Ready Button; Sea Switch - mcmurdo E3 Owner's Manual

3. CONTROLS
3.1 ON button
This is hidden behind a sliding door, which protects it from accidental activation.
The sliding door has a tamper seal to show if the E3 has been activated before.
The E3 can be manually activated by sliding the door to the left (breaking the seal)
and then momentarily pressing the ON button.
When activated the E3 will start to flash immediately. It will not make any distress
transmissions for the first 50 seconds. This gives you a chance to turn it off, if you
activated it accidentally. During the first 50 seconds the red lamp comes on
continuously. When the red lamp starts to flash, the 50 seconds is over and distress
transmissions have started.

3.2 READY button

This button can de-activate the E3 and it can test the E3.
Ready Pressing and releasing this button quickly will de-activate the E3 and
return it to its "ready" state. When the button is released the strobe and
the red lamp will stop flashing.
Self-test Pressing and holding the ready button (for about 10 seconds) will allow
the built-in self-test to run. When the button is held down the red lamp
will come on for 4 seconds, then go off. During this time both the
121.5MHz homer and the 406MHz satellite transmitter make "safe"
transmissions. If both of these test transmissions arrive at the antenna
with sufficient power then the strobe light will flash 3 times to tell you
that all is well. If the strobe light does not flash within 10 seconds then
there is a fault and the ready button can be released.

3.3 Sea switch

It is important to realise that the only time the E3 is completely off is when it is fitted
in its mounting bracket. As soon as you take it out of its bracket a magnetic switch
activates and puts the E3 into its "ready" state. It will not drain the battery in this
state, but it will turn on automatically if the sea switch contacts are bridged by water.
The sea contacts are the two exposed screw heads beside the rear switches.
Although you can manually control the E3 with the READY and ON switches, the
sea switch overrides any manual settings. For the manual switches to operate
properly the E3 must first be dry so that the sea switch is de-activated.
To ensure the sea switch operates properly in rough seas, it has a built-in time
delay. It has to be wet for at least 2 seconds before it will activate and it has to be
dry for at least 8 seconds before it will de-activate.
4
ON
HOLD TO
TEST
READY