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Looking for Advice on Rescue Communication 29-Aug-2012 At 5:37:59 PM Justcameron

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On remote area trips I carry both a satphone and a PLB. But they are available freely to me through Scouts :)

A Personal Locator Beacon is the new terminology for personal handheld distress radiobeacons. EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Raidio Beacon) are for maritime use.

A satphone is great for communicating with people - eg. call a dr, relay symptoms and what equipment/medication you have to hand, ask what to do. Call a mechanic and describe your car's woes. Call the nearest town and ask for a spare wheel.

A PLB is for when you want emergency assistance. Note that in some of these situations having communication (satphone) available is great also.

UHF radio has limited applications. Can be useful in some areas which have radio repeaters on hilltops. Not a primary emergency communication device in most areas.

PLBs are much better than they used to be, since a couple of years ago the new units are registered, transmitting on the 406mhz frequency and result in much lower false alerts, stronger signal strength, can transmit gps location, etc.

re. Satphone - look up the company who are going to provide the service. I think Iridium and Globalstar are two of them. Look up their coverage and reviews of their service. I think one of them had only partial coverage a couple of years ago.

PLB - no annual registration fee
Satphone - monthly/annual fee
SPOT - small annual fee

Some good reading about PLBs - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distress_radiobeacon