Convinced to buy a personal locator beacon

[EagleRiverDee]

Christopher's recent Easter event plus a current event in Alaska (a snowmachiner has been missing since Saturday- got separated from his group and they found his sled stuck and abandoned, no sign of the rider) has convinced me to add a PLB to my safety gear. I opted for a McMurdo Fast Find, which is strictly a beacon. Unlike the SPOT, it does not map your route or have the option to send "I'm ok" messages. But I have a GPS to map my route, and I'm always riding with the person I'd want to check in with, so the SPOT features are not a major factor for me and I like the fact that the McMurdo is a one time charge of $299 with no subscription fees. One downside is the battery must be replaced by McMurdo every 5 years, whereas SPOT runs on AA's. Like anyone, I have no plans to use the device and would exhaust all self-rescue options before pressing the button on it, but this gives me a bit of peace of mind. I know I'd feel pretty stupid if I was dying of hypothermia in the backcountry knowing a $300 piece of gear would have saved my life. I'm choosing to buy now because we ride all year long- when sledding season is over we ride ATV's. Both sports have inherent risks.

To be clear, when sledding I would be carrying both my avy beacon and the PLB- one does not replace the other.

Just thought I'd throw that out there. Curious if anyone else has made any fundamental changes to their safety gear due to any close-calls they experienced or read about this year? If so, what did you change?

 

[backcountryislife]

We didn't make any changes, but we got to use the spot for the first time.

Went out filming for the betties vid & had a serious back injury, the spot did everything that it should have for us & more.

It tracked the loacation & called for S&R, then when we were able to get him out on a toboggan from the local cat op & it was headed toward the parking lot they called off S&R and had the police & an ambulance there waiting for us when we got out.

If you don't have friends that are likely to help I can understand the plb instead of the spot, but for me I figure if I'm somewhere bad S&R can't get there easily on the machines they have, I want my friends coming for me.

 

[EagleRiverDee]

One of the other factors that caused me to select a PLB over a SPOT was that in my research I learned that the globalstar network that SPOT works on is not always reliable in the Arctic. Since I live in Alaska, this was a concern, although I think the area we tend to ride in gets pretty good SPOT coverage. But it's a thought.

You make a good point, though, that we could have other people (friends) on our notify list if we got in trouble. We do have a number of friends that are skilled enough to come help out, in lieu of SAR.

 

[newmy1]

From what I've read you can't go wrong with a PLB.

 

[Tonysnoo]

One of the other factors that caused me to select a PLB over a SPOT was that in my research I learned that the globalstar network that SPOT works on is not always reliable in the Arctic. Since I live in Alaska, this was a concern, although I think the area we tend to ride in gets pretty good SPOT coverage. But it's a thought.

You make a good point, though, that we could have other people (friends) on our notify list if we got in trouble. We do have a number of friends that are skilled enough to come help out, in lieu of SAR.

It's cool that there are other products out there for us to pick from. I like that alot.

I've been using my Spot for a few years. Never used it for emergency(knock on wood) or even local help, but I use it every ride out to let my wife and a select few know that I am OK through out the day. Works really nicely when we are late. Keeps the homefront from worrying when the OK spot message comes in while we are past due.

Glad to see more folks getting some sort of satelite comm devise.

 

[fatguy1]

I've been looking at the spot thing for a while now but did not like how the help message was so general. This fall I'm buying the combo below. this way when I need help because I broke my leg the people on the other end will know I didn't run out of gas, and when I run out of gas the folks getting the message won't think I broke my leg. The ability to send a text through the GPS is a big deal for me.

http://www.gpscity.ca/delorme-earthmate-pn-60w-with-spot-receiver.html

 

[EagleRiverDee]

Tonysnoo-
I agree, it's a good thing for people to be investing in PLB's and SPOT's - lives will be saved because of it. And false alarms are rare. Several lives would have been saved just in recent news if people had one. They still haven't found the snowmobiler that has been missing since Saturday up here. Odds aren't good for that guy- he had no survival gear. Our hope is he found a cabin and has holed up until rescue can get there.

Fatguy-
The Delorme PN-60 combo does look like a good setup. I have a Delorme PN-20 and I love it. Delorme makes a good product, and now that they've combined with SPOT, it's even better. I am hoping Delorme comes out with another unit that simply has a PLB on it. I don't want or need the SPOT tracking services and so don't want to pay the annual $99 subscriptions, but it'd be nice to have a GPS/PLB in one unit.

For those that are looking for a PLB with a "I'm ok" message, ACR had a couple that do that. No subscription fees. The message, like with SPOT, is general because you pre-load it before you leave.

One of these days someone will come up with a PLB that has a small QUERTY pad so you can type out a real-time update.

 

[fatguy1]

"One of these days someone will come up with a PLB that has a small QUERTY pad so you can type out a real-time update."

Thats what I've been holding out for, but I'm getting to much pressure from family to get a PLB and I seen this combo so I figure I'll give it a try.