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ELT's

T

T.O.Craig

Well Known Member
Good Morning All,
I've been try to understand the differences between the Artex-me 406 at $945 and the ACK-e-04 at $585. They are both in Van's catalog. There is a large dollar difference. Any help would be appreciated.:)
 
Can't speak to the technical differences, but the $360 difference in price was enough for me to go with the ACK unit.
 
I believe most of the $1,000+ units are units that have an integrated GPS receiver for positioning. The cheaper ones do not but can accept a GPS signal from a source like a Garmin. So if you have the ability to supply the signal, the cheaper one is better.

There is a minor issue though, I recall a semi-recent thread about an issue about ditching and using an ACK04 style (no integrated GPS). Many times as you prepare to ditch, you kill the power. This will remove the GPS source signal and it COULD cause the ELT to transmit with potentially older information or no specific location information.
 
406

Going from memory, Artex requires aircraft power, and requires optional adapter for GPS input. ACK has battery's in the buzzer & switch,so doesn't require external power, & is GPS capable directly. ACK has a more compact case. Artex antenna is vertically mounted, ACK angle matches RV6 tail angle. Hope this helps.
 
GPS

One giant difference -

The more $$$ Artex unit listed above has no GPS capability -

http://www.cobham.com/media/184589/...operation-installation-maintenance manual.pdf

The ACK unit does have GPS input capability which gets rescue to you quicker as well as a better location -

http://www.ackavionics.com/pdf/E-04_Install_Man_single_page_rev_1.5.pdf


ADDED

Some Artex units do have GPS capability, but for many more $$$.

If you want to get around the "switch power off before ditching" GPS issue then you have to spend WAY MORE $$$$ for a unit with a built-in GPS
 
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Both have litium battery packs with a 5-year life. Replacement cost is about $150 for each.

As stated above, the ACK E-04 has a GPS interface buit in. The Artex ME406 requires an additional ME232 GPS interface module (about $290).

I too went with the ACK E-04.
 
I think the ELTs with built in GPS must run them off ship's power, so they too will shut down if you kill the master. If they ran off the ELT battery they would drain it down after a few months.

I too cannot think of why anyone would buy anything other than the least expensive unit.
 
BobTurner said:
I think the ELTs with built in GPS must run them off ship's power, so they too will shut down if you kill the master. If they ran off the ELT battery they would drain it down after a few months.

......
Click to expand...

Not sure if that is true...

From one manufacturers web site -

Emerging Lifesaving Technologies 406 ELT with GPS can be activated while still in the air and send accurate positional data. If for some reason the aircraft was too damaged to send information to SAR after the incident, this could mean the difference between rescue and recovery.

Although the internal GPS updates the unit every second, Cospas Sarsat rules allow the data burst to be only updated every five (5) minutes. This is prevents a new alarm going off at the MCC (mission control centers) at every burst.


Sounds like the GPS would do an after-crash update even after a manual in-flight entry. The 5 minute rule is interesting....

Their description above would seem to say they the built-in GPS is only activated when the ELT is activated, so it would not need any ships power. What you do with the master switch wouldn't count...:)
 
On the ACK E-04, the GPS interface circuitry is powered by ships power. If ships power or GPS signal is lost (within a limited amount of time, which I don't recall), the last known GPS position will be transmitted by the ELT.
 
Tricky engineering problem. You don't want the gps to just activate after a crash - if the gps antenna didn't survive then there'd be no gps location to send. You need to have a gps running before the crash (ship's power?) AND one running afterwards to get the best of both worlds. Maybe the internal one runs off ship's power unless the 'g' switch goes off and it loses power, then it switches to the elt battery?
 
BobTurner said:
Tricky engineering problem. You don't want the gps to just activate after a crash - if the gps antenna didn't survive then there'd be no gps location to send. You need to have a gps running before the crash (ship's power?) AND one running afterwards to get the best of both worlds. Maybe the internal one runs off ship's power unless the 'g' switch goes off and it loses power, then it switches to the elt battery?
Click to expand...

The ELTs with a built-in GPS seem to have a combined (single) GPS/406 antenna.

If the antenna didn't survive then the ELT won't work either...:rolleyes:

The engineering problem is making a good antenna...:)
 
Thanks for all the great input. It will make it easy now to make the correct selection (cheaper unit). The web sights are also very helpful.
Thanks to all,
 
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