Barryvox Opto 3000 - first look

For some weeks ago I wrote a primer about avalanche beacons.

Now I have bought a beacon.

Content of the box

The content was as follows:

• Manuals in English, French, Spanish and some other languages I do not understand or intend to learn.
• The beacon as seen on the picture above.
• Some stickers (in various languages) with some instructions on what to do in case of an avalanche.
• Harness - to place the beacon to your body.
• A CD with some instructions on how to operate this device.

The beacon

With only three buttons (and power) it is very limited what you can do with it. And you have to memorize the entire manual to learn the different key combinations. Luckily there are only a few key combinations you need to learn. They are as follows:

• Group check. (Power-on while holding mode.) This turns on the received with about one meter range so you can walk around and verify that all the other beacons in your group is working.
• Search mode. (Three quick press on the mode button while the unit is turned on.) I'll get back on how the search works later on.
• Send mode. (Hold mode in two seconds when in search mode.) You do this when you want to get out of group check, search mode or configuration mode.
• Configuration mode. (Power-on while holding up and down.) Options are written below.
• Emergency search mode. (Mode and up when you turn it on.)  If the display is broken you can switch the unit into full analog operating mode.

When you go skiing, you check that it works and put in somewhere on your body. The harness is a  good place to keep it.

Configuration mode

There are only a few configuration options. You get in to the configuration mode by holding up and down when turning on the beacon. You use up and down to choose the different items and mode to move to the next configuration item. The List below is in the order the configuration options turns up on the device.

Option	Allows values	Explanation	My value
Search mode	Indicated by d or dA in the display.	Tells if you can use analog search mode when locked on to a victim. d is digital only and dA is digital and analog.	dA
Automatic revert to send	r-, r4 and r8	When in search mode this the time before going back to send mode unless you press any keys. This is in case you get caught by an avalanche when trying to find someone. r- disables the fallback function. The other values are minutes.	r4
Earphone volume	e1, e2	Volume on the earphone when searching in analog mode. (And beeps I presume.)	You have to try for yourself with your earphones.
Speaker configuration in digital mode	s1, s2, s3	This setting tells what you hear when you search in digital mode. In all modes you get an analog tone when too far away from the victim. (This is called the primary search phase.) For the secondary search phase (that is when the received have found a beacon) the options are: s1. No speaker. s2. Digital beeps increasing as you approach the victim. s3. Analog tone.	s1
Direction indication	3.0, 0.3	This value indicates how close you can be to the victim before it stops pointing what direction to search in.	0.3

For me, the reason to choose these values are:

• dA. Now I can switch to analog search if I want to when close to a victim. Otherwise I cannot do so.
• r4. If I get caught, I want to be searchable as quickly as possible.
• s1. I don't need any more noise than I need. And I can read the display. Also I can turn to analog mode if I want at this point.
• 0.3. For now I don't know why or why not use this setting. But as a Geocacher I know that it is hard to pinpoint the last meters of a cache.

Searching...

The recommended distance between each search line is 40 meters. That gives an operating range for about 20 meters. This is not much. Remember that burial depth also is a distance.

When I turn it into search mode it starts in analog mode with lots of static noise. Until it can find a beacon it keeps being annoying. (I really would like an option to turn this noise off if I want to.) When it finds a beacon it switches into digital mode and displays distance and direction.

When locked on to a target I now can switch to analog mode my pressing mode once. Up and Down can used to change sensitivity in dA mode.

When the beacon I searched for was on the ground the distance was fairly accurate.

The unit got backlight, but it turns on automatically when it is dark. I am not sure if this is good or not - as our eyesight varies though life.

Conclusion

In all this beacon seems to be very good. It seems like a solid device that is fairly easy to operate.

Remember to practice searching before you go skiing.

Tags

avalanche, barryvox, opto 3000