ELT

BravoHotel

Well-Known Member
While flying ups and downs yesterday I monitored Guard. I hear an ELT, so I report to NorCal. NorCal queries other aircraft in the area and they do not hear a thing. I know I am not hearing things, but maybe I am. Is there anything you can do besides report the occurrence?
 
Check your ELT.

What you said is not uncommon. Often due to position and location one pilot may hear it while another won't. Squelch on versus squelch off etc…Also consider the time you heard the ELT. Often it's being tested.
 
Not uncommon. ELT signals come & go, even when one is broadcasting at your own airport that you're picking up while taxiing out. You can't really DF them without the right equipment.
 
Another possibility — if the squelch was broken on the VHF receiver on which you heard the ELT, it may have been picking up the harmonic from an ELT on 243.0. I used that little trick once during a SAR I was invovled in back in the '80s.
 
I hear an ELT almost every time I fly, I heard one this morning as we fired up in HWD. Somebody accidentally set one off or something.
 
Is there anything you can do besides report the occurrence?

You could try tracking it down using a "wing null" search method. However, my personal experience after many such exercises is that it never lead to anything where there was someone in need of help.

With the newer 406 MHz ELTs, the location is pinpointed and action taken rather quickly. The older 121.5 ELTs are a different story. The government even stopped listening for them by satellite over five years ago.
 
Check your ELT.

What you said is not uncommon. Often due to position and location one pilot may hear it while another won't. Squelch on versus squelch off etc…Also consider the time you heard the ELT. Often it's being tested.

I heard it again yesterday several times. It was at random time intervals, and the signal strength was strongest east of LHM.
 
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