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Gear review:
Tracker dts
The Vociferous Void
July 11, 2008
Read this review on the Vociferous Void website
here.
Tracker DTS - Gear Review
It seems that every time I go to Sunshine Village in Alberta these
days, and want to take a run down the Delirium Dive, I can never
find another person in my group who owns an avalanche transceiver.
This being one of the restrictions for accessing the Dive kinda
makes things a bit difficult. In order to avoid this situation in
the future, I decided to get a second avalanche transceiver. This
has two benefits: the first is that my friends will no longer have
any excuse to not follow me down the dive the next time we're in
Sunshine, and the second is that I can now practice my search technique
on my own during the off-season. This should be an added encouragement
for my friends wanting to follow me since I'll be well practiced
at finding them if something goes wrong.
The transceiver I decided on purchasing is the Tracker DTS by Backcountry
Access. I ordered the beacon from the Backcountry Safety store,
which is based in Canada, saving me from having to pay import duties.
The reason I chose the Tracker DTS is because it is thought to be
one of, if not the, easiest transceiver to use. If this claim proves
to be true, this will be a perfect backup avalanche beacon as it
should not take long to teach even the most novice of adventurer
how to use it.
Unpacking
The Tracker DTS comes with a harness, batteries (which surpised
me), and an owner's manual. The manual for the Tracker includes
a short reference on basic avalanche awareness and a quick reference
page of the transceiver's functionality which, theoretically, can
be detached and kept with you when you're in the backcountry. This
may be useful for circumstances where, in a panic, your mind goes
blank. The avalanche awareness section is a simple bullet list of
things to remember and is by no means adequate unless you're traveling
with someone more experienced.
The search procedure described in the quick reference is broken
down into three parts: the primary/signal search, the secondary
search, and the pinpoint search. Each is describe in four to five
sentences. The quick reference also has a brief overview on performing
a multiple burial search.
In addition to the manual, the Backcountry Access website provides
animated demos on the use of the Tracker DTS. There's even an interactive
demo where you can guide the Tracker around using your mouse to
try and locate a buried victim. All of this is no substitute for
practicing with the actual device, however, and that is one of the
reasons why I bought it.
Construction
The tracker is well put together. The display is LED based which
makes its susceptibility to damage from shock very low. The LED
display is also recessed into the case so if something smashes the
covering, the display will probably continue to work (although if
it's smashed, you're probably under snow and not so much concerned
about the display as the transmission antenna).
The on button is of the push-twist variety with a colour indicator.
Vertical/red means off, horizontal/green means on. The action of
the button is very stiff, at least currently, so chances that the
transceiver be turned off when jostled are pretty minimal.
The battery door on this transceiver is very solid. It requires
a screwdriver (or as I have discovered, a house key) to open it
via the lock screw. Once the batteries are in and the door is closed,
you can be confident that the batteries will stay where they are
while, god forbid, you're being bounced down the mountain at 150km/h
by a wayward slab of snow. Just make sure that the lock screw is
tightened all the way when you change the batteries, however, otherwise
the battery door will have some give and will not stay fully closed.
This could lead to a situation where the top-most battery loses
its connection with the contacts turning your potentially life saving
device into a talisman of cruel irony.
Operation
The tracker is, as advertised, very easy to use. The only button
you really need to know about is the big red one in the middle.
You press and hold it to put the Tracker into search mode. You press
it again to put it into receive mode. So easy, George Jetson can
do it.
The only other button is the options button. While in search mode,
if you press and hold this down, it will turn off the beeping sound
that you hear as you pick up other signals. This button also allows
you to use the special search mode for situations of multiple burials.
This feature is only really useful for experts.
One feature that I find is missing on the Tracker, which exists
on my Ortovox, is a test mode. This is useful for ensuring that
everyone's transceiver is working properly before heading out into
the backcountry. Although in reality, this test can be easily done
by switching the transceiver into search mode to see if everyone
else's beacon can be detected. It just means that you'll have to
contend with more lights and beeping and whatnot.
Overall Impression
The Tracker DTS lives up to claims that it is easy to use. Its solid
construction also ensures that it will survive many adventures.
One disadvantage with the construction, however, is a lack of tactile
feedback for the "Mode" and "Options" buttons.
Even without a glove on, it's sometimes difficult to tell if the
button is actually being pressed down. This would be even more difficult
when wearing gloves or when your fingers have frozen because you
took your gloves off because you couldn't tell if you were pressing
the button. The good news is that the occasions where you absolutely
need to press them are infrequent. You must hold the "Mode"
button down for a few seconds to first put the transceiver in "Search"
mode, and press it once every five minutes or so to keep it from
reverting back to "Transmit" mode (if the auto-revert
feature has been enabled).
So if you're in the market for an avalanche transceiver, definitely
consider the Tracker DTS. Whether your an experienced backcountry
traveler, or a green novice, its ease of use will definitely mitigate
the stress of finding your imperiled friends.
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