Transceiver interruption is very real, turn your dam phones off!

[Depsnolvr]

Hey all, just a friendly reminder

More and more people insist on bringing their phones into the backcountry and many are still refusing to listen to warnings about interference.

While teaching multiple burial searches today during an AST field session, a brand new transceiver was not functioning properly after marking the first initial burial. While the marking feature worked, the transceiver refused to adjust the directional arrows during the second search and was jumping around all distances (eg. from 20 to 10 to 40 meters) with no explanation.

I could not explain the malfunction to the student at first as surely after the last two days of discussion regarding interference, if they decided to bring their phone, it was surely off and stowed properly (minimum 30cms away from your transceiver). After a minute I finally clued in and asked if he had a phone on him. Low and behold, in his chest pocket was a phone in normal condition and an inreach device in tracking mode.

IMMEDIATELY after removing these devices from his body, the transceiver began to work as it should. It was an amazing experience for all in the course as it really hit home to what could have happened should be be looking for a member of his party under the snow.....

Please listen to the advice and respect the warnings that are issued regarding transceiver interference from other electronic devices. This wasn't the first time we have experienced this but it likely had the strongest impact on the students.

Ride safe and turn those dam phones off!

 

[ferniesnow]

I don't know why they even take them into the back-country. Most of the time they are out of service. Leave them in the truck and it won't be a problem.

Thanks for putting the word out again Curtis.

 

[gdhillon]

[CODE]

[/CODE]

I don't know why they even take them into the back-country. Most of the time they are out of service. Leave them in the truck and it won't be a problem.

Thanks for putting the word out again Curtis.

To take pictures of the badass wheelies they do....why else would they haha :d

In all seriousness though I did not know this thanks for the tip!

 

[Mike270412]

Yep,I think a lot of people don't realize this.Great PSA Curtis.

To take pictures of the badass wheelies they do....why else would they haha :d

In all seriousness though I did not know this thanks for the tip!

 

[knocksum]

The snowtrails app in GPS mode is why I bring my phone. I have to rethink about its location in my chest pocket.

 

[pipes]

I don't know why they even take them into the back-country. Most of the time they are out of service. Leave them in the truck and it won't be a problem.

Thanks for putting the word out again Curtis.

If you noticed in Depsnolvr's post the guy had a cell phone and an InReach. Likely had them paired Via Bluetooth so that he can use the Earthmate App.

Curtis do know if the interference went away if the Phone was in airplane mode? Do you know if the InReach was causing any interference? Reason I ask is,I was carrying an I-phone paired to My InReach when I took My AST1 field training and we never encountered any problems. If memory serves me correctly I put my phone into airplane mode and did not have the tracking on my InReach enabled.
It may be worth while to test this scenario out in the field and see what results you get. I know I would definitely like to know.

 

[007sevens]

Watch for your new Gopro as well. The ones with wifi.

 

[Depsnolvr]

If you noticed in Depsnolvr's post the guy had a cell phone and an InReach. Likely had them paired Via Bluetooth so that he can use the Earthmate App.

Curtis do know if the interference went away if the Phone was in airplane mode? Do you know if the InReach was causing any interference? Reason I ask is,I was carrying an I-phone paired to My InReach when I took My AST1 field training and we never encountered any problems. If memory serves me correctly I put my phone into airplane mode and did not have the tracking on my InReach enabled.
It may be worth while to test this scenario out in the field and see what results you get. I know I would definitely like to know.

Honestly I wish I could have stopped the course and done more testing. I am going to try to recreate the scenario when I have a moment. I am very sure that the combination of the two units increased the interruption, but to what extent I am not sure.

Either way the professional recommendation is to turn it off. If using it as a GPS, keep in on your sled and not on your person a minimum of 30cm away from the transceiver just same goes for any other electronic device

 

[T-team]

Hey all, just a friendly reminder

More and more people insist on bringing their phones into the backcountry and many are still refusing to listen to warnings about interference.

While teaching multiple burial searches today during an AST field session, a brand new transceiver was not functioning properly after marking the first initial burial. While the marking feature worked, the transceiver refused to adjust the directional arrows during the second search and was jumping around all distances (eg. from 20 to 10 to 40 meters) with no explanation.

