The number of emergency locator beacons registered with Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand has nearly doubled since old beacons stopped being monitored on February 1 last year.
The number of registrations has pleased the centre, but has not been without its logistical issues, with some registrations taking up to three weeks to be finally processed by the organisation.
On February 1 last year, beacons that used a 121.5MHz frequency were phased out and 406MHz beacons, which can be detected more promptly and provide a more accurate position, became the only working beacons available.
Since then, about 8500 beacons have been registered with the centre, bringing the total number of beacons registered to 19,447.
Given that 406MHz beacons were introduced many years ago, the uptake in the past year was pleasing because it meant more rescues could be carried out more promptly and efficiently, said RCCNZ's general manager of safety services, Nigel Clifford.
Beacons did not need to be registered, but registration was free and having those details on hand significantly improved the speed and efficiency of a search and rescue effort.
While beacons could be activated as soon as they were purchased, if people sent in their registration forms the owner details supplied would be entered into the system within 24 hours, but double checking of the details, which should happen within five working days, was sometimes taking up to three weeks, he said.
Some months RCCNZ had received up to 750 new registrations.
At first, four extra staff were working in registrations full-time, but that had since reduced to two full-time staff and one part-timer.
"It is a big cost, but we think it is well worth doing.
The benefits in terms of real rescues are obvious, but the benefits in terms of being able to determine false alerts quickly are also high."
False alerts could be identified more promptly, usually with one telephone call, greatly reducing the potential for costly searches caused by false alarms, which was the main issue with the old 121.5MHz beacons.
Since February 1 last year, there have been 296 alerts from distress beacons in New Zealand.
Of those, 90 were real distress situations, for which RCCNZ co-ordinated a search and rescue operation.
The other alerts were a mix of false, inadvertent or undetermined alerts.
There were 13 RCCNZ co-ordinated search and rescue operations after beacon alerts in Otago, including one vehicle crash, eight tramping incidents, one hunting incident, one coast boating/fishing incident and two aircraft incidents.
The centre attributed the uptake in beacon registration to a public campaign, the smaller size of new beacons, coverage of search and rescue missions, the increased availability of beacons and people being more comfortable using technology.
Those registering beacons were a mix of new owners and people who previously had a beacon which used the old frequency.
About 4000, or just under half, of the new registrations were for personal locator beacons, mainly used by trampers and outdoors people, which was an interesting trend.
Although there was an increase in new registrations, there were still the same number of rescue missions as in previous years, Mr Clifford said.
