The ESF recently ran a second series of tests on upgraded McMurdo products and on a new ACR Electronics PLB and says all provided GPS locations under a variety of real world conditions.

The beacons were specifically tested for their GPS functionality, says the ESF, or their ability to "self-report" their location to Geostationary (GEO) satellites, which can relay the location information nearly instantaneously to rescuers.

"McMurdo has addressed the shortcomings in GPS performance identified in the 2004 evaluation, " reported ESF executive director, Doug Ritter.

"The off-the-shelf McMurdo products both reliably acquired a GPS location 'fix' under operational real-world conditions."

Ritter also noted: "The ACR Electronics model PLB-200 PLB, marketed as the AquaFix 406 GPS I/O P-EPRIB, TerraFix 406 GPS I/O PLB and AeroFix 406 GPS I/O P-ELT, reliably acquired a GPS location 'fix' under operational real-world conditions."

A prototype ACR Electronics PLB was also tested successfully.

A detailed Summary of the 112-page report, as well as the full report itself, is available on the Equipped To Survive web site at: www.equipped.org The 220-page full report on the first evaluation, originally available only via subscription, is also now available.