[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 53 (Friday, March 18, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15409-15410]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-05792]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Emergency Beacon Registrations

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the 
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and 
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of 
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on 12/17/2021 during a 60-day comment period. This 
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 
Commerce.
    Title: Emergency Beacon Registrations.
    OMB Control Number: 0648-0295.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, Revision of a currently 
approved information collection.
    Number of Respondents: 343,808.
    Average Hours per Response: 15 Minutes.
    Total Annual Burden Hours: 85,952.
    Needs and Uses: The United States, Canada, France, and Russia 
operate the Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (COSPAS/SARSAT), 
a satellite system with equipment that can detect and locate ships, 
aircraft, and individuals in distress if an emergency radio beacon is 
being carried.
    This system is used to detect digitally encoded signals in the 
406.000-406.100 MHz range, coming from these emergency beacons. The 
406.000-406.100 MHz beacons transmit a unique identifier, making 
possible the ability to combine previously collected data associated 
with that beacon and transmit this vital data along with the beacon's 
position to the appropriate rescue coordination center.
    Persons buying 406.000-406.100 MHz emergency radio beacons are 
required to register them with NOAA prior to installation. These 
requirements are contained in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 
regulations at 47 CFR 80.1061, 47 CFR 87.199 and 47 CFR 95.1402.
    The registration data is used to facilitate a rescue and to 
suppress the costly consequences of false alarms, which if unsuppressed 
would initiate the launch of a rescue mission and thereby deplete 
limited resources and possibly result in the loss of lives. This is 
accomplished through the use of the data provided to the rescue forces 
from the beacon registration database maintained by the NOAA's United 
States Mission Control Center (USMCC)

[[Page 15410]]

for Search and Rescue, to contact the distressed person(s) or alternate 
party via a phone call or radio broadcast. Other data provides rescuers 
with descriptive material of the element in distress. The registration 
information must be kept up-to-date.
    Four registration forms are used. The EPIRB (Emergency Position 
Indicating Radio Beacon) form is used for nautical beacons. The ELT 
(Emergency Locator Transmitter) form is used for aircraft beacons. The 
PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) is used to register portable beacons 
carried by individuals. Ship Security Alerting System (SSAS) beacons 
are carried aboard ships, are similar to EPIRBs and are used in the 
event of an emergency situation such as piracy or terrorism.
    These forms are being updated in response to the development of 
406MHz second generation beacons (SGBs), which are in development and 
are projected to be available to the public in 2023. Changes to the 
forms are as follows:
    23-Hex Beacon ID line: SGBs have 23-character hexadecimal unique 
identifiers. NOAA's 406 MHz Beacon Registration Database (RGDB) 
currently allows registrations for first generation beacons (FGBs) that 
contain 15-character hexadecimal identifiers. Once SGBs are on the 
market, beacon owners will have the capability to register either FGBs 
or SGBs in the RGDB. Even though each registration will be for only one 
beacon ID, the hardcopy registration form must contain separate lines 
for FGBs and SGBs due to the differing number of characters and their 
presentation on manufacture labels and packaging--FGB IDs are presented 
in groups of 5-5-5 and SGB IDs will be 6-6-6-5.
    Old 23-Hex ID: This field was added to enable registration of a 
replacement SGB beacon. The RGDB will continue to capture data for both 
FGB and SBG replacements.
    Beacon Serial No.: This field was added to capture the beacon's 
serial number, which appears on the manufacturer-supplied label and/or 
on the beacon or its packaging. The serial number provides additional 
verification of the beacon ID and can be used by RGDB staff to resolve 
cases of incorrect or duplicate beacon IDs.
    Other: An Automatic Identification System (AIS) Maritime Mobile 
Service Identity (MMSI) number was added to the EPIRB form. The 
following fields were added to the PLB form to provide additional 
pertinent information to search and rescue (SAR) forces: Radio Call 
Sign (on EPIRB form), Vessel MMSI # (on EPIRB form), AIS MMSI # (just 
added to EPIRB form), and Aircraft Registration (Tail) No. (on ELT 
form).
    Affected Public: Individuals or households; Business or other for-
profit organizations; Not-for-profit institutions; State, Local, or 
Tribal government; Federal government.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 
regulations at 47 CFR 80.1061, 47 CFR 87.199 and 47 CFR 95.1402.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0648-0295.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2022-05792 Filed 3-17-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-HR-P