) against
your registration details. Detail of the alert is forwarded to the appropriate local
Search And Rescue (SAR) teams. Keeping your registration details up to date is
critical to ensuring a quick SAR response.
Fast Find has a secondary 'homing' transmitter which allows SAR teams to direction
find or 'home' on it once they arrive on scene. Fast Find has a storage life of 5 years and
once activated will continue to transmit emergency alerts for a minimum of 24 hours.
For further information visit Cospas Sarsat on line at www.cospas-sarsat.org and
www.mcmurdo.co.uk. The 'frequently asked questions' section is a good place to start.