On Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:34:36 +0000, Champ wrote:

On Fri, 12 Nov 2010 22:00:55 +0100, Ace
wrote:

Hey, has anyone heard of these Checker things this guy is talking about
at the end of the article I found here on the ' Pieps Dsp '
(http://www.piepsdsp.com) Curious to know your opinion on them, if they
work well or not with other beacons like the Pieps 457 or the SOS F1-ND

Only very briefly tried the DSP, and it seemed simple enough, but
we've plumped instead for the Barryvox Pulse, a couple of years ago.

As for compatibility, all beacons (for the last 20-odd years, at
least) use the 457MHz frequency, so there should be no issues
whatsoever with searching for older models or vice versa.

As for the checker - well, unless you're skiing on your own, your
buddy should check you anyway, so I don't see the point. Then again, I
don't often ski on my own, and if I do I'll generally check mine
against a spare before I leave the house, so I guess if you don't have
a spare and you ski backcountry solo then it's not a bad idea.

Surely, if you ski backcountry by yourself, then a transciever isn't
going to do you a lot of good unless someone else happens to be around
when you get avalanched. We all know the way the survival curve drops
off dramatically with time.

Sure. But depending on just how 'back' the backcountry is, you may be
in view of other people and/or lifts. For example, thinking about the
sorts of stuff we do in Engelberg, a large proportion of it is well
enough populated that there's be a good chance of being spotted if you
were caught in an avalanche.