ENOS Rescue-System

ENOS stands for the German product “Elektronisches Notruf – und Ortungssystem”, Electronic Rescue and Locating System. The ENOS-System is a rescue system developed for water sports, especially scuba diving, but also windsurfing, jet skiing, sailing and boating. The ENOS-System allows people in distress to signal their location when drifting on the surface so that they may be quickly located and rescued.

Assembly and Operation:

The ENOS-System consists of two units: the ENOS-Receiver on board the dive boat and the ENOS-Transmitters, carried by divers during a dive.

Both units are GPS supported. That means that both the Receiver and the Transmitters determine their GPS coordinates through the GPS satellites. To relay the alert a license free radio frequency is built into the ENOS-System.

1. The ENOS-Receiver on board the vessel must be switched on before every dive. It determines 1st position (A) via GPS satellites.

2. In an emergency, if divers surface too far to swim back to the boat; are swept away in a current; or are out of sight due to poor weather conditions, they must switch on their ENOS-Transmitter. Once activated, the ENOS-Transmitter, determines its GPS position (B) through the GPS satellites.

3. The ENOS-Transmitter then sends the GPS coordinates of the diver(s) position (B) via an approved radio frequency directly to the ENOS-Receiver. Using the positions (A) and (B), the receiver then calculates the distance and bearing to the divers and plots their position clearly on the screen.

Technology and Receiving Range

The ENOS-System is a self-contained rescue system that functions in a local area. Its range is determined by the height of the receiving antenna mounted onboard the dive boat or vessel, surface conditions, and direct line of sight. In optimum conditions ranges of up to six nautical miles are received. Receiving ranges of up to three nautical miles are standard.

The radio frequency used is license free, free of charge and determined by the national laws of radio frequencies where the system is operating. As this system is fully self-supported, there are no additional costs to the operator conducting the rescue operation In addition, every ENOS-Receiver is built to receive alerts from all ENOS-Transmitters operating with the same frequency and within the same receiving range.

The ENOS-System is the only rescue system for water sports worldwide which relays the GPS position of the person in need to a local receiving unit.

Other Rescue Systems

Unlike other rescue systems for distress at sea and Man-Over-Board Systems, the ENOS-System does not use the international distress frequency. The alert is relayed directly to the ENOS-Receiver and not to coast guards or other rescue institutions (e.g. MRCC, Marine Rescue Coordination Centres). This enables the vessel closest to the person(s) in need to initiate the rescue independently and within minutes.

The ENOS-System is not intended to replace existing distress radiobeacons or rescue systems (e.g. EPIRBs, ELTs, PLBs, Inmarsat etc), which operate on international emergency frequencies and over large distances.

Circulation

The ENOS-System was developed by the German company Seareq, Safety and Rescue Equipment, located in Rösrath / Germany and was launched in 2004. It is operating in the following countries: Egypt, Ecuador / Galápagos, European Union, Maldives, Seychelles and from autumn 2008 in Australia and United States of America. Due to its life-saving character it is officially recommended of several diving federations.

References

A collection of press releases about the ENOS-System [http://www.seareq.de/en/press_enos.htm]

External links

Website of company Seareq, Sicherheits- und Rettungsequipment [http://www.seareq.de]