User manual ACR ELECTRONICS VECTA 3

[. . . ] About Cobham Life Support, ACR Products Cobham Life Support, ACR Products www. acrelectronics. com, designs and manufactures a complete line of safety and survival products including EPIRBs, PLBs, AIS, SARTs, Strobe Lights, Life Jacket Lights, Search Lights and safety accessories. The quality systems of this facility have been registered by UL to the ISO 9001:2000 Series Standards. Recognized as the world leader in safety and survival technologies, ACR has provided safety equipment to the aviation and marine industries as well as to the military since 1956. The company is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and employs 200 at its manufacturing facility. [. . . ] An old fashioned TSO-C91 ELT does not notify him that it is transmitting. He taxis to his tie down spot, shuts down his plane and leaves, not realizing that his TSO-C91 ELT is transmitting a signal to the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system. Action: The airport manager, (or ATC, FBO, Unicom, etc. ) is alerted to the ELT transmission by the AC power connected VectaTM3. Airport personnel respond by removing the VectaTM3 remote omni-directional antenna connector and AC power supply, unfolding the directional indicating antennas and initiating a search of the airport grounds to identify the source of the emergency signal and to determine if indeed there is an emergency, or if the signal has been set off by accident. Within minutes they identify the Cessna, notify the owner that his ELT is falsely transmitting, confirm the transmission via the onboard Nav-Com radio and shut off the ELT. Y1-03-0235-1B 16 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 VectaTM 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. Y1-03-0235-1B 17 APPENDIX B ­ VectaTM3 DISPLAY REFERENCE GUIDE This section explains how the VectaTM3 user interface is organized, how it functions and how you may interact with it. [. . . ] Products that are 12 years and 1 month or older from date of manufacture will not be serviced by ACR or our Battery Replacement Centers. A product that is 12 or less years old from date of manufacture will be serviced as long as the unit appears fit to be placed back into its final operational cycle. Service includes the replacement of those items that must be replaced at service intervals and the verification that the device appears to be in good mechanical and electrical working condition by an ACR authorized service technician. Y1-03-0235-1B 29 3. Notices FCC Compliance Statement NOTE: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules. [. . . ]