why didnt anybody think of this before

If we're going to be realistic about this - it's neither a SART or an EPIRB (both of which are systems that exist in real life). I first called it an EPIRB, but decided the Stormworks transponders work closer to a SART beacon.

EPIRB works with satellites, allowing a Maritime Rescue Coordination Center to locate the rough whereabouts of the beacon using triangulation - which is quite far away from what this is. SART beacons on the other hand work by putting out radar pulses that can be detected on a normal marine radar, which I felt is closer to what the transponder block is doing. That's why I decided to call it a SART beacon!

isn't this just an EPIRB? (google it or something like that)
it's a real thing. why not just call it that?

A yet to be released project! She's called Ability and I've probably spent around 150-200 hours on her. There are more pictures on the KO Discord linked above.

pls tell me

what boat was the transponder on in the first picture? it looks cool

Awesome! If you're looking for realistic radios as well as a radio direction finder I have that available as well, would be very interesting to see it tested in MP :)

Im definitely going to use this in my SAR server. this is perfect.

Great to see it coming to use!

same, I've added a few fake versions of these but tis cool to see an actual functional one

Been looking for one of these actually, thanks