RFID passes and recco?

[Core Shot]

Once a ski hill goes to rfid card system, wouldn’t a recco detector work to find burials?

[Bunion 2020]

AFAIK (can remember) RECCO doesn't work off of the same technology.

As it was explained to me several years ago the receiver sends out a signal which hits the reflector, it doubles the signal and sends it back and the receiver pinpoints the location.

There has been talk of including reflectors on lift passes except that what do you do when you are searching an area and people have lost their tickets in the same place?

Same reason why RECCO hates it when people put the diodes on their skis in case they lose one. You have to carefully control how the reflectors/diodes are used.

[ghosthop]

Consider this: passive RFID has a very limited range, it's why you need to get the RFID tag right up on the reader for it to respond. Not exactly a desirable attribute when you're buried under a meter of avalanche debris.

[dunfree]

AFAIK (can remember) RECCO doesn't work off of the same technology.

per a Recco FCC filing, all objects with a diode and a metal reflector will respond to a Recco reflector; the difference is in strength of reflection. So, as per Recco, a digital camera or a cellphone will produce a signal, but not as strong a signal. the essence of RECCO is it's frequency tuned.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Resorts actually use that shit?
Recco has always seemed completely pointless to me.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Resorts actually use that shit?
Recco has always seemed completely pointless to me.

It's not. The technology is actually pretty cool. The response time is the issue. It is not that different that a ski area beacon search. I used to think like you but then I witnessed some amazing response times both with and without a helicopter. Bunion would know about a thousand times more about that me but my takeaway is as follows: Here in the US, response times to avalanche by qualified professionals, in some locations (such and Summit, Clear Creek & Grand Counties, Colorado) have the possibility to be incredibly fast. It has made me change the way I think about a few things. The main one is communications. I used to think that companion rescue was the only way that that calling the body recover unit was down the list of importance. How I'm all about, "does the cell work, who am I txt'ing with the inreach, what are my GPS coordinates etc." The other is that recco and dog teams can save lives. We had an incident around here where the dog team was on the ground in <20mins from the call. Problem was the reported party waited to call even though they were in service.