Safety Gear: What's In Your Backpack?

As amateur trekkers, we like to balance adventure with a good dose of safety. This means being ready for everything from a splinter to broken bones. We carry the usual first aid kit loaded with the typical array of splints, moleskin and antibiotic ointments. But what do you do if you break a leg, hypothermia is setting in and you are 2 days walk to the nearest road? Here's are an interesting product we found that can give you an edge when you are out of options.

PLB (Personal Locator Beacon)

The ultimate in safety gear - these beacons will provide authorities with your location down to a few feet. ACR Electronics (www.acrelectronics.com) looks to be the leading provider of these devices.

A little background: PLB's are part of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) SARSAT (Search And Rescue Satellite-aided Tracking) system. When activated, a PLB results in a 406MHz signal being transmitted. The distress signal is received by the SARSAT system which uses NOAA satellites to detect and locate the source of the signal.

Initially, the satellites detect the signal and relay it to a network of ground stations and then to the U.S. Mission Control Center (USMCC) in Suitland, Maryland. The actual location of the transmitting PLB is then determined using Doppler technology from the satellites. This process can take up 45 minutes depending on the location of the receiving satellite in relation to the origin of the signal.

Each PLB is assigned a serial number used to track the device back to the registered owner. Higher end models allow for GPS postion identification, which can dramatically decrease the time it takes to identify the location of the signal as well as narrows the search area from an area of many square miles to within a few feet of origin (makes you want to spend the couple of extra bucks, right?).

The USMCC provides the location information to the local Search and Rescue authorities. In addition to the 406MHz transmitted signal used by the SARSAT satellites, the PLB devices also transmit a 121.5MHz homing signal that is used by Search and Rescue teams to locate the person in distress once they get closer to the immediate location of the unit.

Now the down side - price!! These units can cost anywhere from $250 for a "used" model to over $650 for a souped up version. The good news is that you can lease PLBs for about $60-$70 per week from specialized companies such as PLB Rentals LLC (www.plbrentals.com).

We'll be carrying one of these on our Kalalau hike but we're hoping we won't have enough experience using one to be able to write a review on it. PLB Rentals LLC has a few good success stories on their site; particularly one about it's first land based deployment of the device..great stuff.