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ACR ResQFix PLB-300 Teardown

Tearing Down a $10 Thrift Store Personal Locator Beacon

connor-mayConnor May
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I picked up an ACR Electronics ResQFix PLB-300 personal locator beacon at a thrift store for $10. It's a 406 MHz COSPAS-SARSAT distress beacon with an integrated GPS; the kind of thing you clip to a PFD or pack on a boat or in the backcountry so search and rescue can find your exact position if things go sideways. As far as I can tell, there's no existing teardown of this specific model online, so here's mine.

Standard safety disclaimer up front: 406 MHz and 121.5 MHz are protected distress frequencies. This unit's battery and registration were long expired by the time I got it, and I'm not activating, transmitting on, or otherwise bringing this thing back into service; this is a hardware documentation / reverse engineering project only.

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