<(_8(!)
Crab,
I have to disagree with you there.
MOB alert. Middle of Oggin. Low power beacon. Most suitable distress frequency? 121.5 to alert Crabs 100 miles away or 156.8 to alert SBV 1/2 mile away?
Ditching scenario:
Foggy day. Full helicopter, 21 souls. Ditches, all survive. Some make it to rafts; some end up in water.
Our heros arrive to find 3 strong signals (2 rafts, 1 ADELT) 2 medium strength (2 crew) and 10 weak ones (WWPLBs).
As I said above, I am no expert, but I believe that this would be more of a problem than arriving to find 1 strong signal (first of Raft or ADELT to activate), finding that one, deactivating it then moving on to the next one to squawk.
The second version relies on retaining existing equiped smart beacons, and replacing dumb PLBs with smart ones. The technology exists, it would just take a little money. Oil is back over $70 / barrel (in real terms that is higher than all but a few months over the last 25 years) so probably about 10 minutes worth of proffit need to be invested.
TD