Locator beacons emit a 406 MHz signal when activated and are monitored by satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. April 6 — or 4/06 — is recognized as Beacon Awareness Day to promote their use. (Levi Read/U.S. Coast Guard)
The U.S. Coast Guard often relies on sharp eyes and quick response times to rescue mariners in the vast Pacific Ocean. But the service continues to promote one high-tech tool that could make those rescues faster: satellite locator beacons.
A pair of mariners adrift in an 18-foot skiff near Namoluk Atoll in Micronesia were spotted by a commercial aircraft and rescued March 29 by the Coast Guard, Chief Warrant Officer Sara Muir, spokeswoman for Coast Guard Forces Micronesia Sector Guam, said by email Saturday.
“Bringing mariners back to their families never gets old,” Lt. Ray Cerrato, commander of the responding cutter, said in a Coast Guard news release that day. “It’s a feeling that stays with you.”
Pacific mariners can enhance their safety when they’re out on the water by carrying locator beacons, Muir added.
The beacons emit a 406 MHz signal when activated and are monitored by satellites, according National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website. April 6 — or 4/06 — is recognized as Beacon Awareness Day to promote their use.
The Coast Guard frequently credits the devices for speeding rescues. In July, it rescued a yacht in distress about 200 miles from Palau after responding to a beacon signal, Muir said. In September, the USCGC Oliver Henry followed a signal to six fishermen adrift 27 miles north-northwest of Satawal after their engine failed.
Those rescues show how locator beacons “shrink the Pacific’s vast search grid into a precise target, slashing response times and boosting survival odds,” Muir said.
When activated, a beacon sends a digital distress signal to a constellation of search-and-rescue satellites, which then relay the signal to the nearest SARSAT (Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking) ground station. From there, the signal goes to a mission control center and ultimately to a rescue coordination center.
“In the United States, Rescue Coordination Centers are run by the U.S. Air Force for any land-based distress and by the U.S. Coast Guard for any maritime distress,” NOAA’s website states.
