Personal locator Beacons (PLB’s) recommendations

I got an ACR ResQLink+ PLB a couple months ago (with a $50 rebate) so it was about $200. Lots of peace of mind in case things really go sideways, especially on a solo trip (hiking, bikepacking, kayking, etc.). I don't care as much as the check-ins, although I do wish there was a better SPOT with no subscription fees.

Being a multi-purpose user (aviation, outdoors, travel, etc) I have come to appreciate the flexibility of both a 2 way satellite communicator and an emergency PLB.

Been using the InReach SE for about a year and never had a failure up until September when I was up by the Arctic Circle. Unit was completely dead, would not power up. Would not take a charge either. Luckily we just wanted to send a non-emergency status message but knowing all we had was a brick got annoying.

Contacted Delorme Tech Support, they had me do a soft reset (wish I would have know about that before being way up there). It works now but still acts quirky, the battery seems to drain more rapidly when powered off, almost as if there is something else leaking on the circuit board besides the power button that uses a few micro-amps.

I still use it for $12 a month but don't completely trust my life to it like the government satellite based PLBs. Mostly I have it for when there is no cell coverage.

A 406 beacon has to reach out to ~20,000 miles to hit a geosynchronous satellite.

A SPOT or InReach only have to reach out ~500 or ~800 miles respectively to hit a low orbiting satellite.

I don’t believe that’s completely accurate. Cospas-SARSAT has both low earth and geosynchronous satellites.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving
Hikin Jim’s Blog

Jim,
Yes, there are a low orbit satellites in the system, and maybe they would be sufficient, but as designed, a PLB is intended to communicate with the geosynchronous satellites at ~20,000 miles out.

“ Cospas-Sarsat has demonstrated that the GEOSAR [geosynchronous] and LEOSAR [low earth orbit] system search and rescue capabilities are complementary. For example, the GEOSAR system can provide almost immediate alerting in the footprint of the GEOSAR satellite, whereas the LEOSAR system [5 satellites in 100 minute orbits]:

-provides excellent coverage of the polar regions (which are beyond the coverage of geostationary satellites)

– can calculate the location of distress events using Doppler processing techniques [but not as accurately as the lat/lon data provided by the PLB]

– and is less susceptible to obstructions which may block a beacon signal in a given direction because the satellite is continuously moving with respect to the beacon.”

Here's some info you might find helpful – it clears up some of the BS in this thread

http://tinyurl.com/p62vl7u

I live in Alaska and winter in the Southwest and generally travel solo.
I used the SPOT 2 for several years and upgraded to GEN3 when it came out. I have no complaints about SPOT; it has always worked for me and accomplished what I wanted – send a message with a location to whoever I have monitoring my trip. The unit indicates when a message is successfully sent and, as far as I know, all me messages have gone through. I don't really need or want two-way communication; I just want my monitors to have a Point Last Seen location in case of emergency. I use rechargeable batteries with my GEN3 and I get long life out of them.
However, I also have an Iridium Satphone which I sometimes carry in addition to the SPOT – usually just for longer trips or trips with a higher risk factor where I think two communication might be necessary in case of emergency. I've never had to use it.

I am a long time Spot user, having owned a Spot 1, Spot 2, Spot Connect and now a Spot 3. As others have reported, the early versions of the Spot were just plain bad at getting messages out reliably.

The Spot 3 is much different – I have never had gaps in my track or messages fail to send with the Spot 3. I seriously looked at the InReach last summer but held off given all the issues people were having and the fact that it's a larger unit than my Spot 3.

I also like the ability to interface with the Spot via Spotwalla and build custom tracking sites. I primarily use mine when paragliding or mountain biking and I'm usually with a few others. Having a mobile phone accessible tracking page is great for trying to figure out where everyone is at the end of the day.

I also carry a ResQlink PLB. The Spot is for tracking and sending the wife OK messages. The PLB is for when the shit hits the fan and I need emergency assistance.

My wife and family love SPOT. It all depends on what type of service desired in the wild. I hike to leave everything behind and wanted the MINIMAL amount of contact possible but also satisfying my wife and even that is a compromise. I have no interest in other features like breadcrumbs, internet, ability to receive or exchange TXT messages,etc. If I start TXT I might walk into a tree or off an edge :)

I looked at both the DeLorme and SPOT & chose the SPOT (Gen 2)$89 on ebay.

I use my SPOT buttons to:
A. "Check in at night "I am OK & have set camp"
B. "back at trail head and headed home"
C. I need help "not serious but need a hand"
D. "life threatening emergency need help immediately"

I have used it on many trips in all seasons. I have 10 people receiving messages A & B and have never had one message to anyone fail to get thru. Some people don't follow directions, You need to Leave unit on for at least 15 minutes AFTER the send light blinks. I am only in the Sierras or the North Coast of Cali. I am NOT as many on this forum a world trekker. This is only my humble experience.
I use the SPOT year round so I don't care if I can turn service on & off. Heck it's only $99 a year for Gen 1 or 2. $150 for Gen 3.
I hope this helps.

If I read the Spot service page correctly, you must either pay $150/yr or $15/month for service which you can’t suspend or turn off when not using it. Is this correct?

If so, the DeLorme is a no-brainer for me since I only get to do maybe 2 big trips a year (summer). Since I take one of our sons usually, my wife would be much happier than having to wait up to a day after my intended out date to hear from me before calling in the troops.

Am I reading their site correctly where they describe you can use topographic overlays w/ the Explorer? In other words is the Explorer a full on GPS with mapping (ala Etrex 30+) and a satellite communicator?

