Acr Electronics, Inc.

Other

Christopher Paul Hoffman

William Cox

Thomas John Pack

Ronald D Bishop

Scott P Morgan

Gordon W Johnston

Method and apparatus for emergency communications using dual satellite communication systems for redundancy and a means of providing additional information to rescue services support emergency response. The system combines the Cospas-Sarsat emergency system for 406 beacons with a secondary means of distress alerting over a commercial satellite system as well as permitting the government agencies responsible for emergency services to directly interface with the person in distress to know about his/her location and to communicate with him or her to resolve the emergency in the best possible way.

Apparatus for emergency communications using dual satellite communications systems for redundancy and a means of providing additional information to rescue services to support emergency response

A dual-satellite emergency locator beacon and method for programming and updating such emergency locator beacons over the air. The system uses a second commercial satellite as the carrier for the data back to the beacon together with the means of coupling these parts together. The system can be manually updated or can be part of a registration system that gets automatically updated. In a second embodiment a method and apparatus for implementing emergency locator beacon registration is provided. The system provides data concerning the user into a backend service which can be utilized to provide all necessary information needed to register the emergency beacon.

Dual-satellite emergency locator beacon and method for registering, programming and updating emergency locator beacon over the air

A dual-satellite emergency locator beacon including a first satellite communications transmitter, a second satellite communications transmitter, a first microprocessor and a second microprocessor. The first microprocessor controls the first transmitter and the second microprocessor controls the second transmitter. The first transmitter is configured to communicate over a first satellite communications system, such as the Cospas-Sarsat 406 MHz system, and the second transmitter is configured to communicate over a second satellite communications system, such as a commercial satellite communications system. The beacon includes a shared section comprising an antenna system comprising a first and second antenna, the first for the 406 Mhz transmitter and the second for the commercial satellite transmitter. The first and second microprocessors of the beacon are interconnected to permit data transfer between the two sections of the beacon.

Apparatus for emergency communications using dual satellite communications systems in a compact housing

An emergency locator beacon device that includes sending a test signal from a first satellite transmitter of the device to a Cospas-Sarsat emergency monitoring service; receiving from a beacon testing service a test confirmation signal corresponding to the test signal, the confirmation signal being received on a second satellite receiver of the beacon; wherein the emergency monitoring service and the beacon testing service are in communication over the Internet. The first satellite transmitter comprises a 406 MHz emergency transmitter configured to communicate with a Cospas-Sarsat satellite system. The second satellite receiver comprises a SEND receiver configured to communicate with a commercial satellite system. The emergency monitoring service is in communication with a rescue coordination center and the rescue coordination center is further in communication with the beacon testing service by way of the Internet. The test signal includes a beacon identification number which is pre-registered with the beacon testing service.

Method and apparatus for testing emergency locator beacons incorporating over the air responses back to the emergency locator beacon

An emergency locating communications device that includes an emergency locator beacon that transmits emergency signals at 406 MHz and a SEND commercial satellite transmitter and receiver is provided. The communications device can be identified for both 406 MHz originator and SEND capable emergency locator device to an emergency services provider by sending a first message to the emergency services provider including a unique identity number of the 406 MHz transmitter of the device and. sending a second message to the emergency services providing including an International Mobile Equipment Identity number of the SEND transmitter of the device. The second message further includes at least a portion of the unique identity number of the 406 MHz transmitter of said device such that the emergency services provider can process the first and second messages to identify both the 406 MHz transmitter and the SEND transmitter of said emergency locator device.

Method of providing additional information to emergency services about emergency locator beacons

An emergency locator beacon testing and communication system is described. The system uses privately-owned Local User Terminals which provide direct feeds to a privately-operated beacon information processor having dedicated on-line servers for consolidating and providing access to beacon test information. The system receives beacon signals relayed through the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system, correlates the beacons' unique identification numbers (UIN's) in the received signals to the UIN's of beacons known to be undergoing testing, collects the data transmitted by beacons under test, and displays beacon test results in a useful format on a user-friendly website.

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Fareham, United Kingdom

Christopher Paul Hoffman