Tred Barta Joins ACR Electronics as Spokesman

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John Bell 954-970-3394 prseitz@bellsouth.net



Note to Editors: For high-resolution images of Tred Barta and the ACR safety and survival products, please contact John Bell.


FORT LAUDERDALE, FL—MAY 1, 2006— Captain Tred Barta, an outdoors renaissance man with international credentials as a sport fisherman, backcountry bowhunter and a turboprop and jet pilot, has joined Team ACR as a spokesman for the company’s global line of safety and survival products.

Barta, host of the highly rated “The Best and Worst of Tred Barta”, airing on OLN, is credited worldwide with catching more Big Eye Tuna than any man alive on rod and reel. He’s also recognized as the modern pioneer of canyon fishing, the only man to ever hold the triple crown of light tackle tuna records and is the holder of several bowhunting records, including a 382-lb. wart hog (with tusks measuring 16 inches and 16 ½ inches) shot in Africa that defeated the legendary Fred Bear, who originally set the mark in 1952. Tred’s record still stands.

The outspoken Barta carefully chooses those products he supports. He is a major fan of ACR Electronics, especially its industry-leading lineup of satellite detectable emergency beacons, including Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs). Tred feels most television and outdoor celebrities are over-endorsed and, as a result, have lost their credibility. To quote Tred, “If you stand for everything, you stand for nothing.”

“ACR has been, and will continue to be, a life partner with the Barta Family,” he said. “Their safety products protect our lives in the worst of times. The net benefit is when you know the facts, you will also demand ACR to be your partner for life.”

In announcing the agreement today, Paul Hardin, ACR Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, welcomed Barta stating, “Tred Barta is the consummate outdoorsman—constantly pushing the envelope, pioneering new fishing and hunting techniques and keeping us entertained and informed with his in-your-face, over-achiever passion and work ethic. While Tred eschews technological crutches, he has from the earliest days of his career preached the importance of safety, making sure that safety is never an oversight no matter how remote or dangerous the quest.”

Over the last 50 years, ACR has earned a reputation as a dependable manufacturer in the area of search and rescue technologies. The company’s satellite-detectable beacons, for example, play an important link in the international search and rescue system that has saved more than 18,500 lives since the program’s inception in 1982.

Barta’s endorsement, which covers a wide-range of ACR products, will specifically focus on the company’s industry-leading line of 406 MHz rescue beacons, which include Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRBs) and PLBs. ACR, which has manufactured EPIRBs for the marine industry for over 20 years, recently introduced its first Personal Locator Beacon to U.S. consumers in 2003, following FCC approvals permitting the sale and use of the technology in the continental 48 states. The beacons had been permitted in Alaska– a test state– for several years prior to the FCC ruling. In 2004, ACR introduced a smaller, lighter and more function-rich PLB with the TerraFixâ„¢ 406 GPS for land use, also the AquaFixâ„¢ was introduced for marine use and the AeroFixâ„¢ was introduced to the aviation market.

“Don’t tell me you can’t afford a PLB,” challenged Barta. “I say you can’t afford not to. This unit literally saves lives, period. The protection of my family deserves nothing less.”

Barta joins an elite group of ACR spokesmen, which includes America’s best-known hunting personality Bob Foulkrod and Aron Ralston, an outdoorsman who made international news in 2003 by amputating his own arm to save his life while solo canyoneering in Utah.

More reliable than typical communications devices, such as emergency two-way radios, cellular phones or satellite phones, the ACR TerraFixâ„¢ 406 GPS PLB works at -20Ëš C, is waterproof up to 5 meters (16.5 ft) and is powered by a non-hazardous 5-year lithium battery, so it is capable of continual transmission for over 24 hours. Lightweight at just 12 oz. (338 g), the TerraFixâ„¢ 406 measures 1.74 x 5.71 x 3.03 in (4.4 x 14.5 x 7.7 cm).

A PLB/P-EPIRB/P-ELT is a satellite-signaling device of last resort, for use when all other means of self-rescue have been exhausted and where the situation is grave and imminent and the loss of life, limb, eyesight or valuable property will occur without assistance. All beacons must be registered following purchase– a simple and quick process, now with a web-base internet filing option. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) manages the registration database in the U.S. for all PLBs, EPIRBs and related beacons.

ACR Electronics, Inc., a Cobham plc Company, designs and manufactures a complete line of safety and survival products including EPIRBs, P-ELTs/P-EPIRBs/PLBs, Bridge-based Information Systems, SARTs and safety accessories. The quality systems of this facility have been registered by UL to the ISO 9001:2000 Series Standards. Recognized as the world leader in safety and survival technologies, ACR has provided safety equipment to the aviation and marine industries as well as to the military since 1956.
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