Bottom line
Backcountry Access Tracker DTS transceiver has become the North America’s best-selling avalanche beacon since its release couple of years back. This has been mostly thanks to its affordability, ease of use, reliability, and maybe a little bit of pride in trusting a beacon from this part of the world. Currently, it is slowly being surpassed in popularity by its successor – BCA Tracker 2.
Use(r) suitability
BCA Tracker DTS proved very effective in the hands of novice and less experienced users since there is not much learning curve needed. Because of that it is also very popular avalanche beacon with rental places as well as recreational operations for snowmobiling, heli-skiing, or cat-skiing. More experienced users and professionals are switching to more advanced beacons now. However, at some point in their careers they likely did use the Tracker DTS too.
Video overview
Product description
Backcountry Access Tracker DTS was the company’s first avalanche beacon. It was also the world’s first digital beacon. Over the past decade it proved very popular and still is. But the engineering moved to new levels since then, so we might start to see a decline in amount of purchases of this reliable beacon.
Overall, the BCA Tracker DTS is very easy to use which is what made it so popular. There is very little to study about this beacon before you want to search effectively.
The user friendly design compensates for the beacon’s somewhat smaller range, however, it is still comparable to beacons of its generation or even the newer lower priced digital avalanche beacons.
The Tracker DTS legacy is that it revolutionized the avalanche transceiver market by introducing dual antenna technology technology that allowed for more precise search – leading to faster rescues. Now the Backcountry Access Tracker 2 is poised to continue this legacy.
Technical info – BCA Tracker DTS
- Avalanche beacon type: digital
- Search user feedback: distance numbers, directional indication, beeps
- Multiple burials: no visual indication
- Marking (flagging) function: no
- No. of antennas: 2
- Maximum range: up to 50m
- Search lane width:
- Additional features: none
- Carrying system: harness system with a bag, included with the beacon
- Battery life: around 250h in transmit mode
- Battery type: 3 x AAA
- Dimensions: 132 x 86 x 25 mm
- Weight: 385g including batteries and carrying system
- Warranty: 5 years