If so, that would make it a very easy decision as I'm looking at getting a GPS with mapping. If I could get that in one package, that would be sweet!

Thanks

Mike

Mike,

From what I read it is a communicator with Gps.

I toyed around with the idea, but decided I prefered a seperate
Gps and Comms device as there is a chance I will break or loose the gps as it getting uaed during the day and I can keep the comms device in my packpocket for emergencies.

I do alternate between carrying a Plb or sat phone, depending in location (or both depending on trips)

that's not what I was hoping :) thought it sounded too good to be true

the Spot 3 is being offered for $75, weighs 4 oz- probably the way I'll go; I'm out all year round so a short term option plan, while it is a nice option, isn't the way I'd go anyways

David T., you posted above –

"PLB / messagers in Alaska on 11/02/2014 11:57:03 MST

"I have the $270, 4.6 ounce ResQlink and prefer it to the SPOT I had:
– much more consistent ability to send a "rescue me" message.
– no annual fee
– 10 year battery life"

I have found a battery life spec for 6 years, not 10.

Is 10 years a vendor error or typo?

For my ResQlink+, I recall it's a five-year cycle to return the unit for a new manufacturer-installed battery.

Having been on the nail-biting end of failed transmissions of two way devices, I refuse to do that to anyone I care about. I carry a PLB. At best the failure to communicate causes unnecessary fear: at worst, a failed message triggers a panicked SAR that results in unnecessary waste of many thousands of taxpayer dollars when they find me eating fish in camp. my companions are taught how to use my unit in the event I am incapacitated.

^^^ This

I know multiple people that have taken a spot with them ("my wife won't let me go without one!") and then SAR gets called when the device fails or they forget to check in one evening.

If you absolutely must take one of these devices to feel safe in the big scary mountains, take a PLB.

Greg, 5 vs 6 vs 10 battery life? I'm up a mountain, 200 miles from home just now. I'll check my unit when I get home and post again.

Thanks David.
No hurry.

"I know multiple people that have taken a spot with them ("my wife won't let me go without one!") and then SAR gets called when the device fails or they forget to check in one evening."

Goes to show that you can't fix stupid. Kind of like the guy here in Colorado who thought his ACR PLB was an avy beacon and kept activating it when he went backcountry skiing.

You know multiple people who have had SPOT failures resulting in SAR getting involved? You need smarter friends. :) That's really incredible that you would know multiple people that had this happen. I don't know anyone that has been involved in any kind of SAR call ever. Let alone this specific scenario.

Really, it's as simple as this: My wife knows that no check in message means nothing at all. Only if I'm not back by the designated time is she to call SAR. And the designated time is usually the day after my trip ends. Just like before I carried one.

Must be working, I stupidly didn't check the batteries in my SPOT before the first backpacking trip of the season a couple of years ago. No messages sent, no call to SAR. Everything was fine.

"If you absolutely must take one of these devices to feel safe in the big scary mountains, take a PLB."

You're right. I go solo 90% of the time and I used to be terrified until I got a SPOT. NOT! What a dumb thing to say.

The advantage of a two-way device such as the inReach is that you can send emergency messages (as you would expect), and you can send routine messages (like, I'm OK), and you can also get inbound messages of concern if nobody has heard from you in a while. Then set up some protocol such that if your friends don't hear anything from you in some defined period of time, and if they send a message of concern to you, that they should hear a response within some defined period of time. If they don't hear, then that means something. Now, it might just mean that the batteries ran dead.

That's why I normally send the "I'm OK" message once per day when I reach camp, and I preserve the battery power beyond that so that I can respond to any important inbound messages (like, "We haven't heard from you since Sunday.").

If you had a real emergency, you might send an emergency message. But then later you might be in a discussion with the county sheriff's dispatcher, and you might need to send messages back and forth until they understand clearly what services you need and how urgent it is.

–B.G.–

Uh huh.

Zillions of happy SPOT owners and I'm one of them. My Gen 3 goes with me steelhead fishing, when I head out in the woods to do some target practicing, when my wife and I head to the coast (no cell coverage), when I go hunting, when I decide to just go for a drive in woods with no particular destination in mind and of course when I go hiking/backpacking.

I just leave it running in track mode all day. It powers down automatically when I stop and restarts when I get going again. I'm over 100 hours on the first set of batteries. Keeps my loved ones in the loop as they can watch from their phone.

Delorme InReach is a better bit of tech – best in class. But that doesn't mean SPOT isn't good at what it does. And a COSPAS-SARSAT PLB has its place as well.

I'm glad we have choices nowadays.

"Delorme InReach is a better bit of tech – best in class. But that doesn't mean SPOT isn't good at what it does. And a COSPAS-SARSAT PLB has its place as well."

Exactly. The user almost needs to evaluate the humans that will be on either end of these satellite messages.

One type of device might be better for one type of person. It becomes more of an issue of human factors engineering.

–B.G.–

Goes to show that you can't fix stupid. Kind of like the guy here in Colorado who thought his ACR PLB was an avy beacon and kept activating it when he went backcountry skiing.

Ditto. The inadvertent creativity of some people in screwing up the most simple, straightforward things is astounding.

I've used Spot quite a few times now with nary a glitch. Just got back from the Adirondacks where the temps got down near zero (OK, +3F) and purposely made no effort to keep the unit warm just to see how it would handle lower temps. No problem at all – wife got all check-ins, locations right on the money, everything hunky-dory as usual. Very happy with this unit.

^ glad to hear that Bob, mine worked flawlessly on it's maiden voyage last weekend