Effects of electronics on your avalanche transceiver

That electronics can interfere with avalanche transceivers was already known by the more experienced riders. But not every freerider knows that it is not wise to carry for example your cell phone, walkie talkie or GoPro close to your avalanche transceiver. On the ISSW (International Snow Science Workshop) 2014 researchers Ilari Dammert and Erwin Meister presented a study in which they looked at the exact effects of electronics on avalanche transceivers.

Switch off
In short, it means that electronic interference with your avalanche transceiver is not ideal for the search process (to say the least). In fact, it’s better to switch off all the electronics you have with you (such as a phone, GoPro, etc) create a search field as clean as possible. And ‘off’ is also really ‘off’ and no ‘airplane mode’

Differences between transmitting…
In the transmit mode, the avalanche transceiver has the least interference. When an aluminum plate was held against the avalanche transceiver there was a strong reduction in the signal, but three centimeters away, there was nothing more to it. Anyway, this was a laboratory setting and the researchers recommend 20 centimeters distance in practice.

…or receiving
It changes when your avalanche transceiver is in the search mode. Then the transceiver is much more sensitive and all the electronics must be at least 50 centimeters away from your avalanche transceiver. And so it is the most sensible thing to just switch everything off, as there also is much difference between all the different equipment.

More information? Read the whole study: Effects of Electronics

Source: Mammut Avalanche Safety