I'm planning a solo hike in the Big Bend area this coming January. Due to the potential risks, I'm thinking it'd be smart to have some sort of emergency beacon satellite thingy. Doug, I know you've reviewed some in the past but there's nothing recent. What is a good one that:

1. Under $400
2. Reliable
3. Can just pay for connectivity during trips

Thoughts?

A PLB will get you rescued in most circumstances, no subscription, end of story. If you want communications, just a question of SPOT or inReach, self contained or tied to your cell. Their plans change a lot over the years and I haven't paid attention of late. But they have always had some manner of intermittent use plan with a higher per message charge.

I first bought a PLB and carried it on trips in remote areas. More recently I acquired an InReach Explorer. Friends have the InReach Mini, so I have some knowledge of it as well. I have no experience with the SPOT, so can't talk about that.

For only sending an SOS, the PLB is the (slightly) best choice. It can get your location using GPS, and send that back to the RCC (Rescue Coordination Center). In the US, the RCCs are run by the Air Force for land areas, and the Coast Guard for marine areas. The RCC will then contact local rescue assets. Besides getting a GPS fix on your location, the PLB has the redundant capability to get a less accurate but still useful location using doppler from LEO satellites. This capability might be useful if for some reason a GPS fix can't be obtained (for example under heavy tree cover). The doppler position fix is a legacy feature from the pre GPS era. The doppler fix takes several hours to obtain, and is accurate to perhaps a mile or so. The PLB also has a low power homing beacon. The PLB broadcasts a robust 5 watt signal. The PLB is the cheapest, with no ongoing subscription fee. The downside of the PLB is that it ONLY sends an SOS with your location. There is no way to send any additional info such as the nature of your emergency. Also, the PLB has no capability to send routine texts to family and friends. And the PLB is not usable as a stand alone GPS navigation device.

Lately, I have been carrying InReach Explorer on my trips. The Explorer also gets a GPS location. When the SOS is triggered, the GPS location is transmitted (at ~1.6 watts if I remember correctly) to the Iridium satellite network, which then sends it to the International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC), which is now owned by Garmin. The IERCC will then contact local emergency responders. The InReach has no back up doppler capability, so if it can't get a GPS fix, it can't send a location with the SOS. However, in practice, the InReach devices seem to have a good record of getting SOS messages out. In an emergency, the big advantage of the InReach over the PLB is that it allows two way text messaging. When you trigger an SOS the IERCC will immediately text you, inquiring about the nature of the emergency. You can respond with details about your predicament, and what help you need.

A further advantage of the InReach is that it allows you to do routine texting with family, friends, etc. When I do a solo trip, I try to send my wife periodic messages to let her know I'm OK, and what my plans are. If I'm going to be delayed a day or more by weather or other conditions, I can let her know so she doesn't worry. You can set it up to send periodic location messages, so family/friends can follow your progress.

The InReach is also a full functioned GPS unit, which you can use for routine navigation. The interface is not quite as nice as newer designs of dedicated navigation GPS units, but it works adequately. You can pair your InReach via Bluetooth with your smart phone. This makes texting easier and adds some navigation capabilities.

The downside of the InReach devices is that the initial cost is high, and you MUST maintain a subscription. The subscription cost varies with several options. I've gotten by nicely with the basic "Safety Plan" for $11.95/mo.

I don't have an InReach Mini, but several friends do. It is much smaller and lighter to carry. Battery life is about half the larger InReach Explorer, but still adequate. Because of it's tiny size, trying to send messages directly from the Mini is a real pain. You definitely want to pair it with your smart phone.

One final tip. If you decide on the InReach Explorer, be sure to get a new one made by Garmin. The original Explorer, made by DeLorme before Garmin acquired it, had a serious design flaw in the button to turn on the SOS. There may be some used Delorme units for sale on ebay, but don't buy one! On the Delorme devices it was possible to accidently trigger an SOS if the device was jostled around in your pack. This happened to a friend of mine, but fortunately she was able to cancel the SOS before a rescue was launched. Garmin has fixed this problems on the ones they sell now.

