Emergency GPS beacons/transponders?

[fortort]

I was curious if anyone uses these? I'm essentially looking for something that (if I'm injured or stuck) I can activate almost anywhere (deep in the mountains) and it will alert rescue personnel of my location and request for help. Does this exist? Are they something I can just buy and use when needed or do they require some sort of monthly fee or paid service? If it does exist what is a good brand to look into?

To clarify: I'm not looking for a Avy beacon, just a way to contact emergency personnel in a dire situation since sat phones are too expensive and require a plan.

Any ideas?

[HansJob]

There's always SPOT.

[fortort]

Yea, that's an option. Are there any SAR beacons that don't have a monthly/annual cost?

I (obviously) plan on using it exactly zero times in my life.

[snoqpass]

http://www.inreachdelorme.com

[whyturn]

I got an acr plb after my canada overnight er
No monthly and $250 with 5 year battery life

[fortort]

This seems to be what I'm looking for, something that's a one time cost and I can put in my pack and forget about until I need it (hopefully never).

I got an acr plb after my canada overnight er
No monthly and $250 with 5 year battery life

[Ggreenie]

This is exactly what you are looking for...

http://www.ja-gps.com.au/GME/mt410g-plb/

[TexasGortex]

I thought most dentists got one of these at graduation.

[rod9301]

I bought a mcmurdo emergency locator which will transmit the gps coordinates on 406 mhz and has the 121.5 mhz capability..
btw the 121.5 is being phased out, some airplanes still monitor it.
the mcmurdo weighs 3-4 ounces and is the smallest I've found seems like half the weight and size of competing models.

i carry it for bc skiing and climbing.

the breitling watch shown above only works on 121.5mhz

[powder fiend]

I got an acr plb after my canada overnight er
No monthly and $250 with 5 year battery life

yup, the ACR res-q-link 406 is the best PLB out there if your priority is getting saved. Doesn't have any function for sending messages to family, but it transmits the SOS signal at a way higher wattage than SPOT or DeLorme devices, uses the best satellite network, and has no annual fees.

[GeezerSteve]

Best? Hmmmm. McMurdo makes a nice PLB and Rescueme is the lightest.

OP, the first thing is to educate yourself about PLB vs. personal messengers. Apples vs. oranges. PLB is a single function/single-use emergency device that you employ only when you are the shit so bad that you need to be rescued, lest you will die. There are no monthly dues, but you should check to see if your jurisdiction might charge you to cover the costs of rescue. You need to register your PLB with NOAA. PLBs transmit at 5W or more, send SOS signal to NOAA satellites that in turn send the signal to the Air Force and/or other governmental entity that eventually dispatches SAR, Coast Guard, etc. to save you. Our group has had 2 McMurdo FastFind units (lightest available when we got them) for 5+ years and never needed to push the panic button, thank goodness.

OTOH, messengers like inReach and Spot are much more versatile, able to transmit and receive signals to and from (two different) private satellite networks, but at considerably lower transmit power. Both have an SOS function that first routes through a private sector router. inReach and Spot are a bit different, but generally speaking you can check in to a loved one, who can see your position on a map. InReach also allows you to receive messages and to confirm that your message was received. My inReach has been 100% effective in transmitting and receiving messages. I routinely check in from camp via a "at camp and safe" preset message. I also have a "safe but running late" preset message and can send custom messages (e.g., "I broke two ribs, painful but I should get out safe"). My inReach plan costs around $12/month. Word is that Spot has spottier performance. This weekend guy was rescued on the W flank of Glacier Peak, having sent an SOS from an inReach SE in dense forest in an area of big relief.

Our PLBs are due to have the batteries replaced. Have not yet decided whether we will pay for that or just use the inReach SE.

[Meadow Skipper]

Spot totally rocks for the "This is where I am and I'm okay" and "I'm gonna be a little late, but I'm okay" messages, which have been $$$ for the marriage. Never used the "Get me the fuck out of here" feature.

[rod9301]

steve, with the in reach, can you leave the gps home?

[GeezerSteve]

I carry a 60csx GPS unit. My inReach SE stays in the pack turned off until camp, when I check in with Honey, or if I'm with Honey, a friend, or if Honey is out solo she checks in with me. InReach Explorer operates as a GPS unit but I would not rely on it for a long trip -- can't change battery in the field, etc.

[neck beard]

My inReach has been 100% effective in transmitting and receiving messages. I routinely check in from camp via a "at camp and safe" preset message. I also have a "safe but running late" preset message and can send custom messages (e.g., "I broke two ribs, painful but I should get out safe"). My inReach plan costs around $12/month. Word is that Spot has spottier performance. This weekend guy was rescued on the W flank of Glacier Peak, having sent an SOS from an inReach SE in dense forest in an area of big relief.

