Like most of the buzz in the backcountry world these days, especially in alpine touring, I think the future of the sport and the gear is focused on lighter, faster, better. In the transceiver market, the technology to separate, mark and locate buried transceivers is already here, but now the main goal is just to make them better. The new Ortovox 3+ follows that path and may be the most impressive unit on the market next year and like most Ortovox products, it does it in style.
The Ortovox 3+, in phantom black and green apple.
To me, the most impressive thing about the Ortovox 3+ is its weight and size. It is a bit larger than my blackberry and feels much slimmer when worn against your body. The harness system has a zippered closure, as well as a hidden pouch that stores all the straps when not in use and keeps thing tidy. The Ortovox 3+ will only weight about 200 grams, 60 grams less than the S1 model. The consumer version will have a nice silver matte finish, with a rubberized coating on the back and around the edges. Very slick.
The Ortovox 3+ is small and light.
The Ortovox 3+ uses only one AA battery, which packs more voltage than two AAA’s. It can do this by somehow being able to suck all of the juice out of the AA battery before having to replace them, where as with AAA’s, they somehow aren’t as efficient at utilizing all of their store power. It’s pretty techy stuff and I can’t really explain more about it right now…but I’m sure I will learn more as time goes on.
Taking some designs from its old M1 model, the 3+’s search mode switch is activated by moving two slider buttons, 
causing one in the middle to pop up. This can quickly be pushed back in (and back to transmit mode), but the 3+ will still have an auto-revert in case you are caught off guard and buried before being able to push the button. The on/off switch is on the bottom and is moved flush to turn on, and also rotates to open up the battery compartment.
Now, all of these things are very nice, but the real story about the technology is about what Ortovox calls a Smart Antenna. Like most of Ortovox’s beacons, the 3+ has three antennas, with the “third antenna” really only coming into play in the pin-point search, where as the other two antennas are the ones that hone you into a buried transceiver and transmit a signal when you are skiing around or fearing for your life under the snow. The hard part about searching for beacons is that depending on how the buried and searching transceiver are oriented or “coupled”, you can have a weak or strong signal, or one that isn’t very efficient at directing you to the buried unit.
Ortovox 3+ in pin-point search mode, with one of
three transceivers found and marked.
What makes the Ortovox 3+ special though, is that when it senses you are buried (through analysis of it’s internal inclinometer), it has the ability to turn off one of it’s antennas and only transmit with the one that will offer the best coupling to the searching unit. Not only does this feature make the 3+ a more sophisticated transceiver, it will also make any model transceiver search for it…faster and better at its job.
As far as the search mode is concerned with the Ortovox 3+, it simple and processes information fast. In the coarse search mode, the number of buried victims is displayed at the bottom of the screen and are shaded in when found, and marked, with a bottom on the middle of the casing. A distance readout and arrow direct you to the closest unit that you are searching for, and in the pin-point search, the arrow disappears, and hash marks and the distance readout continue to tell you if you are getting closer or further from the target. Simple, straight forward and concise.
The Ortovox 3+ will retail at $349 in the fall of 2010, and is positioned well below other beacons already on the market…even one of its own. To me, the 3+ symbolizes a lot about what developing new gear is all about and by taking what they know, Ortovox has once again set the bar as far as avalanche transceivers go.
I’m going to leave it at that for updates from today at the tradeshow. Looks like I’m going to be driving back to Jackson in a blizzard tomorrow and after a 14 hour work day, I need some rest. Ciao…Steve.
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The Peak backpacks and Grizzly shovels are some of my favorites!
Well, I may have to retire my trusty old F1 focus! Wonder if it’ll make it out to NZ before the next season?
Sorry to be a Tech Weenie, but I think I can explain about the batteries. AA and AAA batteries have the same nominal voltage. The AA has more power (usually stated in mAH). As batteries drain, their voltage drops until a circuit which runs directly on the battery ceases to function (circuit dependent). The battery still has some power left, but the circuit can’t work at the lower voltage.
Lots of newer electronics include a switching voltage regulator which converts the input voltage (battery) to a different voltage (whatever the device wants) very efficiently so that as the battery voltage drops, the output of the regulator stays constant, at least until it sucks the battery dry.
Such a circuit is a little more expensive, but they have been highly integrated and become less expensive over the years.
Very impressive. Can’t wait to test this at a beacon facility. I actually tested the S1 for the first time several weeks ago and I was VERY impressed.
May be time to finally retire the old trusty Tracker 2 for a 3 antenna beacon next fall!
