I don't understand this at all. How does one look at a EPIRB from a life-raft and see that it's not working? Maybe it could be seen under debris that would block transmission?
I looked at the SARSAT packet format a couple of years ago and from memory I don't recall any way to indicate if the beacon was activated automatically or manually. But I may remember wrong, or perhaps SARSAT assigns *two* beacon IDs to such EPIRBs to indicate how it activated. Perhaps the Brazilians had a positive indication that it was someone pushing a button and thought that was a non-emergency activation? I'm trying to be generous here...
The boat is Canadian so the EPIRB is probably registered in Canada. Don't SARSAT alerts go through the nation-of-registration at some point in the alert process? I thought in a case like this the Canadians would be notified right away if any of their beacons activated anywhere in the world? I register my cell phone # with my PLB and had assumed this was so someone could call and check for accidental activation before launching a $$$ and risky search.
Good for the crew that nobody was lost.
If the strobe on an EPIRB is not flashing, it's not working. Very obvious. If the antenna is underwater, no transmission will get to the satellite.
No way to tell from the signal if it was an automatic release or a manual activation, but you can tell the model, which would tell you that basic info, but not how it was activated. Either one will go on when immersed.
The alert goes to both the country in which the EPIRB is registered and the country with SAR responsibility for the area the alert comes from. The contact numbers are there so they can call to see if it's a real alert. Absent a contact or absent one saying it's a known false alert (Johnny was playing with it, sorry), they should launch.
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