Go Pro Camera & Beacon Interference

The test below applies to all digital Beacons.  Basic rule of thumb is keep electronic devices away from your Beacon.  Thanks to Stu from Facewest whom I  met at Glenmore Lodge last year.  Good bloke with experience of all the current Beacons on the market.

I have the full paper on the way from the ISSW conference where this was discussed and a workshop.  Abstract below as a taster.

Title:	The Effect of External Interference on Avalanche Transceiver Functionality
Authors:	John W. Barkhausen Prescott College, Prescott, AZ, USA

For over 40 years, avalanche transceivers have been helping searchers locate and rescue victims buried in avalanches. They rely on internal electronics receiving and interpreting radio waves being transmitted by the victim’s avalanche transceiver, and their success and usefulness is measured by how quickly and effectively they can follow that signal to the buried victim. Up until now, little has been done to understand the effect that external interference has on this signal, and therefore the effectiveness of the beacon itself. In this study, personal electronic devices were held near a searching beacon to see if they had any influence on the beacon’s ability to follow a signal. This was done by finding both the normal and affected ranges and comparing the two values. In the end, there was clear evidence that electronic devices, when held close enough to a searching beacon, had a negative effect on that beacons functionality.