Scott…thanks for that. Better explanation than I could ever do.
Nick…glad you had a good experience with the S1. The 3+ addresses all the things some people didn’t like about the S1…even though it is a great beacon.
I’m especially digging the retail price. Refreshing.
Any news of the new Tracker?
john…i played with the new tracker 2 and it is a nice, simple unit. it doesn’t do signal separation though, whihc i think is imperative in a transceiver this days.
sounds like its the crucial new unit to finally replace my F1. Thanks for the details Steve, I never go to trade shows anymore even though I strangely miss the "Never Stop Talking" at the OR. One battery sounds like a great idea, especially to replace in a jam but beyond power use efficiency how long is the transmission life compared to other models that used two AAs? Wondering also if the internal inclinometer is activated by wearing it in a different position than with the strap provided which would have relevance to those of us accustomed to putting our transciever in a pocket. One other question, does the display light up for low light/night use?? I wanna get one and never have to use it. But can I download Tetris on it or upload my favourite searches to facebook?? Sorry, very bad joke.
The last bit of technology that hasn’t been included in the amazing digital realm capabilities of modern transcievers and albeit rather controvertial, would be to have ones pulse etc available for transmission in the sense of triage in a multiple burial where of course it would make sense to rescue the living first.
ptor…one AA battery has more power than two AAA’s…but i’m not sure about difference from two AA’s. i think the new technology of the 3+ allows the transceiver to suck nearly every last bit of power from the one AA before you need to change it.
sorry no light or tetris, facebook applications. my guess is they would use too much battery power.
and didn’t the barryvox pulse have the technology you speak off regarding triage?
it does…
When can you buy this?
derek…not until next year….probably oct/nov.
Had a demo today – very impressive.
I’ll have my unit into Monday, and writing up my WildSnow.com review over the weekend, so if anyone has any specific questions about the 3+, just let me know, and I’ll try to incorporate the answers into my review. (The preview I have up there from Jan 11 is just based on the same info as at this site — also, my Tracker 2 review is finally ready and should be up soon . . . or maybe once the Dynafit vs. Onyx debate there trails off a bit!)
I teach avy courses and comprehensive beacon clinics and I would be very interested in seeing how well the signal separation feature works on this beacon. Randosteve, you spoke of signal separation being imperative on avalanche beacons these days, but my experience with the current 3 antenna beacons that perform signal separation is quite poor. If I am using a beacon, I want all features to work absolutely perfect 100% of the time, and the inability of the digital signal separating processors to quickly chew through enough info to keep up with a moving searcher, accurately determine how many buried victims there are, handle ghosting signals from all analog beacons (not just the old ones), and quickly/accurately flag a buried beacon are, in my opinion, less than adequate…most of the time I find myself standing around while the beacon tells me to "stand still" because it is having issues processing the various signals it is hearing. This is true with all current 3 antenna digital signal separating processors on the market, and my results are from tests run in real time in a beacon park with the capability of creating many differing multiple and close proximity burial scenarios. Not to pick on the S1, but I have had it freeze up on me, completely unable to resolve the issue - after even 10 minutes - and this was in a single burial search! Obviously one would simply turn the beacon off and re-start it, but having to do so in a real search would be ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I think digital signal separation processing is a wonderful idea, and if the Ortovox 3+ has completely resolved all these issues I would very much like to buy one. However, if not, I believe I will continue to smoke people in the beacon park with my Tracker 2. Which, by the way, I can use while wearing my polarized sunglasses.
Not to sound like a total cynic though, I think that the assigning of transmitting preference to the more appropriate long(er) antenna within the beacon is an absolutely stellar idea. However, I would be interested to find out more about how exactly the built in inclinometer decides that you are buried. I’m not sure if that would work 100% of the time either.
By the way, less than 2% of burials in North America are true multiples that require a special technique or technology to resolve.
My apologies, instead of 2% in North America, I meant to say 2% in the US. Stats can be wonderful points to argue - 40% of them are made up anywas.
john…i think what a lot of people don’t understand about the newer digital signal separation beacons is that they take some time to learn how to actually use them correctly. i’ve seen people try to use old techniques like waving the beacon around in front of you to try to get the best signal…when this just isn’t the way to do it with the new beacons.
i think with any beacon it really gets tough with 4 or more signals…mainly if you’re receiving them all at the same time. pretty tough with any beacon!!!
i only would like to know how fast he is whit the pinpointing
and how is the depth reading .? at my D3 1.0 is 60cm and 0.2 30cm wish sux if you use the ortovox systems for earthwork