Spot really benefited from their [perceived?] first-to-market status. Now "Spot" is often used as a generic term for these retail consumer devices. In the meantime, the InReach products are significantly superior. Yet people are still robotically motivated by brand name familiarity, so they buy a Spot, without investigating or perhaps understanding the differences.

[JTrue]

I rock an Inreach SE, like Big Steve said it's much more versatile than a PLB. If you read reviews of Inreach vs Spot you hear about a lot of issues with the spot and reliability sending messages. I think the Iridium network is superior when it comes to reliability, which is what the Inreach uses. I've also used sat phones on the iridium network and had good luck. Used mostly in Alaska, in Utah I have cell service most places I recreate.

[whistlerline]

I use one of these when sailing offshore, marine gear is usually the highest of quality.

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/acr-el...acon--13381207

[Jonathan S.]

I carry a 60csx GPS unit. My inReach SE stays in the pack turned off until camp, when I check in with Honey, or if I'm with Honey, a friend, or if Honey is out solo she checks in with me. InReach Explorer operates as a GPS unit but I would not rely on it for a long trip -- can't change battery in the field, etc.

That used to be my setup.
But now I have the inReach Explorer, so combined with the BCN app, the Garmin 60 series almost always gets left at home.

By itself, the Explorer would be very weak as a GPS.
The problem isn’t the non-replaceable proprietary battery – battery life is the equivalent of a Garmin 60 series with another three or four sets of AA Li batteries.
(And for a month-long Whereveristan expedition, can recharge off a solar unit.)

Instead, the problem is the lack of any basemap, combined with cumbersome scrolling vs zooming.

I can get away w/o a basemap for places where I’ve previously skied, since I can upload to my Explorer what is essentially a map overlap with all my waypoints and tracks from prior trips.
And when weather conditions are good, the BCN option for “USTopo: Imagery with Markup” is worth the futzing with a touch screen.
(The phone battery life issue seems okay so far for daytrips on my S4 Mini when coupled with a phone case that includes its own battery, and I keep a spare battery in my emergency kit too.)
However, an insufficient number of buttons on the Explorer severely complicates what should be the simple act of switching between scrolling vs zooming, which is often necessary given the small screen.

So I keep the Explorer on all the time to record a tracklog, both for emergency backup to the phone (especially if wx messes up the touch screen) and for future map overlay purposes.
A phone running BCN excels in all the areas where the Explorer falls short, and vice versa.
Put the two together and you have – well, kind of a confusing setup in some ways, but good enough for most trips to skip the dedicated GPS.

[homemadesalsa]

Thanks Jonathan and others, especially Big Steve. Am certainly following this conversation.

JS- what does BCN stand for?

[neck beard]

bacon

[GeezerSteve]

JS, virtually all places I'd take an inReach lacks cell LOS so the cell phone stays home or in the car. (Also, FWIW, I never use maps on my GPS unit.) Didn't know that the Explorer-in-GPS mode had that long a battery life, but it doesn't matter to me cuz I have the SE and aint gonna buy an Explorer, and even if I did the Explorer in GPS mode seems fucking awful to use in the field unless you link it to a cell phone (otherwise dead weight to me) via battery-sucking Bluetooth. In view of the foregoing, if I'm gonna take two devices, it makes more sense for me to take the inReach SE and a GPS unit. YMMV

[Jonathan S.]

JS- what does BCN stand for?

Much better than Gaia:
http://backcountrynavigator.com
... at least on Android.
The ability to switch between different databases for waypoints & tracklogs is especially slick.
(Orux also looks interesting -- I've played around with it a bit, but seems to have a needlessly complex interface.)

[dcpnz]

Old thread bump
I'm looking at these DeLorme inReach units.
Quite frankly majorly confused by the differences between the SE and the Explorer.
Buddy has the Explorer. Seems very convenient to use cellphone to type custom texts from the field and send via the inReach. Can the SE do this too?
Why would I choose the Explorer over the SE? Is it just extra mapping which you guys seem to imply is pretty ordinary and only marginally useful at best?

[Jonathan S.]

Can the SE do this too?
Why would I choose the Explorer over the SE? Is it just extra mapping which you guys seem to imply is pretty ordinary and only marginally useful at best?

1. Yes.
2. See #3.
3. Yes. (Personally, for me the marginal utility was worthwhile for the marginal price increase, but it's definitely *not* good enough as a standalone GPSr.)

[GeezerSteve]

Ditto to what JS said. I've had a chance to use a friend's Explorer. If I had to make a purchase decision today, I'd get what I have: the SE + a standalone GPS unit.