Well, according to the BCA rep (Clem) their beacons are the easiest to use and most reliable.
Well, that is exactly what a rep would claim.
I've moved my Tracker 3 into my backup beacon slot because of the follow limitations -- and I am not the only one with these (see Cody Townsends post in the IG thread linked above).
- The Tracker 3 can be easily and inadventedly switched to Send mode when in Search mode. This is not nearly as dire as the opposite problem in the DPS, but it does mean potentially mucking up a search in a highly stressful scenario.
- All BCA beacons -- from the DTS, to the T2, T3 -- suffer from severly limited range on the perpendicular axis. I do not trust myself to be able to maintain the perfect beacon orientation while search (aka, skiing avy debris in a rescue scenario). After seeing the difference in range the field of the T3 and the Barryvox, the choice was obvious.
I will miss the T3 speed of updates in fine searching and big picture mode -- but those are worthwhile tradeoffs for me.
Personally -- I think it's time to stop telling people "any modern 3 antenna beacon" is fine. While they all can be okay, there are real differences with them and some have inherently inferior design features. We need to have conversations about these -- because it's not the matter of whether you prefer a Kastle feel or a Stockli feel in a ski. It's what design(s) make for the most fool-proof, no-surprise operations in a high stress scenario with death on the line.