How good are you with you're transciver?

[Hacksaw]

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....

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.

[Pow4Brains]

Never good enough. Don't forget to check the batteries either.

Goodstuff Hacksaw.

[summit]

I've played this game. Hacksaw was the QB even. It is the best way out there to do a lot of searches.

[truth]

Good stuff Hacksaw.

[Arno]

even without the nerfball, practicing on a steep slope in waist deep snow is quite an eyeopener and a world away from the flat areas that many people choose to practice

clearly, you need to find a steep slope with deep snow which you confident will not avalanche!

[Steve C.]

Halsted,

Beacon Basin's are a good thing. Thousands of people have used them all over the world for training and every one is set up differently; maybe it was the one at Loveland or A-Basin that had a transmitter buried close to the starting area, but rest assured, every unit has a different pattern and the transmitters can be buried from 10m to 60m away from the control panel so it's possible to perform a signal search, coarse search, fine search and pinpoint search.

BB's also provide realistic practice for finding a buried victim and encourage proper probing technique (we like using concentric circles): I've seen the transmitters buried less than 1m (Colorado) and up to 3m (Canada).

Lastly, any beacon practice is better than no beacon practice regardless if it's a nerf football, a Beacon Basin, or a buddy burying a beacon for you to find.

Good to see you last week.

Steve (from BCA)

[Hacksaw]

Steve,
You'll have to try "winter" Nerfball sometime. Then you will agree that you have to actually do a real course search on realistic slopes, unlike with BB's.

But, your right any beacon practice is better then not doing any practice.

Halsted

[Hacksaw]

That's the little piece you plug into the computer's USB port. You can either leave it plugged in because it's so small, or, there is a little slot for it in bottom of the mouse.

Ok, I'll bite... What are you talking about?

[gunit130]

Nevill is what we call a spam bot.

[Hacksaw]

Ah-soooo....

[Steve C.]

Halsted,

Here's a link to all the BB's in the world:
http://backcountryaccess.com/index.p...Training_Parks

It's likely that the one you used at A-Basin or Loveland didn't offer the opportunity to do a signal search, but then again that's also related to which beacon(s) you turn on to transmit and how the person in charge set up the system.

Some people like to set them up to practice close-proximity multiple burials and some like to spread the transmitters far and wide. Most BB's offer the chance to practice a signal search.

Steve

[Hacksaw]

Halsted,

Here's a link to all the BB's in the world:
http://backcountryaccess.com/index.p...Training_Parks

It's likely that the one you used at A-Basin or Loveland didn't offer the opportunity to do a signal search, but then again that's also related to which beacon(s) you turn on to transmit and how the person in charge set up the system.

Some people like to set them up to practice close-proximity multiple burials and some like to spread the transmitters far and wide. Most BB's offer the chance to practice a signal search.

Steve

That's all wonderful Steve.

Nerfball is just more realistic - with a shorter reception range transceiver like a Tracker I have seen folks do their course search zig-zags and make them to big (ie the space between the ends of the zig-zags is more then 30 -25 meters) and then missed the Nerfball completely. Then they had to climb back up the search area to find the transmitted signal. Most BB's I have seen you don't even have to do a course search. Nerfball can be done on actual avalanche terrain vs. when most BB are placed of flat meadow like terrain. The other great thing about Nerfball is that practices can be done almost anywhere, instead of in a fixxed location. This encourages beacon/transceiver practice more. Once someone has found the transmitters in a BB, there really isn't much reason to go back since you know where they are, right? BB also tend to have already packed out tracks leading directly to the buried transmitters, which I have seen folks use to sort of fake their searching skills. With a Nerfball you can easily take it on tours or to a ski area, its soo light and simple to use.

I'm not saying that BB's are all bad. Their great for learning pin-pointing skills. But, I just think that Nerfball can be a lot more realistic. I'd like to see folks train/practice on a more realistic level.

Have any of you at BCA actually tried Nerfball? A lot of folks have laughed at Nerfball, but once they try it they suddenly see the light. I know of several ski patrols and S&R teams that have adopted Nerfball as another beacon/transceiver practice tool.

Halsted

[Hacksaw]

Oh, and you can also do multiple Nerfball searches that can be VERY realistic. I did one this summer where the two Nerfball's ended up within one meter of each other.

[PNWbrit]

Most BB's I have seen you don't even have to do a course search.

Me neither.

[xiaoai201010]

Nice article... moved...

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[Steve C.]

Halsted,

Yes, we've tried Nerf Ball and dozens of other methods of beacon practicing. Like I said earlier, any beacon practice is better than no beacon practice and all of our surveys show that beacon practice is often neglected among recreationists. My favorite thing about practicing with beacons is that no two scenarios are ever the same so there's always something to be learned.

Nerf Ball, Beacon Basin, Flower Pots, whatever you can do will help. And maybe it will save a life someday.

