Photo: Shutterstock/Kateryna Deineka
Here's How To Retire Your Old Avalanche Beacon
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Just like any piece of safety gear, it will eventually come time to retire your avalanche beacon. Most experts recommend inspecting and servicing your beacon periodically (the actual interval depends on what brand's transceiver you use), and completely retiring it after 5-7 years of use. With a whole slew of new beacons on the market that make avalanche rescue much faster, it's probably time to upgrade your beacon anyway.
Instead of binning your old unit, Ortovox is offering a beacon retirement initiative, giving you 30 percent off a new Ortovox Diract Voice. You can trade in your old avalanche transceiver from any brand and get the discount online or in a participating store. Ortovox will take care of recycling your old device.
It might be tempting to keep your old beacon around as a spare or to practice with, but these devices actually become unreliable and unsafe after about 7-10 years, no matter how much you use it. Don't do that!
Why should you retire your beacon?
Avalanche beacons have come a long way since the first analog single-antenna beacons. Searching with these was much more difficult and time-consuming than performing a beacon search with a modern digital three-antenna unit. With very early beacons, you had to use an earpiece and a dial to turn up sensitivity, purely following the buried signal by changes in volume of the audio. In other words, it was a nightmare to perform a beacon search. Obviously, you shouldn't be using a beacon like this in the field today, but you might be surprised to know that even your "new" beacon that's now actually five years old isn't as safe as it was when you first bought it.
As avalanche beacons age, several things happen. First, important structural components like buttons, screens, and switches start to wear down, battery terminals can corrode, and internal antennae can physically break. That may cause the beacon to unexpectedly switch modes, not power up or stay on, or have features like signal flagging malfunction during a search.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, a phenomenon called signal drift will occur over time. That's when the signal emitted by the beacon "drifts" away from the standardized 457kHz frequency. In other words, your beacon starts transmitting at a slightly different frequency, making it harder and eventually impossible for other beacons to find it. This happens to all beacons over time and can be easily tested for by doing a simple transceiver check.
Always. I repeat, ALWAYS, do a beacon check at the trailhead. Every single day, every single time. That will tell you two vital things: whether everyone in your party actually remembered to bring and turn on their beacon, and whether those beacons are all working properly. Most modern beacons have the ability to do self-diagnostic checks with built-in software that runs every time you turn the unit on. That will tell you if anything is malfunctioning internally. If it is, you're going to want to find another beacon to use ASAP and send yours in to get fixed.
Additionally, with most current beacons, it's possible to actually update the software via a bluetooth app to ensure you're using the most up-to-date and safest version.
How can you participate in Ortovox's initiative?
Ortovox is offering 30 percent off their new Diract Voice transceiver if you trade in any old unit. Just head to their website to redeem the offer. You can even use the code to buy a new beacon and you'll have 30 days to send in your old one.
Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.
