Originally Posted by
x_navman
not sure what satellites you are referring to...
the copas-sarsat satellite system is fully functional
The 121.5/243.0 was shut down, at least for the US. All ELT's were supposed to transmit on 406 by 2009, so they stopped listening. Sadly, most ELT's in the US are still not on 406, which means now ELT searches require a lot more work, almost always just to find a false alarm. In the past, COSPAS-SARSAT fixes would give a working area, based on doppler processing of 121.4/243.0, and that would usually resolve to a metropolitan area where a ground team could quickly find it. Now, we get reports from high altitude aircraft who hear it on guard, and have to launch SAR aircraft just to find out the general area of the ELT.
