Personal Location Beacons, spot vs mcmurdo

I have the FastFind 210. When I hike solo I always take it. I've never had to use it. It lives in one of my hipbelt pockets or on my shoulder strap, depending on the risk at hand.

My wife is a caring loving woman, but has no interest in my day to day progress on the trail, and would hardly consider sitting at home waiting for an "I'm OK" message. And certainly doesn't want to worry when they don't come in. As far as she is concerned "I'm OK" until SAR calls. And they can handle the details, thank you very much.

As far as I'm concerned, I don't have to make any designated "check in" points, don't have to remember to send a message, don't have to find a place to send a message, don't have to futz around for 20 minutes while SPOT does it thing, and don't have to pay an annual subscription fee.

Also, I don't have to wonder if it got the signal out. It can literally get a signal out of a foil wrapped 5 gallon bucket (as long as the lid is off). That is all the "sky" it needs to see.

So, simple and solid.

Perfectly stated Greg.
I have the Fastfind for the exact same reasons; I talked with my wife about it as well. She has no interest in being responsible for monitoring me/my progress or calling SAR. She trusts that I'll do that, which I completely understand. I'd want it the same way. I don't want her burdened by my trips, feeling obligated to check up on me.

I also like the fact that it's ready to go whenever I am, no batteries, no fiddling, good for ~5-6 years.

It seems to me they're totally different tools, suited to different styles/trips/personalities.

The way I would see it is that the McMurdo and ACR PLBs are like a 911 call whereas the SPOT is more like an alarm monitoring company. See this website and discussion:

What Price Your Life? Distress Alerting as a Commercial Service

SPOT review at equipped.org

“…SPOT likely doesn’t provide the equivalent reliability and robustness of a PLB for distress alerting in more difficult environments and extreme conditions.”

To be fair, you must only buy SPOT 2 if you want one. Tohru's links are to the original SPOT.

http://www.equipped.org/blog/?cat=8

If I was buying, I'd wait to see the price of the new ACR, smaller than the McMurdo FastFind I think.

I think that the things that you describe exactly mirror my interest, if I am dying, I can 'call 911'. For me I think that also keeps an outing like a real adventure, I am not always calling home just because I can kind of thing. On that recommendation I think that I am going to purchase the McMurdo Fast Find 210 and basically have it as described, nearby in case of imminent threat.

thanks for the great, detailed advice.

-Toby

+ 1 to Greg and Craig. I have just got a 210 (211 here in NZ). Hope never to use it, but I do most of my hiking solo, so, despite the cost, it seemed the sensible thing to do.

I would also hate if I had a real life threatening emergency but SPOT or the local SAR were tied up due to this kind of idiocy: This Third Time Was Anything But Charming – SPOT Misuse At Grand Canyon National Park

A PLB is a life saving tool that you only use when your life is in imminent danger. It is not an orange tracker toy that can possibly summon help that is still considered advisory in nature. One other thing: Spot uses a much lower power 1.6GHz uplink signal to a communications satellite system. ELTs, EPIRBs, and PLBs utilize a much stronger 5 watt 406MHz signal that is less attenuated by weather and foliage, and the satellite system consist of low earth orbit and geostationary satellites that are government operated. You better have a good reason to push that little red button.

Where are people carrying their PLBs and what are they using to protect them case wise?

Thanks.

I would rather have the PLB sending the distress signal then the SPOT device. The audio in the blog post Tohru posted makes good points about why SPOT emergency services aren't always the best option for "SOS" signals (i.e. what happens when your not paid up but still press the "SOS" button).

I think SPOT does have one advantages though. I can see the tracking feature reducing rescue time for SAR personal. Let's say your backpacking solo, you turn on the tracking feature before heading out. Somewhere a long the way, your hurt and incapacitated and can't press the "SOS" button, or your in an area where getting an SOS signal out is hard. With SPOT tracking, someone could look up your last location and relay it to anyone searching for you. Even if you fall into a deep hole, the last tracking update should be close to where you went down.

I'm considering picking up a Spot Connect. It has tracking, 41 character outbound messages and their "SOS" feature. This would be more for fun and tracking.

As much as I like the added features of SPOT, if my life depended on it, I would trust a PLB. But that's just me.