If you’re new to backcountry skiing, avalanche transceivers should be on top of your purchasing list,why? Because that tiny little device could save your life! As its name indicates the Avalanche Transciever is a transmitting/receiving device that sends and reads signals of other devices depending on its mode. A transceiver can be set to two modes: Transmit mode as to transmit signal to all other transceivers and when searching must be set to receive mode to receive signal from the buried transceiver.
How to chooses the Avalanche Transceivers equipment? Knowing how to use a transceiver is essential and we recommend that all backcountry skiers attend a safety course before going in the backcountry and practise regularly to ensure competence
All avalanche transceivers transmit and receive signals on the the 457 KHZ frequency. All modern transcievers use digital technology and operate exactly on this frequency. Before the digital technology was available analog transceivers operated on the same frequency (we will not discuss very old models here), but due to the inherent variation possible with analog systems there have been sitiations where the new digital transceiver do not recognise the older analog models. If You are still using an analog model then it could be that you cannot find your companions, or they cannot find you! You should upgrade to a new model right away.
Digital transceivers use use multiple antennas to translate signals into beeping tone and a visual display panel that shows distance and direction. All of today’s transceivers operate on a 457 KHZ frequency and are all compatible with one another. More advanced transceivers can identify the best antenna signal for better and faster search as well as detecting micro-movements such as heart-beats.
Here at Telemark Pyrenees we stock a wide range of Avalanche Transceivers with various technologies and search modes:
ranges from 8 to 400