Here’s an update since testing my new McMurdo Fast Find PLB:

I took the unit over to my friend’s house to show it off. He was impressed. I wanted to do a self test and a GPS test with him watching to verify I did everything right as well as observe the results.

We took the device to his dock behind the house for the test. The house obstructed the sky at about a 45 degree angle to the west while the rest of the view was obstructed to about 20 degrees.

We also had a Garmin GPS-12 (older chip set) to turn on simultaneously to see where the birds were and compare acquisition times.

The self test was simple with a pass. We did not realize at first that the GPS test had to concurrent with the self test so we had to restart from the beginning. The second self test passed as well and I put the unit in GPS test mode while he turned on the Garmin. We watched the Garmin find then acquire the first three birds in about a minute. A few seconds later the Fast Find signaled that it had acquired a GPS fix.

I am very pleased with the results. Of course, this is just a couple of guys fooling around in the back yard, not a scientific test or adverse conditions. I’m anxious to see the results of Doug’s testing.