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/
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A signal mirror should backup a radio distress signal, like a 406 MHz PLB (ACR PLB) (Ocean Signal PLB)