That InReach Explorer looks pretty nice...but the customer service horror stories make me a little concerned.
In either case, PLB or the InReach, I'll be in a lot of canyons which I assume will limit signals. Any thoughts on which would be more likely to get a signal out from an arroyo?
-Blast

If you’re thinking that you might be in a arroyo and need help, a PLB is more likely to get its signal out than an InReach or a SPOT. The PLB will have an as-good or (usually) better antenna, with more transmit wattage.

Essentially, a PLB is less flexible (can be used only once, and only for an emergency signal) but has more transmit power and is therefore more likely to cause a rescue to be launched if the transmission conditions are poor.

The private-sector rescue coordination center used by SPOT and InReach (Geos) is now owned by Garmin as AKSAR noted. I don’t know anything negative about them. The USAF and USCG rescue coordination centers work hard to be the best in the world at what they do, and undoubtedly have more practice.

Whatever device you have, register it, and make sure to file a trip plan with a responsible person that the RCC can reach.

Just to note, while there is a substantial difference in power between a PLB and a SEND, remember that there is also a huge difference between a geosynchronous satellite at 22,000 miles vs the SEND satellite' low earth orbit of 485 miles.

OTOH, with overhead cover of a heavy forest, 5 Watts will punch through whereas 1.6 may have a more difficult time, although in actual operation I don't recall any significant failures in this regard.

This is a very significant thread, and i have followed with great interest, but it is worth remembering that in the context of a solo trip, your electronics, while certainly helpful and frequently of crucial significance, are not a panacea. Lots of situations can leave the soloist dazed, disoriented, unconscious, or worse (although in that case the outcome might be irrelevant). This is where a companion is of great value.

Lest I be a hopeless hypocrite, let me add that if I had a nickel for every solo trip or excursion I have taken, we could have a really fine dinner.

Sometimes circumstances dictate solo, and sometimes it is just the lure of blessed solitude.

I'm still shopping for one or both, haven't pulled the trigger yet. The ZOLEO looks really good as well. A true PLB would be great to have and well worth it but a [stupid] part of me hates to drop $250 on a device that only does one thing. Of course, that one thing is save a life!

Know of at least one two way communicator that has a dead man's switch.

https://www.ybtracking.com/ aka Yellow Brick, made over here in the UK. (See these on expedition, trek and survival TV shows quite often, recently an Alone US contestant called it out by name. Presumably because they can be rented for events.)

Have to press a button every X minutes to prevent an emergency alert being sent.

Just not going to get much change from $700 for the basic model.

Keep an eye out on steep and cheap, PLBs pop up on there now and then, picked up a Rescueme Ocean Signal PLB1 for something like $150 a while back

I consider the InReach to be cheap insurance...

Like Teacher, I consider an InReach like insurrance.

I have an InReach Mini and had a Delorme InReach before that. Upgraded just for the reduced size and ability to construct texts on the unit incase my phone was out of commission.

Satillite messaging is slow and not for normal chatting, but it is a great backup. I have taken it with me when canyoneering, but have not tested it in a canyon. The ones I have done are really narrow (touch both walls) and I would expect I wound need to be in a more open area for signal to get out on any device.

Thanks for all the comments. I definitely need one, but it's still hard to decide which one. I wish I had the money for both a plain, high-powered PLB and one of the units which allows some texting. Where I'm going is known to "eat" vehicles more than hikers so the ability to giver rescuers more details is nice. On the other hand, I'll be heading through some rough terrain down in some canyons.
It's still six months away, so I have time before I have to decide...plus, I'll be working on getting into topnotch physical shape to reduce the risk, too.
-Blast

The current thread on the lady missing in Montana tells us that no measure you take is foolproof. Companions are nice, but they must be competent and capable of dealing with the situation.

One of the saddest of my SAR experiences involved an all night trek on snowshoes to reach a solidly frozen corpse who had been abandoned by his two companions when he became exhausted and could go no further. They just retreated and left him to his fate.

I had to relate all this to his brother.

That's hard to fathom! It's one thing to refuse to sacrifice your life for a friend but to refuse to be inconvenienced?!