I could not explain the malfunction to the student at first as surely after the last two days of discussion regarding interference, if they decided to bring their phone, it was surely off and stowed properly (minimum 30cms away from your transceiver). After a minute I finally clued in and asked if he had a phone on him. Low and behold, in his chest pocket was a phone in normal condition and an inreach device in tracking mode.

IMMEDIATELY after removing these devices from his body, the transceiver began to work as it should. It was an amazing experience for all in the course as it really hit home to what could have happened should be be looking for a member of his party under the snow.....

Please listen to the advice and respect the warnings that are issued regarding transceiver interference from other electronic devices. This wasn't the first time we have experienced this but it likely had the strongest impact on the students.

Ride safe and turn those dam phones off!

I was up riding with a guy that lived in town in valemount a couple winters ago.... We were quite a ways up westride sitting having a conversation... and his phone rang....He answered it and started talking like he was sitting on the couch watching tv lol.......Are you batman??? Anybody that can't live without the thing while they are enjoying how majestic and amazing where they are.... and what they are doing is.... and how lucky they are to be able to do it.... Should be looking for a new hobby. In reach or not. It doesnt have to be on all the time.

 

[TylerG]

I was up riding with a guy that lived in town in valemount a couple winters ago.... We were quite a ways up westride sitting having a conversation... and his phone rang....He answered it and started talking like he was sitting on the couch watching tv lol.......Are you batman??? Anybody that can't live without the thing while they are enjoying how majestic and amazing where they are.... and what they are doing is.... and how lucky they are to be able to do it.... Should be looking for a new hobby. In reach or not. It doesnt have to be on all the time.

it's surprising where these things will grab service, I know talking with Tayco when we were up Allen during Mountain Mania he said he was back somewhere and all of a sudden his phone grabbed service and was ringing.

I personally leave mine down in the truck, safer there, less likely to get broken etc.

It's not like I can whip it out up on the mountain and call 911 if an emergency occurs, and there isn't any pizza place that will deliver to a cabin on top a mountain that I've ever heard of.

 

[T-team]

it's surprising where these things will grab service, I know talking with Tayco when we were up Allen during Mountain Mania he said he was back somewhere and all of a sudden his phone grabbed service and was ringing.

I personally leave mine down in the truck, safer there, less likely to get broken etc.

It's not like I can whip it out up on the mountain and call 911 if an emergency occurs, and there isn't any pizza place that will deliver to a cabin on top a mountain that I've ever heard of.

Thats why I bring a sat phone.... That.. and In the event someone figuires out who maxwell is and shanks him.

 

[giddyup]

Great reminder curtis
our group has played around with phones and transceivers and had problems but they seem inconsistent. I could not always recreate the same problem over and over, we all run with our phones off or in airplane mode I your pack. We have be very conscious about this after we were using the first Garmin radios

 

[Teth-Air]

I'm not sure if we should throw the baby out with the bath water. f you are in transmit mode with your beacon, another electronic device is not likely to stop it from transmitting properly. It is when you are searching that your beacon may be confused by harmonics from other transmitting devices very close by. I agree much testing should be done prior to carrying transmitting devices but if we say all electronic devices are a problem then you must say other riders beacons in receive mode will also be a problem.

 

[Eldereldo]

I'm not sure if we should throw the baby out with the bath water. f you are in transmit mode with your beacon, another electronic device is not likely to stop it from transmitting properly. It is when you are searching that your beacon may be confused by harmonics from other transmitting devices very close by. I agree much testing should be done prior to carrying transmitting devices but if we say all electronic devices are a problem then you must say other riders beacons in receive mode will also be a problem.

Sorry no, all beacons are designed to work within the same frequency, they do not give off other frequency radiation that would interfere with any other beacon. And there has been plenty of testing done by the beacon manufacturers on the interference caused by other devices. It is their recommendation that you don't keep any other transmitting device near your beacon. Hell, one trip we discovered that a person who had a set of heated gloves, was unable to get a consistent fix when in search mode, the heaters were giving off enough interference to screw the beacon up. I'm am sure it wasn't much,but since you hold the beacon in your hand when searching, it was concentrated in the wrong spot.

