I vote tracker too - having upgrated an old ortovox i looked at all the options incl on/off switching, battery life, perfomance etc - Tracker package wins hands down. 

You wouldn’t drive a car if the brakes could perhaps switch themselves off !

thanks for flagging this up - i will be checking my customers even more carefully!

True, the Send mode is activated on my two Pulse units before the switch is *locked* into Send mode, but locking the switch into Send produces a very solid-feeling and fairly loud-sounding click.  By contrast, sliding the switch into Send yet not allowing it to lock into the Send position requires an almost deliberate and fairly delicate action.  Plus the switch is still visibly protruding from the beacon housing.

Overall, I think a Pulse owner should be aware that the switch should be locked into Send mode with a very clear click, but that’s already very obvious even after turning on the beacon a single time.

By contrast, just a few drops of water onto the sliding switch, which then disappear below the switch and can freeze, will render the beacon incapable of being switched into Search or even Off without a few minutes of rewarming first.  (This actually happened to me in the field because of a partially unzipped jacket during an extended period of light snow.)

So any Pulse owner has to be careful not to allow water to get onto the beacon, and if any water is suspected of being in there, periodically switching the beacon briefly to Search might be a good idea to prevent and/or break up any hidden internal ice formation in the switch.

I can’t really see a situation where this would happen if you pay attention to setting the unit up. On a different note. I’ve used my unit for 1 weeks skiing and have just changed the battery. The incredibly thin bar that holds the locking hook on the compartment cover snapped off when pushing the hook down. A little disappointing really. Anyone else had this happen?

hmm. Been using the pulse all season and have to say, you need to be fairly dim not to know when it is correctly switched on - definite click…

The point is that it tells the user that it is switched on before the click..

Here is what the designer at Barryvox, emailed me on the subject.

What you have seen concerning the behaviour of the switch is correct. The device does already turn on before the switch has locked into the SEND position. It is correct that it would be nicer if the device would only turn on when the mechanical locking mechanism has already closed.
Switches are expensive and the more mechanically perfect they need to be the more complex they become. The small amount of money the end users are paying for the device, unfortunately leads to several limitations. You need to realize as well, that most of the money you pay goes to dealers and distributors and not to the manufacturer. There is a long list of characteristics which could be substantially optimized if the final price of the transceiver could be higher – and many of these optimizations would as well lead to a higher safety in the application of avalanche rescue transceivers.