ACR&Artex Vecta3 - Manual (Page 17)

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3. Hiker rescued
Scenario: Three hikers set off for a weekend of climbing a local peak.
One hiker has a 406 GPS Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) in his
emergency kit. The hikers have properly registered it with NOAA, told
loved ones their itinerary, left a message on the dashboard of their SUV
and hiked to an altitude of 11,420 ft. While making camp, one hiker has
fallen down a deep ravine. The others become concerned when she
does not return and start a search. Night falls and there is no sign of
their companion. Out of cell phone range, they activate the PLB.
Action: Within minutes, the worldwide Cospas-Sarsat satellite system
picks up the GPS signal, forwarding the information to the Local User
Terminal. The Mission Control Center receives the information from the
Local User Terminal and passes the information to the local Rescue
Coordination Center. There, authorities receive the information and,
using the information from the PLB’s registration, verify that this is an
emergency. They then contact the local Search and Rescue authorities
and notify them that a beacon has been activated in their jurisdiction.
SAR maps the GPS coordinates and initiates a search. Even with the
GPS coordinates, SAR opt to use the (optional) hand held direction
finding antenna for better reception in the deeply wooded area. Getting
within range, they use the 121.5 MHz homing signal with the Vecta™
3
for pinpoint accuracy. Using the cross directional search pattern, SAR
finds two persons and learns of the third, lost hiker. Additional resources
are called in, and within a few hours the hiker is found, with possibly life
threatening injuries. A helicopter evacuates the injured hiker and the
remaining hikers continue their journey to the summit the next day.