[kevlar]

Hey folks

We just got back from a hut trip to Sol Mtn Lodge in BC. Per usual, prior to heading out all the guests had to test their beacon skills in a standard BCA Beacon Park. My wife and I had just upgraded our Pulses from v.2 to v.3 firmware before the trip. I considered NOT doing this but from everything I had researched on what had been improved, I decided that it would be a good idea to have "the latest and greatest".

Anyway, long story short, with 3 targets activated my upgraded pulse behaved what I would call very erratic. It kept jumping around between targets, the arrow would swing wildly within 3m of a target and often lose the target all together. It was HUGELY frustrating and I nearly tossed it in the bin right there. My wife had exactly the same results as I. Even on a single target search it was not performing correctly with wild swings in both arrow direction and distance. Thinking "user error" or a lack of familiarity with the new configuration, I asked one of the guides to try our beacons and was amazed to see him struggle with the same confusion that we had. He then pulled out his OWN Pulse beacons (also on the new v.3 firmware) and immediately ran into the same difficulties.

At this point, we discussed the situation and wondered whether there might be something with the wires or other types of interference with the beacon park itself (I recall from undergrad physics something about an electrical current in wires creating it's own magnetic field, or something to that effect). With a new theory in hand, we went a few hundred feet from the lodge (and park), buried 3 digital beacons and did a search. Voila, the v.3.0 Pulses performed flawlessly! Another search done later in the day from out in the field confirmed the same result - no issues, confidence mostly restored. What's also interesting is that none of the other digital beacons in our group (trackers and DSPs) had issues.

I wonder if anyone else out there has experienced this problem, or if this is something unique to Sol's beacon park? If so, this is a pretty big deal imo and something the manufacturer should be made aware of.

[SteveH]

I have had absolutely no problems with multiple beacon searches after the 3.0 upgrade to the Pulse.

[kevlar]

Hi - Thanks SteveH

Was that in a "beacon park" type setting, or using individual units?

[Rebob]

I've had problems when searching multiples with buried stale-dated DT's. Very odd behaviours at times, such as skipping the closest beacon and homing on one further away.

Had no problems with buried analog or other digital beacons...

[skookumchuck]

I wonder if there is something wrong with Sol's park? When we were there in December one of the Ortovox S1 beacons wouldn't work on multiple burials in the beacon basin.

The analogue beacons and trackers seemed to work okay, but they don't have multiple beacon search functionality.

[snoboy]

Very interesting -

I have come to the same theory, and have had similar issues in using my Pulse in our BCA park at Red Mountain (ie buried beacons with lots of wire...)

When I have used discrete buried beacons (that were not Trackers...) I have not noticed the issue. Did you bury Trackers or other beacons?

One thing that you can reproduce with any beacon seems to be if you stand near the power supply/switch box, then you will pick up a signal. Seems likely that could confuse the 3 antenna style beacons.

Guess it's time to buy an Easy Searcher system? (No wires - lots of sweet features)