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APPENDIX D COSPAS-SARSAT
COSPAS SARSAT is an international organization consisting of 3 countries, The Russian
Federation, France, and Canada. COSPAS-SARSAT developed, created and manages the system
that consists of a group of orbiting satellites, geostationary satellites, and earth stations that
are used to receive distress signals on a group of frequencies between 406.0 to 406.1 Mhz.,
relay the signals to geostationary satellites, which then relay the signals to earth stations which
send the alerts to the appropriate countries search and rescue organization. As a result
COSPAS-SARSAT established the standards to be used with the system and issues a type
certificate for devices that conform to the specifications of the system and which are a part of
their document “SPECIFICATION FOR COSPAS-SARSAT 406 MHz DISTRESS BEACONS” C/S T.001
Issue 3 – Revision 9. One of the requirements is that each device has a self-test feature which
must be limited to one burst only. Subsequently, an impact sensor if required, is not tested as
well as one or more of the required specifications are not verified, and often the systems used
to test the device are the same used to generate the signals which could result in a passing the
self- test when in fact a problem exists. Therefore the best way to ensure the proper operation
of a beacon is with an independent tester.
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