The long-awaited GME EPIRBs

Intense has been the anticipation for these new models by so many boaters or professional users. Yet GME 's main competitors managed to comply with the new MSC471 long before GME did, so it would have been easy for the user to choose another brand'sEPIRB.

The question we have to ask is why all these users wanted to wait for the availability of GME EPIRBs rather than simply switching brands?

The answer lies precisely inherently in this delay. Putting together real quality processes to then produce safety devices requires a healthy ethic that is common in Australian companies. This approach leads to syndication of every little process in production, while other companies interpret this method as the best way to get behind schedule, GME insists that only through this approach can quality and safety be aspired to.

Normal companies live in a spiral, where business drives everything. For GME "NO": safety comes far before any sort of business and the Australian government protects companies that approach with this kind of ethos.

As prescribed by IMO circular MSC471, GME 's new EPIRBs integrateAIS. For EPIRBs that for years had been produced with a radio electric scheme that did not include particular sources of interference, this was a substantial change.

In fact, it was not a matter of simply adding an AIS module, as other manufacturers have interpreted, but to insert an imbalance within a radio electrical system that had been proven for decades. Clearly, the input of this "alien" had to be careful and pervaded with all the necessary measurements.

GME 's integration of the AIS module was carried out to perfection, according to sound careful principles, peculiar to GME, and everything was harmonized so that the interference of theAIS transmisssion has the least possible impact on the functionality of theEPIRB.

The new GME EPIRBs, as prescribed by Circular MSC471, now integrateAIS. The added value propelled by MSC471 is clear, an EPIRB equipped with AIS is now visible not only by rescue coordination centers that receive coordinates via their COSPAS-SARSAT system, but also by all vessels in the vicinity (or vessels equipped with AIS) .AIS is at the heart of the GMDSS technologies that globally coordinate maritime traffic, an EPIRB with AIS enters fully into this system, with all the advantages in localization that comes with it. So theEPIRB is no longer to be considered as an emergency buoy unto itself, but a fully integrated device in the complex GMDSS system.

The integrated localization system is of the GNSS type and provides position reception from both the Galileo and GPS satellite constellation. For integration with COSPAS-SARSAT uses the new MEOSAR satellite constellation, a system that allows the position of the castaway to be detected even before the EPIRB signal reaches the coordination center

Otherwise, the new MT606G and MT606FG come in the usual GME 's own design and with their own distinctive features that have always characterized this particular production.

The MT606G model is already available in our warehouses and can be purchased from the best nautical dealers. In contrast, the MT606FG model will be available only in early August 2025.

Features

• Warranty 6 years (*)
• Battery life 10 years (*)
• Model MT606G:Manual or immersion activation Cat. 2
  Model MT606FG: Automatic activation - Category 1
• Integrated GNSS receiver supports GPS and Galileo
• MEOSAR ready
• Instant warm-up via digital "zero warm-up" technology
• Transmission at 406 Mhz and 121 Mhz
• High intensity strobe
• Infrared signal for enhanced visibility at SAR(Synthetic Aperture Radar)
• Easy and immediate test procedure
• Dimensions: 385 h x 157 x 102 mm with casing
• Robust and lightweight design
• Easy to mount
• Complies with IMO resolution MSC471 transposed in Italy on 01/07/2022
• Certified COSPAS-SARSAT C/S T.001 and C/S T.007 to operate internationally.

* in Italy replacement ofEPIRB or batteries, is required every 4 years