Gear Review
Ortovox Patroller Avalanche Beacon
Severely lacking
By zk100019046
Ranked #17 - Avalanche Safety
January 26, 2009
Although it claims to be a three antenna digital beacon, it seems Ortovox has stripped the best parts of the technology out. First, it switches to fully digital much too late, when you're already within 15m. It would speed up the search greatly if the directional arrows activated as soon as possible to vector directly to the buried beacon. Second, the third antenna is supposed to allow the beacon to resolve spikes, which can make it appear buried beacon is up to two meters away. However, the Patroller was completely unable to resolve spikes. For the money, I think the proven Tracker DTS is a much better choice.
View Details: Ortovox Patroller Avalanche Beacon
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Change me.
1 Comments Last Reply: November 20, 2009 By: Malchron
I completely agree. Having used both the x1 and patroller (and comparing them to barryvox opto, the tracker, and f1 focus), I currently think that ortovox should not be selling these because of the spiking issues. Spiking within 2-3 meters is so bad that in practice pinpointing doen't work and you are forced to probe an area 2 or 3 times greater than you would with other beacons. Along with a slow processor and short range this is strongly NOT RECOMMENDED!
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