Messing About In Ships

I really liked this week’s episode. I am a cadet at the California Maritime Academy and recently received my GMDSS training and operator license, so all this EPIRB talk is still fresh in my mind. I think that you missed one major part of the 121.5 MHz EPIRB. On February 1, 2009 COSPAS-SARSAT satellites will no longer monitor 121.5 MHZ, and any EPIRB using that frequency will no longer work. This is do to all the problems with 121.5 MHz, most notable the lack of “store and forward” capability, meaning that EPIRB, satellite and land station need to be in the satellite’s footprint simultaneously for the transmission to be received. Thanks for the podcast and keep it up. I’ll miss it when I’m at sea this summer.