Yesterday's email brought a notice from NOAA that it's time for me to renew the registration for my PLB. I took care of that this morning and thought I'd make a quick post in case anyone's interested in the topic.
By way of background, I bought an Ocean Signal rescueMe PLB1 off Amazon in 2020. The idea was to have a backup to my Inreach. And a backup that wouldn't require me to keep a battery charged. And one that uses a different communications method. And is more waterproof. And doesn't require a subscription.
At the time, the cost (with tax) was just under $300 (I see it's now about $380 with tax). That's a lot for something I'm unlikely to need but I've also occasionally found my Inreach battery dead (when I made a charging mistake) and I've had several GPS failures while traveling. It was easy to imagine an Inreach failure at a critical time. I convinced myself that the seven-year battery life meant I was spending less that $50 a year for it. I also had some holiday money left over at the time, so i went ahead.
When a PLB arrives from the vendor, it's accompanied by a Beacon Programming Certificate. That has a Beacon ID, serial number, codes needed to register it and to link that info to you. You provide your contact details as well as contact details for up to two emergency contacts in the NOAA SARSAT Beacon Registration web site and link the beacon to your profile. There's also a place to provide more info so I put other identifying details-- ages, descriptions, blood types, allergies, prescriptions, vehicle descriptions, etc.
The NOAA online registration app is free and is pretty good. You're basically establishing a profile for yourself, then linking one or more PLBs to your account. It's of course critical that you input the Beacon ID and codes accurately. And you'll want to be sure to store away the userID and password for your account so you can find them at renewal time. Once you complete the registration process, the app mails you a sticker to apply to the PLB to show it has been registered.
When renewal time comes, you get an email with a link to the online app. If nothing has changed, you can click a couple of times to renew. In my case, I needed to go back in and edit my record to update a few minor details. The sign-on process required me to receive an email and then go into that email to click a verification link to be allowed to proceed (back on the app screen). That was a bit confusing but only for a moment.
Once I completed the changes and did a Save, the app told me my registration was now renewed and sent me an email to document that. That email also told me I'd be mailed a new sticker to apply to the PLB within ten days.
More info...
Hiking Guy's ACR Ocean Signal rescueMe PLB1 Review (and comparison to Inreach)
