epirb for "civilians"

[GroundPounder73]

Can anyone recommend a good epirb unit with both radio beacon and strobe for use by hikers, austere condition campers, etc. Ive been looking around, but it seems that the cheap ones arent any good, and the good ones ain't cheap. Also, how does a lone individual hiking, canoeing, etc in state parks, canoe areas, etc insure that the signal from his "pirb" will be picked up. Is it all a matter of frequency or is there distance involved. FOr example: if in a National Park and a hiker becomes injured and/or lost, if he activated his beacon, would it likely be picked up or would he be wasting hope and batteries, waiting for hope that won't be coming.

thanks to all.

[IceNine]

I'm a big fan of Spot locators.

www.findmespot.com  You will need a separate strobe but the locator's are getting much smaller so the weight won't be much of an issue.

[Major Lord]

EPIRBS are for boats. There are a few options out there for wilderness emergency use. The PLB or personal locator beacon, is much the same as the new class of ELT's. They use a satellite uplink and a local low power transmitter allowing SAR teams to "home" in on them. They have two conditions: "Off", and " Oh Spit!", so if you purchase one and trigger it, the whole world will come looking for you. The SPOT is similar, but has options for one way communication short of calling MAYDAY, allowing your people to get periodic messages confirming you are okay There is a subscription fee attendant to having a spot, and a price schedule that varies with how you use it, but its not terribly expensive. The use of a PLB is free, and they are dropping in cost rapidly. Naturally, this has resulted in a rash of bogus activations, and various localities are looking to charge people for accidental or inappropriate (ran out of Bacon;needed help) activations resulting in SAR responses. The Ham radio world offers APRS transmitters, which rely on a network of digital repeaters placed by volunteer hams, and coverage is not 100% in isolated areas ( Full disclosure: I manufacture the Micro-Trak line of APRS transmitters (www.byonics.com) Their use is free, but you have to have a ham license of any class. They also archive your last positions for some time, so your loved ones can follow your position on the Internet on sites like www.aprs.fi APRS supports an "emergency" beacon, and every ham in the world will see your activation and absolutely lose their minds. One was triggered accidentally on a long distance marathon, and the local police received calls from Pakistan advising that an emergency beacon had been transmitted in their AO!

Personally, I think the best option is a handheld GPS and a SATPHONE. Being able to communicate  instead of just a blind call for help is kind of nice. SATPHONES can be rented, and INMARSAT phones can be used and charged against your credit card when you use them, so no subscription. They are bulkier than standard Geosat type satellite phones.

Major Lord

[Eclipse]

T-Mobile makes an excellent line of these things called...cell phones.  In most cases they will do what you need, and if you're
trying to go somewhere !EXTREME! yet still be cheap about it, you're doing it wrong.

[RADIOMAN015]

I'm a big fan of Spot locators.

www.findmespot.com  You will need a separate strobe but the locator's are getting much smaller so the weight won't be much of an issue.

I would do more web research on the product above before using this as the primary emergency device. 

My recommendation would be to buy a plb and I also would buy a vhf aircraft portable transceiver and get the frequencies of any air routes that fly over/very close to where you are hiking and of course you could also try 121.5 mhz.    Aircraft portables can be bought for around $190.00.
RM