ACR

ACR Electronics Inc was founded in Florida in 1956. The company is committed to products that are designed to foster safety and survival, particularly as they relate to the search and rescue business. Earlier this year the company sponsored  and supplied the safety equipment for the Race Around Australia Expedition.

In the fifty years since ACR has been in operation, their equipment has saved numerous people from being lost at sea or up in the mountains – the company also among the thousands of people who are reputed to owe their lives to equipment produced by this company were the Astronauts from Apollo 13. After an explosion on board the spacecraft the company’s special flash lights were the only source of light available.

ACR specializes in ELT, which are emergency transmitters. These transmitters are designed to help search and rescue teams, particularly when they are searching for survivors from an air plane that may have been brought down. Aircraft all over the world carry and ELT on board. ACR is renowned not just for its airborne survival equipment but also for its range of marine search and rescue equipment, including the EPIRB and the PLBS.When it comes to sea rescue, ACR have emergency position indicating radio beacons or EPIRBS.

ACR EPIRBS

For some years now the emergency position indicating radio beacons have been used to help rescuers locate those people who run into trouble when they are on a boat. The ACR EPIRB is designed to provide rescuers with the exact location of the people who are in trouble You may never find yourself in dire straits at sea but when you have an EPIRB with you it provides an extra security measure. The emergency position indicating radio beacons are just one form of search and rescue equipment that ACR are famous for. They also make a location indicator that is much smaller than the EPIRB and which is known as the personal locator beacon or PLB.

ACR PLBS

The PLB is a smaller version of the emergency position indicating radio beacons. The personal locator beacon uses internationally recognized distress frequencies to transmit signals indicating that help is needed. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration monitors the frequency and the distress signals are picked up by the Search and Rescue Satellite and Tracking system. The coordinates emitted by the satellite based emergency PLB are of significant help to the search and rescue team trying to locate the person in distress. If the signal is not properly emitted then it is still possible for the person to be located through a back-up system known as the Doppler Shift.

It is clear that ACR have made a considerable contribution to helping search and rescue teams in their difficult task and the EPIRB and PLB have made it far more likely that the position of the distressed person is more likely to be picked up.