Re:Snowmobiler finds family of five stuck in frozen wilderness
by EL_Loco on Saturday January 25, 2020 @06:22PM
(#22149271)
If you don't want to pay a subscription, a good option is a Personal Locator Beacon (commonly abbreviated to PLB). Another advantage they have is that the batteries last for 5 years or more, and usually send a stronger signal (this was a couple of years ago, don't know if it has changed). The disadvantage is that they don't do messaging.
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Re:Snowmobiler finds family of five stuck in frozen wilderness
by dharmab on Sunday January 26, 2020 @12:33AM
(#22150555)
Search and Rescue strongly prefers the two-way beacons. One way PLBs have a high false positive/accidental activation rate. There are anecdotal reports of one-way PLB activation not being acted on because local SAR gets too many of them.
The cost of the subscription is a tiny amount compared to the real financial costs of the situations they allow us to avoid.
Re:Snowmobiler finds family of five stuck in frozen wilderness
by EL_Loco on Sunday February 02, 2020 @08:23PM
(#22220703)
I didn't know that. I thought the PLBs would have some feature to prevent accidental activation. But then, people have to pick up a phone and dial a specific 3 digit sequence to call for emergency, and the thing is abused too often, so, yeah, I believe it.