The recent Gulf incident with the boaters in the water, but out of cell coverage, made me wonder about the use of cell phone detectors for SAR work.

(They would put survivors in a bit of a dilemma - when to keep the phone off/in airplane mode most of the time to conserve battery, or turn on to be detectable).

A little Googling indicates that ( as expected) I'm far from the first one to think of this (some links below), but I wonder what the US Coast Guard and Civil Air Patrol are doing in this regard?

Anyone know?

Links:

This one claims 20km range, though it needs the phone number:
https://uk.leonardo.com/en/news-and-stor...rescue-missions

https://www.bvsystems.com/product/wolfhound-pro-cellular-search-and-rescue-kit/

https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-...rescue-aircraft

https://artemis.smithmyers.com/

I thought I remembered that Air Force aircraft with electronic warfare capabilities have been used for cellphone detection in SAR operations. I’m far from certain.

Heard of Wolfhound being used to find people buried in avalanches. But think the limited range of something like 500m makes it unsuitable for other scenarios.

Edit:

iPhone 14 / iOS16 update coming next month (November) will enable the emergency SOS satellite functionality for the US & Canada.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213426