Particularly small avalanche beacons have been around for a long time, but in the past they were mostly one- or two-antenna devices, which is simply no longer up to date (we hope all our readers now have a solid device with three antennas). The Evo 5 has three antennas and also offers all the other important functions of a modern avalanche transceiver. It guides you visually and acoustically quickly and without major detours to a transmitting avalanche transceiver or, in an emergency, to a buried victim, offers a decent recommended search strip width of 50 metres, a sophisticated marking function to support the search for several buried victims, a group check function and a configurable automatic switchover to transmit mode when stationary.
Gear of the Week | Arva Evo 5
The new minimum-size avalanche transceiver
The fact that only one AA battery is used for the power supply shows that they have really tried to save a lot of weight, although this does not have a negative impact on the running time. The Evo 5 does not come with a proper mount either; the avalanche transceiver is carried in a trouser pocket and clipped to a kind of belt for safety. Of course, a proper holster is also available, but this has to be purchased separately. Given the really favourable price of the Evo 5 (the RRP is just €235), I don't want to complain about this. Depending on the trousers, I either use the holster from an original Barryvox or put the Evo 5 in an avalanche transceiver-compatible pocket with a securing option, if the trousers have one (e.g. the Alvier Pant from Mammut).
I also like a feature that I haven't seen before from other manufacturers, namely "interference management". As avalanche transceivers are known to be noticeably disturbed by other devices, especially mobile phones, the Neo 5 shows this on the display. Of course, only if the interference can be clearly detected, which does not always work properly. It can also happen that a mobile phone interferes with the avalanche transceiver without this being displayed. Nevertheless, this is a step forward compared to other devices where nothing is displayed in any case...
All in all, the Evo 5 offers everything you need in an avalanche transceiver. Of course, the "big" devices are all a little more configurable and also have a slightly higher range, but in principle the Evo 5 should also satisfy demanding users.
However, I would like to mention one disadvantage: the slider for switching the device on, off and on again is not the best solution. Accidental adjustment did not occur, but it is not very intuitive to switch the device off, for example. Once the slider has been set to "Off", the marker button must be pressed within a short time to switch the device off, otherwise it will continue to transmit for security reasons. In any case, I have already managed to keep the device transmitting overnight several times...
Here is the link to the Arva website with further information
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This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.
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hTranslated from German.