 

[Iron Horse Racing]

Hey all, just a friendly reminder

More and more people insist on bringing their phones into the backcountry and many are still refusing to listen to warnings about interference.

While teaching multiple burial searches today during an AST field session, a brand new transceiver was not functioning properly after marking the first initial burial. While the marking feature worked, the transceiver refused to adjust the directional arrows during the second search and was jumping around all distances (eg. from 20 to 10 to 40 meters) with no explanation.

I could not explain the malfunction to the student at first as surely after the last two days of discussion regarding interference, if they decided to bring their phone, it was surely off and stowed properly (minimum 30cms away from your transceiver). After a minute I finally clued in and asked if he had a phone on him. Low and behold, in his chest pocket was a phone in normal condition and an inreach device in tracking mode.

IMMEDIATELY after removing these devices from his body, the transceiver began to work as it should. It was an amazing experience for all in the course as it really hit home to what could have happened should be be looking for a member of his party under the snow.....

Please listen to the advice and respect the warnings that are issued regarding transceiver interference from other electronic devices. This wasn't the first time we have experienced this but it likely had the strongest impact on the students.

Ride safe and turn those dam phones off!

When this scenario is re-created and documented, you should send the information off to DeLorme InReach, to get their input.

I do carry InReach SE paired to an iphone, I don't use the tracking modes at all, both units are off and carried as emergency tools....
But would be interesting to see what InReach recommends and what their response to this issue is.....

 

[ferniesnow]

I'm not sure if we should throw the baby out with the bath water. f you are in transmit mode with your beacon, another electronic device is not likely to stop it from transmitting properly. It is when you are searching that your beacon may be confused by harmonics from other transmitting devices very close by. I agree much testing should be done prior to carrying transmitting devices but if we say all electronic devices are a problem then you must say other riders beacons in receive mode will also be a problem.

Chris, here is a scenario for you. Turn on your beacon (transmit mode) and leave it on the kitchen table. Turn on your cell phone and put your cell phone on top of the beacon. Use another beacon in search mode and see what kind of interference you get. That was lesson #1 in my AST1 course. My phone is in my truck and my inReach is in my riser bag or in my back pack.

One of the big problems, with searching in a "crowd", would be having everybody in the "crowd" to turn their beacon to search mode. I have seen and I think most people who do practice searches have seen that it is easy for the beginners to think they are in search mode when they are actually still in transmit mode.

 

[T-team]

I'm not sure if we should throw the baby out with the bath water. f you are in transmit mode with your beacon, another electronic device is not likely to stop it from transmitting properly. It is when you are searching that your beacon may be confused by harmonics from other transmitting devices very close by. I agree much testing should be done prior to carrying transmitting devices but if we say all electronic devices are a problem then you must say other riders beacons in receive mode will also be a problem.

Nobody is saying all electronic devices are a problem..That would mean things like digital cameras and such would be batched in with that...... Not to light a fire.... but what you said is 100% false. The word "not likely" doesnt sit right with me on this topic.

 

[maxwell]

I carry my cell phone at all times. Many areas I ride I can drive 5 minutes and receive good cell phone coverage in the event of an emergency. I pair it with my spot to send text messages and most importantly to send live photos to my friends at home lol. That being said when I'm done it gets turned fully off and put into my backpack. Cary your phone if you like but make damn sure it's off

 

[0neoldfart]

Look guys (and girls) - Curtis was simply stating there was interference with the search beacon. This is not news, many beacon manufacturers will state that cell phones can interfere with them. Some will show it on start up, too. If you have to carry your phone, leave it off and stored in such a way it won't become damaged. A digital camera is cheap these days and takes far better pictures, too IMHO. I chose to leave my phone with my truck (you can do whatever you like). But just a thought: If there is interference when trying to find a beacon, it very well could be the same scenario if you are the one buried with your phone on... why chance it?

 

[SidewaysInto3rd]

all radio emitting electronics get stashed in the glove compartment ..

well, except my VHF/UHF radio which is in my backpack .. im torn about that one .. it's a high powered unit but it's far enough from the beacon.. need to test