Originally Posted By: Herbie
Originally Posted By: Doug_Ritter


The battery life is based on, among other things, self-testing the PLB every month for the rated replacement interval of the battery, which for ACR is 5 or 6 years, depending on the model.


Once a month? I need to re-read my owner's manual, because I could have sworn that the ACR MicrOFix manual stated that the self-test should be limited to ONE self test. ...dashes off to read the manual...

OK, I was confusing the beacon test with the GPS receiver test. Yes, the beacon test is recommended for once/month. (Which means I have been neglecting this test. I will remedy this now.)

The GPS receiver test, however is limited to one test only:
Originally Posted By: ACR_MANUAL
Warning: To conserve battery power the following test should not be performed more than once during the five-year life of the battery pack!


http://www.acrelectronics.com/microfix/microfixman.pdf

That is correct. The full GPS test for the MircOFix/ResQFix is one time only. In fact, that is conservative and based on a full, ten-minute test. In most circumstances it will only taked a couple minutes or less. But, since it is designed primarily as a confidence builder, they didn't feel any benefit accrued to more tests. Their upcoming versions of the PLB will provide for more full tests (and will transmit the location in the test burst), though the ultimate value of the additonal tests are debateable.
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Equipped To SurviveŽ
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