This audible locator is intended to help you find model rockets in tall grass, bushes and similar obstacles which can make visual contact difficult. The locator Emmet's a warbling noise, created by a piezo transducer. This noise is supposed to be easier to hear than, for example, steady beeping. It also has a red LED which flashes. The LED could come in handy for night, or late evening, flights. It uses a very small 12V battery, which helps to keep the overall weight low.

Overall, the MicroBeacon seems like a good, quality, product and sells for $12-$13. It appears to be plenty sturdy for use with model rockets.

The Kevlar loop on the locator is used to attach it to a nose cone, shock cord, or parachute. The cord struck me as a touch on the long side, but that may be a matter of personal preference. I would have gone with something far shorter and a snap swivel. A snap swivel might limit the number of areas it can be attached to.

The main advantages of this locator are its small size and low weight. You don't need a lot of extra space above the parachute to pack in the beeper.

Personally, I would have liked to have seen an on/off switch. Granted, this would have added a miniscule amount of weight but would add greatly to ease-of-use. Masking tape is used to keep the battery in place.

When I find a rocket, the last thing I want to do is go removing masking tape and then the battery. Being able to simply switch it off would be much easier and avoids the possibility of losing the battery.

Field Testing

For the first flight, the MicroBeacon audible locator was used with my scratch-build Shadow, flying on a G33 motor. Excellent flight. The rocket landed fairly close to the pad, in some tall grass. This would have made for an excellent testing opportunity, except for the parachute being visible on top of the bushes and grass. As I got to about 30-40 feet from the rocket, I made it a point to listen for the beeper. It could not be heard, unless I was looking directly at the rocket. In that sense, it worked perfectly. Simply turn around (slowly) until you hear the beeps and you'll know which direction to search in. However, the noise was faint, even this close to the rocket.

For the second flight, the beeper was put in the beefed up Fat Boy. Great flight, but the nose cone broke loose (at ejection) and could not be recovered. The beeper was attached to the nose cone. No beeping/warbling could be heard while trying to locate the nose cone. It was lost, along with the MicroBeacon. As no one had seen the nose cone come down, I wasn't expecting to hear the locator as the potential landing area was too large.

Lesson learned this flight is not to attach locators to the nose cone. Attach them to the shock cord so you'll keep the beeper in case a nose cone tears from the shock cord.

Obviously, two flights is nothing to go on, so two more MicroBeacons were purchased for review. The next flight proved the usefullness of these locators.

The Estes Rock It was flown on an F24-4 and got quite a bit more altitude than expected. The parachute also didn't deploy which made it come down quickly and in an area covered with high grass and bushes. After searching for a good 15 minutes, no sign of the rocket and the beeper could not be heared. Recovery no longer seemed obvious.

All of a sudden, I could hear the faint noise of the locator. From that moment on, recovery was quick and easy. If it hadn't been for the locator, the Rock It (and the 24mm RMS hardware in it) may not have been recovered.

After recovering the rocket, it became clear why the parachute didn't deploy. The Kevlar loop of the MicroBeacon had become tangled up with the shock cord and shroud lines. This validates my earlier concern and the long loop was replaced with a very short loop with snap swivel. To modify your own locator this way, simply side a snap swivel over the loop to the desired location. Tie a few knots in the loop to secure the snap swivel in place. Cut off the excess loop and place a few drops of epoxy on the knot. This simple modification should keep the Pratt Hobbies MicroBeacon from interfering with parachute or streamer deployment.