Beacons vs Transceivers again

It seems that people are still have trouble telling the difference between a “SPOT Beacon” and an “Avalanche Transceiver”

I wrote about this last year, based on some comments I heard while attending the CAA‘s Annual conference and AGM. The CAA posted about it again today, which makes me believe they are still encountering users on courses and members of the public who are confused about the terminology.

Let’s be clear on  the terminology we’re using. We used to refer to “avalanche beacons”, but the proper name is avalanche transciever because they can both receive and transmit.

A locator beacon, on the other hand, does not receive, but only transmits it’s location to an overhead satellite or radio location system.

I’ve reproduced the CAA’s notice below.