You guys are right. It's the practice that makes the difference. That being said, the average person only practices with their beacon one hour a year.
I would want the person looking for me to be very well trained, practiced, and using a digital beacon. Studies have proved that digital beacons are faster and increase the survival rate. Analog beacons take quite a bit more practice (to train the ear). There's a reason why very few analog beacons are sold. I have retired all my F1's. Stopped using them 10 years ago, except for using them for the "buried beacon" in classes.
Give someone who owns an F1 (who has done average practice with it) a new digital beacon and they will switch to the new beacon right away. I see it all the time in classes. They get frustrated with the analog beacon and the people with the digital beacons are much faster. I'm not saying that if you practice a lot, you can't be as fast as a digital in some cases, but it sounds like you guys practice much more than the average person. I haven't seen an analog beacon win a beacon competition in quite a few years.
Mike Duffy