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PLBs are not EPIRBs but they sure are close in my view. I also don't like having a big of life-saving gear that is nearly impossible to test and no spare. To be honest I'm not that big a fan of beacons in general, but if I were to consider one here are my thoughts:
These days as the price of PLBs goes down rapidly as their quality climbs, the prices of EPIRBs hasn't changed that much. It now appears that you can afford to get 2 high quality PLBs with GPS built in for the price of one EPIRB.
Here's an example of a good unit for $300
McMurdo Fast Find PLB - Initial Evaluation - EQUIPPED TO SURVIVE (tm)
It seems to me the advantages of having 2 are endless. You could pack one in your liferaft and keep the other handy. Each of the crew (of 2) could have one attached to their person. One could be in the abandon ship bag, the other with the on-deck on-watch person. etc. Even having the two of them in the abandon ship bag would be a great piece of mind as you have twice as much likelihood of one of them working.
Conventional wisdom goes against departing a floating boat, but if for some reason you did take to your raft and the boat was still afloat you could leave one beacon on board and take one in the raft. This way the boat could be salvaged and would not present near the hazard to navigation.
BTW: here is a link to a service that will test your EPIRB/PLB.
Satellite Testing of Your 406 MHz Beacon Has Arrived | Doug Ritter’s Equipped.org Blog
MedSailor
These days as the price of PLBs goes down rapidly as their quality climbs, the prices of EPIRBs hasn't changed that much. It now appears that you can afford to get 2 high quality PLBs with GPS built in for the price of one EPIRB.
Here's an example of a good unit for $300
McMurdo Fast Find PLB - Initial Evaluation - EQUIPPED TO SURVIVE (tm)
It seems to me the advantages of having 2 are endless. You could pack one in your liferaft and keep the other handy. Each of the crew (of 2) could have one attached to their person. One could be in the abandon ship bag, the other with the on-deck on-watch person. etc. Even having the two of them in the abandon ship bag would be a great piece of mind as you have twice as much likelihood of one of them working.
Conventional wisdom goes against departing a floating boat, but if for some reason you did take to your raft and the boat was still afloat you could leave one beacon on board and take one in the raft. This way the boat could be salvaged and would not present near the hazard to navigation.
BTW: here is a link to a service that will test your EPIRB/PLB.
Satellite Testing of Your 406 MHz Beacon Has Arrived | Doug Ritter’s Equipped.org Blog
MedSailor