I just received a very interesting email from ACR (maker of the MicroFix and other fine PLBs) informing me about their new notification service that appears to be designed to compete with SPOT. Best I can tell, using a standard ACR PLB, when you activate a self test, a new server-side system will send an email or text message to up to five people. There is a subscription fee involved. The site is http://406link.com .

This seems like a really great idea and my hat is off to the people at ACR for forward thinking and staying up with the market.

However, I seem to recall reading in my Microfix and AquaFix manuals that the full system test (which is used to generate the Ok signal and notifications) should only be done once or twice during the five year life of the non-user replaceable litihium battery in the unit. Thus, it would seem that using the service on a regular basis by initiating the test sequence would be not be consistent with good battery life involving an emergency.

Doug, can you shed some light on this?

Wow! I'm surprised this has never come up.

It is covered in the SHOT Show Report:

http://www.equipped.org/shot_show_2010_gear.htm#ACR

You snooze, you lose. It is an extension of the existing Safelife system. Clearly, it will work better with the new PLBs that have more reserve capacity. Clearly it isn't as useful in this respect as a SPOT with replaceable batteries, but it also adds some nice options.

Time will tell if the market will buy into this.

Thanks Doug. For the older ACR TerraFix and less-old MicroFix, how many "test signals" should you be able to put out before compromising the advertised 24 hour emergency activation life assuming a new battery? I like the idea, I just don't want to trade convenience (non-emergency notifications) for reliability (emergency activation).

The older PLBs are designed to allow one test a month for the replacement interval for the battery, which may range from 5-7 years, depending on model. That is based on worst case and assumes there will still be at least 24 hours battery life remaining at -20C. In reality, most have reserve capacity, particularly at more normal temps.

That's exactly what I wanted to know.

Thanks.