Is your PLB up to the task?

Having now been approved as an official Battery Replacement Centre (BRC) for the Ocean Signal rescueME range, Lusty & Blundell is urging anyone with a PLB1 personal locator beacon to make sure their batteries are replaced if needed before summer.

“L&B has all the appropriate equipment and technical information needed to properly replace PLB1 batteries, which expire after seven years from the date of manufacture,” says Silke Sigley, L&B’s Ocean Signal Product Manager.

She says the test function found on many beacons does not prove the beacon is still compliant with these standards.

“For example, if the battery has been replaced or the unit dismantled by someone other than a certified BRC, the physical integrity of the case and the seals protecting sensitive electronic components could well have been compromised.

It would also mean the beacon automatically ceases to meet any required standards and the carriage of that beacon will no longer make the vessel compliant with the law. More importantly, an emergency or a situation of genuine distress is not the time to discover that a beacon does not operate as it should.

Owners of Ocean Signal rescueME PLB1 beacons whose batteries will shortly need replacing should head to the Lusty & Blundell website (www.lusty-blundell.co.nz) and complete a simple form under the Contact tab or head into the store where they bought the beacon.