![]() ![]() Following the death of his skiing partner in Are, Sweden way back in 1972, Recco founder Markus Granhed developed what he felt was a faster way to search for buried skiers than using rescue dogs. Until the recent development of the SAR Helicopter Detector, Recco technology was primarily utilized by ski patrollers attempting to find buried avalanche victims. Suspended by a cable from the belly of the aircraft, the detector picks up signals from a hundred or so metres above the ground. The “cone,” or diameter, of the Recco beam is approximately 100 metres wide. Like the older style of avalanche beacons, these aerial searches are conducted by repeatedly sweeping back and forth over an area following a grid pattern to ensure that every piece of ground is effectively covered. ![]() SAR members aboard the Talon helicopter conduct a visual search of the terrain, as well as listening for signals amplified by the detector. Electromagnetic signals transmitted from the detector are reflected back as pulses of sound if the lost hiker is wearing a piece of clothing or carrying a backpack that’s equipped with a Recco reflector. The Recco system is the audio equivalent of the flashlight and mirror. If the beam hits a mirror, the light will be reflected up to the viewer. To understand how the Recco system works, imagine shining a narrow flashlight beam on a dark, forested mountain. During search and rescue missions, the detector is attached to a six-metre-long cable clamped to the belly of one of Talon’s distinctive yellow helicopters. The Recco (pronounced “wreck-o”) SAR Helicopter Detector is a high-powered antenna and radio transmitter housed in a metal canister that’s a bit larger than a jug of propane. On Thursday, July 25, members of search and rescue teams from the Sea to Sky corridor and the Sunshine Coast gathered at Cypress Mountain to witness a safety demonstration that has the potential to dramatically reduce time spent searching for lost hikers. ![]()
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