How good are you with you're transciver?
An old firend suggested that I repost this article. And it should be a reminder that folks need to practice with their transcivers (beacons). Oh, and have you changed out the battries in you're transciver??? Snow is falling get ready.... :cool:
Nerfball: an avalanche transceiver practice method.
By: Halsted Morris
While teaching avalanche safety courses for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), one of the many things I always emphasized was that folks need to practice a lot with their avalanche rescue transceivers. Checking around the Internet, you’ll see on many forums that the general public seems to believe that if they’re using a digital transceiver that they don’t need to practice as much.
The truth is practice builds skills, and limited practice means no skills in a critical situation. Getting folks to practice with their transceivers has always been tough, especially if they are alone. What good is it to practice transceiver searches, if you are doing the hiding and the finding? Obviously doing solo transceiver practice isn’t very realistic.
Backcountry Access (BCA) has donated Beacon Basins, at various ski areas for folks to practice with their transceivers. They are basically a power box with on-off switches that are hard wired to fixed in place transmitters. At first I thought that these Beacon Basins are a great learning tool. But, what I have found is that they are not very realistic.
I say this because when folks are using a Beacon Basins it does not realistically represent what a real avalanche rescue transceiver search is like. My example of this, is when someone switches on the Beacon Basins they are already standing well within signal reception range of the victim. Now how many times do you think that happens in real life?
So, folks don’t get a lesson in doing a larger area search and, trying to find the victim’s signal. With the shorter reception range on many digital transceivers it is critically important to conduct a proper initial search (i.e. how big and wide your zigzag search patterns are). I have also found that with Beacon Basins, once folks have found the buried transceivers the first time, they never really go back and use the Beacon Basin again. If they do, it really isn’t much of a practice session since they already know roughly where the buried transceivers are any way.
Ideally, it would be great to have a different and realistic transceiver search practice session each time. So, I got to thinking that it would be great to simply throw a transmitting transceiver over your shoulder, in order to hide the victim for solo transceiver practice. But, as tough as most transceivers are, it’s not recommended to be throwing them around. Finding away to pad a transceiver would be the way to make this solo transceiver practice possible. The solution to this problem arrived to me one day while shopping at Target. Target and King Soopers sell a small nine-inch Nerf football, for less then $10 in their toy department. A Nerfball is made of soft foam, suitable for indoor play. The nine-inch Nerf football is ideal for padding an avalanche transceiver. Here is how to make your own Nerfball transceiver practice ball.
Cut the football in half lengthwise, and then trace the outline of the transceiver you want to use with a marker. Then pinch the foam to rip it out. Do this until you make a form-fitting pocket for the transceiver. Then place the transmitting transceiver inside the pocket and use several large rubber bands to close the ball. But remember, make sure the transceiver is on transmit and working, before you secure the two half’s back together. Then place the Nerfball inside a small stuff sack. Now you’re ready to use the Nerfball.
A tear in my shoulder has left me lacking a John Elway strength arm for throwing Nerfball. But, I have found that tossing the Nerfball over my shoulder down a steep slope helps the ball travel further away. I have also found that doing transceiver practice on a forested slope with plenty of undergrowth makes for better (i.e., more complicated) practice. Once you’ve thrown the Nerfball remain looking uphill and allow the ball a minute to “pinball” down the slope and to finally come to rest. So far, my old Pipes 457 transceiver has survived 250+ “huckings” inside the Nerfball.
Essentially with the Nerfball transmitter you’re doing a transceiver search without the victim’s last seen area to start from. This is usually the most difficult sort of transceiver search for most folks, other then a multiple burial type situation. My thinking is that practicing the most difficult type of searches should improve one’s transceiver skills the most.
Just like an on-snow search, you need to first acquire the victim’s transmitting transceivers signal. Since you don’t know the slidepath boundaries in doing a dry land solo transceiver practice, figure your slidepath to be at least 150’ wide (75 feet to either side of the spot you where standing when you threw the Nerfball). Once you have picked up the victim’s signal, you can then start to use your preferred search method (fluxline/tangent method or the older grid method).
Once you’re closing in on the victim, you may actual see the Nerfball. I see this as the only drawback to the Nerfball practice method. But, you can complete your search and practice your final pinpoint search just above the Nerfball transmitter, even while it is visible and sitting on the ground. A camouflage pattern stuff sack is one way to make the Nerfball even less obvious, until you’re almost on top of it.
Placing the Nerfball in a short white plastic trash bag can add to the camouflaging of the hidden transmitter for on-snow searches. I have found that doing Nerfball searches on steeper ski resort slopes can be very realistic too. Pick a slope that has plenty of bumps and benches on it. Toss the ball and wait. Then it becomes a matter of doing your zigzags back and forth across the slope. You’ll suddenly find you have to ski/board over bumps (i.e. avalanche debris) while at the same time working with your transceiver. This is much more realistic then doing a search on flat terrain in a Beacon Basin.
My objective here is to get you out and doing a lot of transceiver searches. If you have a big enough slope, they can get four or five practice searches in before hiking back up the hill to start all over again (gee, getting a workout in while doing transceiver practice); or making another lap at a ski area. So, there’s no reason to forgo doing transceiver practice just because you don’t have a partner or time.
A number of folks still have their older duel frequency transceivers (Ortovox F2, Arva 4000 and Ramer Avalert Duel) or older 457 Hz analog transceivers (Pieps 457 Ortovox F1) in the back of their equipment closets. And, there are a number of used older transceivers for sale out there that can be picked up at minimal cost. Camo stuff sacks can be found at your local hunting equipment stores.
The Nerfball transmitter practice method is easy, simple, cheap, realistic and a great way to get in a lot of great transceiver practice. With two Nerfball transmitters you can quickly become skilled at multiple transceiver searches. I have had a number of avalanche professionals laugh when I pull out a Nerfball from my pack. But, once they tried the Nerfball practice method, they see the real value of it. And they end up using it. It doesn’t matter what brand of avalanche rescue transceiver you own. More important is that you’re skilled and confidant with your transceiver. The Nerfball transmitter is one way to improve your skills, during summer and winter. I hope you’ll try it out.
