New Beacon

A snowHead

It's time to replace my 2012 Arva, and there are some good deals (30%off) on the Mammut Barryvox at the moment. Is there anything new in the world of transceivers coming next season (a 15 antenna with built in Recco detector for example)? Or should I get this while stocks last.

A snowHead

Barryvox is one of the best on the market. Longest range in many of the tests. Its what I use and would recommend. Not heard of any new ones on the way.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Took delivery of the new Barryvox last Saturday. Queried with a guide mate if it was necessary to go for the "S". Being a guide he naturally endorsed the higher spec. After some reading and thinking we opted for the base model.
It is simplicity itself, a very near light weight unit.

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If I were buying a beacon today I would go for an Arva Evo 5 although the Ortovox Zoom at around 160 euros would be tempting.

One point I don't like with the Evo 5 is the automatic return to transmit after 8 minutes. I don't know if this can be turned off, probably not given the simple interface. This kind of feature causes all kinds of issues in exercises and I imagine in real world searches where people chase each other around the place as their beacons return to send.

The zoom would be fine for general use, for anyone leading groups you'd really want to consider a beacon with marking features - if only to pass exams.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@SnowPenguin, my wife and I replaced our BCA Tracker 2 beacons with the Barryvox S this season, on the recommendation of our avalanche academy instructor/guide. We did lots of training and practice with them and they are _very_ impressive, so much so that I'd recommend anyone with an older (tracker 2 equivalent) generation beacon should consider upgrading. We had the Trackers with us for the training as well, and they were noticeably slower to use, despite having 8 years of experience and practice with them.

The speed of search and in particular the fine search is fantastic - the Barryvox doesn't seem at all prone to the "double peak" issue that you sometimes get in fine search depending on orientation (can't remember the technical term for it!) where the victim is actually buried at the low point within a series of local peak signals. Group check is also very useful, and there are settings to control auto-revert etc. In the case of the Barryvox, the auto revert has a motion sensor, so only reverts if the transceiver is motionless after X minutes, but all this can be configured or disabled.

The fine search was so good that I debated with our instructor whether probing was necessary - on all bar one of about 20 searches, the Barryvox located the burial to within a few cm of the probe strike and I could have saved 30 seconds not assembling and using the probe. NB - his advice was "always probe" because in a real search, when you don't find the victim on digging, you second guess yourself and waste time going back to searching, whereas a probe hit gives you something tangible to dig against.

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New? the Pieps Micro BT Button looks new. Basically a version of the Micro with a manual switch:
https://www.pieps.com/en/product/pieps-micro-bt-button

I've no opinion on stuff I've not used, I'm just saying it's new.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Another vote for the Barryvox. Don't get the S unless you are a snow based profesional AND a geek.

Prior to owning a Barryvox S (Yes I do fulfill the 2 requirements above). I had a Pulse and have played with every beacon on the market.
The Peips series are not far behind the old pulse and work better for some people, beware they do get confused over 3 or more victims.
Some of the ARVA units use the same electronics as the Pulse/Element and now Barryvox/S

After all it is free

I have a Pieps Sport now, but would probably also go for a Pieps Micro if I was getting a new one (caveated with I haven’t used it)

Barryvox for sure. Don't bother with the S unless you meet @Idris' criteria above.

I am both a snow professional and a geek (lapsed engineer!). I've both used and watched other people use almost every model on the market. Barryvox is the one I chose to invest in (I've bought 4 so far!) and has never given me any reason to doubt that choice.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

I fulfil only one of what shall henceforth be known as "the @Idris criteria", but even outside all the pro features, the "interested geek" capabilities of the S swung it for me. Lithium battery compatibility, ability to configure/disable auto-revert, a clearer screen with more idiot-focussed symbols, "memory" of where it was searching in case of temporary signal loss etc. Unusually, none of these are at the cost of a more complex interface in-use. All for (I think when I bought it) about £20 more.

All that said, I'd still rather have a buddy who's practiced weekly and uses an Ortovox M2 vs a "what does this button do" using a latest generation beacon.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I have an orthodox 3+. Nice beacon and easy to use. We did a test in VT at the EOSB to find a pack buried earlier. The 3+ got half way on the arc line then wanted me to go back slightly but after about 5 secs got back on and was fine.

JJams borrowed the baryvox and it could handle him running right around us and gettin it. We all had a go and if I was buying another I would buy the Baryxox.

However, the 3+ is good (not bad) but the baryvox is better. All IMHO of course.

snow reports

You know it makes sense.

I bougjt the Barryvox 'basic', it's very intuitive. The S needs a lot more practice and skill. When you are panicking, and you will be, simple to operate is the key.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Thank you for all your contributions. OK going to get myself the Barryvox, although I think Gaemsbock may be looking at the Arva 5.

A snowHead

The standard Barryvox will meet the needs of 99% of users (unless you are an avvy pro) and is to me the gold standard of the current crop.

A snowHead

Just been reading the above as I'm replacing my beacon for next winter and found it really useful. I think I'll be getting the Barryvox for myself based on the above and my other research.

My question to the collective brain is which beacon do you think is the simplest to use; I'm looking at getting 2 for the kids as they are doing more and more unpisted runs or messing around between pistes. They're also doing runs like Golf and Campanules in EK or Blanchots on GM which have slightly vague edges and carry more risk than standard runs. When they're on formal courses they obviously have them issued but I'd like them to have them when we're off skiing in the afternoon, it also helps add some context when they're being taught avalanche or general mountain safety and we can always practice through the Autumn. I was thinking of the Otovox Zoom from a simplicity angle (and also funky colours), the priority would be to find them should they ever be buried rather than them being actively involved in searches although not to be discounted in the future as they get older.

Thoughts?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I’m another Barryvox fan, having had the Pulse since it came out, and now the S model.

Depending on the size of your children, the size of the transceiver may be an issue as some are quite bulky. As always I recommend the Beacon Reviews site as a starting point, and the Zoom doesn’t do that well unfortunately (it’s under the non-marking section at the bottom of the screen).

https://beaconreviews.com/transceiver_reviews.php

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Ortovox Zoom+ has got to be the simplest to use. IIRC correctly it's the biggest selling transceiver on the market.

Help!!

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