ACR Electronics FPR-20 PROGRAMMER Product Support Manual page 7

3. Choose the Country you wish to program into the beacon by either typing the first
initial of the name of the Country or scrolling to the Country. You may scroll with the
mouse or the scroll buttons. Once you have selected the Country, click the mouse or
press Enter on the desired Country.
4. From the Protocol Menu, click on the appropriate protocol. See notes below for
clarification of the different protocols.
5. From the Protocol Code Select Menu, select the protocol desired. Only those
protocol code buttons permitted for the previously selected product and country code
selected are enabled.
6. Enter the serial number, call sign, address or marking corresponding to the protocol
chosen, e.g. if serial protocol is chosen enter the appropriate serial number.
Note 1: MMSI is defined as the 9 digit ship identification number. It is the country
code followed by the ship's unique numeric identifier. If less than six digits are
entered, the FPR-20 automatically enters zeros in the beginning of the value. For
example, if the unique identifier is 123456 and you enter 12345, the MMSI will be
encoded in the message as 012345.
Note 2: When programming a Maritime Call sign, you must be sure that the call sign
is valid for the beacon you are programming.
Note 3: In some areas, the only change necessary to the 406 beacon is changing the
serial number. There are 2 ways to recover the existing serial number of the unit. The
first way is on the hexadecimal identification label. After the words Serial Number:
there is a serial number. This number is the present serial number in the unit.
If the label is defaced in any way there is a second way to recover the serial number.
Perform a Memory Read as described in section 5.3. The POS Message Data that
appears on the screen will indicate the existing serial number. This number may be
decoded by using the COSPAS/SARSAT decoder on their website (http://www.cospas-
sarsat.org). Select Beacons and Beacon Decode Program. The number can then be
used as the serial number for the beacon you are programming. The ACR Message
Data represents the initial serial number of the beacon at the time of manufacture.
The above ways of recovering the existing serial number are only useful if there are no
rules for serialization for the country that the beacon will be used. Check with your
national authorities for any regulations governing the serial numbers that can be
encoded into the 406 beacon and any other beacon.
7. If MMSI, Maritime Call sign, Radio Call sign, Aircraft Address, A/C Registration
marking or A/C Operator Designator and Serial Number are chosen, you will be
prompted to enter the appropriate letters and numbers for the protocol chosen. In
addition the beacon number may be entered. For example, if the beacon being
programmed is the only one, enter 1. This will be coded as beacon 1 of 1. However,
if there are 2 beacons on the ship and you are programming the second beacon, enter
a 2 in the box provided.
6 Y1-03-0181 Rev. A