It gets even more weird...Talking with his brother, I learned that his companions had attended, presumably successfully, some sort of winter survival course.

Their first night out, they pitched tents, slept in their bags outside the tents, got rain/snowed upon, which soaked their bags. Thing got worse from there.....

In general, InReach has had a very good success record for SOS use. Certainly a lot of successful rescues in the SW canyon country. Unless you are planning to traverse some really narrow and tight slot canyons, I think an InReach would serve you well. (Usual disclaimer, no pecuniary affiliation with Garmin or PLB manufacturers.)

The first issue is getting a GPS signal in to the unit. I've done some GPS trip logging while hiking in canyons and valleys. Sometimes, in really narrow (as in a couple of meters wide) slot canyons, the GPS will not get a signal at all. But usually it will log my location. What does happen a lot is what is called "multipath error", where the signal bounces off a canyon wall before hitting the receiver. When you display it on a map the location chatters around. Location errors I've seen appear to be up to about a 100 meters or so. This will effect either a PLB or an InReach.

The other issue is getting an SOS signal out to the satellite. In theory, the higher wattage PLB signal might help, in a few specific situations such as heavy foliage cover. I doubt that the extra wattage will help if you are in a narrow slot canyon. In practice, the InReach seems to do quite well for SOS signaling. I know of no side by side tests, or anecdotal info from SAR that would bear on this, so the difference is purely theoretical to the best of my knowledge. Both devices will continue to transmit till their battery dies. Unless the sky is totally blocked, sooner or later a satellite will come into view and the SOS will get out.

I do have some experience in sending routine texts with InReach, in widely varying terrain. It sometimes takes awhile for the message to go out, perhaps up to 10 minutes or so, but the signal eventually goes out. I've used it in some pretty rugged terrain, but not so far in any slot canyons.

In the event you do need to trigger an SOS, the advantages of two way text communication can't be overstated. You can inform the rescue team of the nature of your emergency, and seriousness of your immediate situation. Consider two hypothetical emergencies. You are in rugged country, it's 2 hours till sundown, and the weather is deteriorating. In the first scenario, during your hike you've experienced sudden chest pains and shortness of breath. It feels like an elephant is sitting on your chest. In this case, you need immediate high level medical attention, and the rescue authorities may consider a dangerous helicopter flight in bad weather and marginal light. In the second case, you've broken an ankle and can't walk, but have managed to improvise a shelter. Your situation is reasonably stable for awhile. In this case, the rescuers might decide to delay a flight till morning and better weather. Or they may opt for a slower land team to walk in and carry you out.

Decision made!

Bass Pro Shops (and Cabelas), along with several other dealers have the Spot Gen4 satellite GPS messenger device on sale for $99.00

Link to Bass Pro Shop sale: https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/spot-gen4-satellite-gps-messenger?ds_e=MICROSOFT&ds_c=Shop%7CBPS%7CTopPerformers%7CBoating&gclsrc=ds
Service plans details: https://www.findmespot.com/en-au/products-services/service-plans#spot-gen4-plans

The SPOT® Gen4 Satellite GPS Messenger gives you a critical, life-saving line of communication when you travel beyond the boundaries of reliable cellular service. This SPOT messenger lets family, friends, and colleagues know you're OK—or, if the unexpected should happen, it sends your GPS location to emergency responders, all with the push of a button. Add this rugged, pocket-sized device to your essential gear and stay connected wherever you play or work. Custom messaging lets contacts know where you are by sending a preprogrammed message along with your GPS location. Automatically send and save your location and allow contacts to track your progress using cloud-based mapping. In an emergency, send an SOS with your GPS location to GEOS, facilitator of search of rescue.
Manufacturer model #: GEN4.

Lets you stay in messaging contact even far outside cell range.
Can send your GPS location emergency responders with the push of a button
Rugged build quality
Pocket-sized for easy portability
Automatically send and save your location and let contacts track your progress.

Lower price and their plans are less cost than inreach plans, I think. Complaints I have seen with SPOT are getting nickle and dimed over charges.