The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently announced that the International Cospas-Sarsat Program plans to terminate the 121.5/243 MHz satellite alerting on February 1, 2009. The U.S. National Search and Rescue Committee, the International Maritime Organization, and the International Civil Aviation Organization has requested the termination of this program due to the high number of false alerts and the negative impact on 121.5/243 MHz emergency beacon users and search and rescue responders. The intended effect of this action is to migrate the public from the 121.5/232 MHz emergency beacons to the more reliable and accurate emergency beacons operating at 406 MHz.
