Summary: The Pieps DSP is a small beacon, it has one of the longest ranges
of the digitals, it allows you to lock-out a transceiver during a multiple burial, its third
antenna is excellent at dealing with spikes during deeper burials, it handles
frequency drift well, and it can be upgraded via the
earphone jack.The Pieps DSP Advanced includes the same
features as the Pieps DSP plus it includes a temperature display, compass, bearing compass, and barometric altimeter.
Searching: The DSP has a long range and an intuitive
direction indicator. The only downside is the direction indicator refreshes a little slower than
the Trackers (although I haven't quantified this or adequately compared it to the
Pulse).
Multiple Burials: The handling of multiple burials is similar to the
Barryvox Pulse (you press the Mark button to ignore the current beacon and advance to the next beacon). Read
the details here.
Spikes: The Pieps DSP was the first three-antenna beacon and set the standard for
spike handling. Superb.
Controls: The switch that changes between Off, Send, and Search is one of the most intuitive of the 30 beacons reviewed. A bump of the
switch conveniently changes from search back to send (as with several other beacons). The Mark button (a flag, which is reasonably intuitive) tells the transceiver
to ignore the nearest transceiver during a multiple burial search. As with other beacons that use a magnetic switch, it is possible for a large radio
or magnetic jacket closures to turn off the Pieps (details here).
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| Pieps DSP |
Comfort: The Pieps harness is now on its third generation. The original black and subsequent silver
harnesses were far from ideal. The new harness is a very comfortable pouch-style harness. It can be purchased
separately, for less than $20, from LibertyMountain.com.
Other Features: The DSP lets you check the transmitting frequency
of your friend's transceiver. It has a Smart Transmitter which modifies the cadence of the transmitted
single to reduce the likelihood of signal overlap during a two-victim multiple burial. The scan function
shows the distance to multiple victims. Version 5.0 and later of the software supports the Pieps iProbe.
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| Pieps DSP |
The Pieps DSP is programmed to blink the little man icon ( )
at the bottom of the screen when it senses a continuous background signal (i.e., an older analog beacon). To test this, I searched
for an Ortovox M1 which had a strong background signal. The DSP's man icon did not blink during the
secondary search, but it did display two blinking men during the
pinpoint search. I treat the blinking men as a indication that the DSP is aware of an unusual signal
and is trying to interpret it.
Upgrades: The DSP can be upgraded via the earphone jack. Read about the latest software upgrade
here.
Other: Read about the DSP's self-test.
This beacon unquestionably deserves five stars.
View the comparison table for more information regarding the Pieps DSP.
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