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