This might be old news but I just received a press release on it today and thought it could be important for someone with an older epirb.

CAPE MAY—The Coast Guard is encouraging boaters and aviators to keep up with search and rescue technology.

Beginning February 1, the Coast Guard and other search and rescue personnel will only receive distress alert broadcasts using digital emergency position indicating radio beacons. The analog signals will no longer be received.

The changeover will save the Coast Guard and taxpayers money, because they will no longer need to respond to false alarms, "We were launching on false distress calls, cost Coast Guard and taxpayers a lot of money so now they developed the 406 EPIRB emergency position indicating radio beacon and what that does is hones in on where the person in distress is," says Petty Officer Ken Cholak.

The GPS embedded digital beacon can shrink a search area to about 100 yards and can locate a mariner within minutes.