What this document settles
It fixes the transmit frequency at 457 kHz and the characteristics of the signal — the pulse, its timing, the tolerances — so that a device from one maker can be found by a device from another. It is a radio standard, published by a telecommunications body, and that is exactly the right home for it: the problem it solves is interoperability, not rescue.
It is the reason there is no format war on this shelf. Every avalanche transceiver sold for this purpose transmits on the same frequency, and any receiver can hear it.
What it does not promise
It does not promise a find. Range, antenna count, how a device behaves with several burials, how quickly a searcher can interpret the display and how the device handles interference from a phone or a heated glove are all outside it, and all of them decide the outcome.
It does not promise the device is serviceable. Batteries, firmware, self-test behaviour and the maker’s stated service interval are the maker’s.
It does not cover the rest of the kit. A transceiver without a probe and a shovel finds a point and cannot reach it, and nothing in a radio standard says so.
And it does not substitute for training, which is the part this site will not step into. The equipment is comparable on published figures; the use of it is taught in a course, by people, on snow.
What it is read alongside
The airbag standard covers a different piece of the same kit. Probes and shovels have no equivalent document at all — their lengths and materials are declared by makers and compared here on that basis.
Where it turns up on this site
Transceivers directly, and the airbag pack shelf beside them, since the two are bought in the same conversation.
This site handles it in one way, consistently. A transceiver page prints the antenna count, the stated search strip width, the battery type and the maker’s stated service interval, each credited to the maker. It does not rank devices on rescue outcomes, it does not describe any of them as making a slope safe, and every page on this shelf says plainly that the equipment is the smaller half of the question.
The questions asked most often
Can I mix brands in a group?
On the frequency, yes — that is what the standard is for. On everything else, practice matters more: the interface, the marking and the search pattern differ, and a party that has trained together on mixed devices is in a different position from one that has not.
Is an old transceiver still usable?
It still transmits and receives on the same frequency. Whether it is worth relying on is a different question — single-antenna devices search very differently from three-antenna ones, and makers publish their own service and replacement intervals.
Does the standard cover how well it searches?
No. Range, antenna count, multiple-burial handling and the interface are the maker’s design, not the standard’s requirement.
Last reviewed 28 September 2026