The big learning experience for us this year was with "rogue signals" and how people in real avalanche incidents reported that there was often a member of their own party with a transmitting beacon on, or someone coming to help that had a transmitting beacon on. Fascinating stuff:

http://backcountryaccess.com/index.php?id=200

Steve

[Hacksaw]

The big learning experience for us this year was with "rogue signals" and how people in real avalanche incidents reported that there was often a member of their own party with a transmitting beacon on, or someone coming to help that had a transmitting beacon on.

I didn't find that issue that surprising. Having taught more then my share of courses, I've seen that more times then I can count while doing just rescue drills...

Actually, I was disapointed in Bruce's paper/presentation. From the tidle (Under the radar: exploting "new school" media to capture unreported avalanche incidents) I thought he was going to talk more about the information that folks exchange on the TGR, Teletips, The Whiteroom, Epicski, Backcountry.com, Snowest, etc... Or at least mention more about what happens on the web. Instead it was really just the results of your BCA survey from this past summer. Bruce didn't even talk about studfinders!!

[DasBlunt]

Is there still a beacon basin at Loveland? I would love to practice more.

[srface_hoar]

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.

There was a paper just presented at ISSW that provided some interesting statistics surrounding this very topic.

Prior to digital beacons, the survival rate for victims found using a beacon was at 38%. Upon the release of digital beacons, the survival rate went up to 50% for victims found using a beacon up to the year 2005. From 2005 to 2009, when new easier to user beacons with display screens were released, the survival rate for victims found using a beacon dropped all the way to 39%. The article did not interupt why this occured; however, speculation is the users are not practicing as much with the new technology thinking it is easy to use right out of the box

[DasBlunt]

There was a paper just presented at ISSW that provided some interesting statistics surrounding this very topic.

Prior to digital beacons, the survival rate for victims found using a beacon was at 38%. Upon the release of digital beacons, the survival rate went up to 50% for victims found using a beacon up to the year 2005. From 2005 to 2009, when new easier to user beacons with display screens were released, the survival rate for victims found using a beacon dropped all the way to 39%. The article did not interupt why this occured; however, speculation is the users are not practicing as much with the new technology thinking it is easy to use right out of the box

would love to practice more. not many opportunities.

[hutash]

Nerf Ball, Beacon Basin, Flower Pots, whatever you can do will help. And maybe it will save a life someday.

The big learning experience for us this year was with "rogue signals" and how people in real avalanche incidents reported that there was often a member of their own party with a transmitting beacon on, or someone coming to help that had a transmitting beacon on. Fascinating stuff:

Quoted for truth. My first ever beacon search was at one of Gordy's Straight-line camps. We all met at the BB and did a multi-burial search. I found myself heading out of the BB straight over towards Wasatch Powder Birds...WTF? Turns out one of Gordy's couches went over there before we started and didn't turn off his beacon. It was a very good first lesson...what can go wrong will go wrong in a crisis.

So, practice anywhere and everywhere you can.

[rot]

Just wanted to chime in that this is a great idea. Went out, got a football, stuffed my spare beacon inside, and headed out to the local park.

All the predictable happened: found my football sitting in the middle of a road (it rolled further than I expected) just as it was very nearly run over by a bus. Then I got it stuck in a tree and spent 30 minutes trying to knock it down with a water bottle.

But yeah, awesome exercise and I can see where doing this with a few buddies will be hugely beneficial.

[Hacksaw]

....All the predictable happened: found my football sitting in the middle of a road (it rolled further than I expected) just as it was very nearly run over by a bus. Then I got it stuck in a tree and spent 30 minutes trying to knock it down with a water bottle.

OOPS!! But, at least you got two really "interesting" searchs in. The first being that you really did have to find the "victim's" signal (i.e., very much like an unwithnessed accident) and the one up in the tree I'm sure gave readings like a deep burial. Both educational I'm sure. That's what really counts...

HM

[rot]

OOPS!! But, at least you got two really "interesting" serchs in. The first being that you really did have to find the "victim's" signal (i.e., very much like an unwithnessed accident) and the one up in the tree I'm sure gave readings like a deep burial. Both educational I'm sure. That's what really counts...

HM

The one in the tree was actually pretty educational. My beacon lead me to a point where I could only get within a few meters then the distance would increase again. At first I thought I was doing something wrong (I'm new at this) and was pretty confused. Then I looked up.

My brother and I were laughing about the bus one: figuring that it was good practice for "OH SHIT!" and racing down a sketchy hill.

[XtrPickels]

FWIW, I'm not a fan of the "in the tree" trick. Its unrealistic and its merit is that its "entertaining" for the person who thinks they were "sly" for hiding it in the tree.

I digress


I've done the beacon toss before, but I used a ziplock bag stuffed with rags. The nerf football never crossed my mind but is an awesome idea.

I'll add this to the mix:

Do it at night.

Easy way to turn your backyard into fun and games. You can't see where the package lands and have you rely completely on your beacon signal