Editing Emergency position-indicating radiobeacon (section)

====Hex codes====
Example hex codes look like the following: 90127B92922BC022FF103504422535<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090318050833/http://www.cospas-sarsat.org/BeaconsCodingGuideExample/sdlnmms.htm Example of 406 MHz Beacon Coding<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
* A bit telling whether the message is short (15 hex digits) or long (30 hex digits) format.
* A country code, which lets the worldwide COSPAS/SARSAT central authority identify the national authority responsible for the beacon.
* Embedded 15-Hex ID or 15-hex transmitted distress message, for example, 2024F72524FFBFF The hex ID is printed or stamped on the outside of the beacon and is hard-coded into its [[firmware]]. The 15-hex ID can only be reprogrammed by certified distress radiobeacon technicians. The national authority uses this number to look up phone numbers and other contact information for the beacon. This is crucial to handle the large number of false alarms generated by beacons.
* A location protocol number, and type of location protocol: EPIRB or MMSI, as well as all the data fields of that location protocol. If the beacon is equipped with [[GPS]] or [[GLONASS]], a rough (rounded) [[latitude]] and [[longitude]] giving the beacon's current position. In some aircraft beacons, this data is taken from the aircraft's navigation system.
* When a beacon is sold to another country, the purchaser is responsible for having the beacon reprogrammed with a new country code and to [[Emergency Locator Transmitter#Registration|register]] it with their nation's beacon registry, and the seller is responsible to [[Emergency Locator Transmitter#Registration|de-register]] the deprecated beacon ID with their national beacon registry.
* One can use the beacon decoder web page<ref>[http://www.cospas-sarsat.int/en/seeing-information-programmed-in-your-beacon beacon decoder webpage], When one enters the transmitted (i.e. GPS-location-included) 15-hex into the decoder, the unmodified 15-hex ID is printed at the bottom of the output of the Beacon Decoder page. This method can be used to confirm that a beacon is encoding the correct 15-hex ID (as printed on the side of the beacon) into its distress messages. URL updated 26 March 2021.</ref> at Cospas-Sarsat to extract the 15-hex ID from the 30-hex distress message.