International Cospas-Sarsat Programme

The System will still work but not registering your beacon defeats the purpose of owning a beacon and taking advantage of current technology.  The Cospas-Sarsat System is designed to provide both identification and location information.  Identification information such as the radio call sign or aircraft tail number can be encoded into the 406 MHz emergency beacon. If the beacon is encoded with a serial number, it is very important that it be registered as no information about the beacon user can be encoded in the beacon's message. Furthermore some countries mandate registration by law and there may be penalties for not registering.

As long as the System is able to obtain a position (either using Doppler processing or through the use of beacons that can transmit their position as part of the 406 MHz message), search and rescue personnel can respond to a distress signal.  However, when a position is not available, search and rescue personnel have to rely on registration information.  It is in these cases that rescue could be delayed until the System can obtain a position.  Even with a position, the response may be delayed until the search and rescue personnel determine the nature of the distress and their capability to respond to the location of the distress.  When registering a beacon, try to list two contacts, one of which the search and rescue personnel would be able to reach at any time of the day.

Beacons can be stolen and activated maliciously and they can be activated accidentally if not cared for in a proper manner.  In such circumstances the registration data can be used to contact the owner and/or emergency contacts to establish that an emergency situation does not exist.  This can assist the owner to remedy a fault if one exists and it can assist the SAR authority to take appropriate action if no emergency exists.  This means that your registration can help avoid the unnecessary use of valuable SAR resources and putting rescuers lives at risk.