HAM V.S. PLB????

reading the HAM radio post i see that they now have hand-held
HAM radios..which is news too me..so why not just carry one
and if you fall on the portage--in my case--you can just start
shouting ..MAYDAY MAYDAY!!!!--i busted my leg--help--help!!
so on..look to be cheaper than a satellite phone or a PLB
that you can't talk to someone on...i saw a slide show a few years ago by a group that went by canoe to Hudson's bay..they
had a small shortwave radio that they used to contact there pick-up float plane
thru "trappers and pilots" ..i think they called it..

I do hope you're kidding.
There have been ham handhelds since the late 1970's.
Before that they were "luggables."

In some cases such a radio might be a best solution. You might want to investigate actual repeater coverage of your area though. No coverage = no utility.
You'd be investigating how to access those repeaters. The radio isn't like a CB or FRS radio where you just turn it on and go.

I recommend you get then get a license to use it. If you use it without a license (totally legal in an emergency) you would have to spend a fair amount of time convincing the folks you'd contact that you do indeed have a legitimate emergency and aren't spoofing.
Getting a license isn't very difficult (it's easier than it has ever been) and you might learn something useful in the technical realm.

To my knowledge (I'm not a ham operator, but I have eaten a number of hams), ham handhelds won't talk with satellites and have a relatively small broadcast range - depending a lot on the type and height of the antenna used.

As I understand, hams have been known to bounce signals off clouds, the atmosphere, and even the moon(?), but to bet your life on the ability to do that seems like its putting too many eggs in a teeny tiny basket.

The answer is PLB.

P.S. I'm thinking in terms of wilderness and even remote sub-suburban areas. Ham radios are wonderful for local communications in urban or suburban areas.

The problem with handheld ham devices is that they are basically limited by line of sight. The broadcast range is pretty good. About 30 km from my home is a repeater. On a good day I can reach it with 0.05 watts and a lamdba/4 flexible mobile antenna for less favorable conditions 0.5 watts do the job. My handheld (TH7F) allows to broadcast at 5 watts. So there would be room to spare. There are even amateur radio satellites which could be reached with handhelds. The main flaw would be that you have to reach someone. If nobody is listening in your broadcast range you can´t call for help. If you rely on ham radio you should schedule contacts and make arrangements for failed attempts.
A PLB would offer better coverage. So if you need that, you might have to spend the money.
Working with reflected signals - especially earth moon earth - requires a lot of power, good gain for the antenna and precise directing of the antenna. It would just require to much equipment if you are not going for a ham expedition.

I'm a ham radio operator, aka amateur radio. A federal license is required to use amateur radio frequencies, and most vendors will ask for your callsign when selling you one, although I doubt you'll get refused if you offer a reasonable explanation.

I suspect the small shortwave radio on that slideshow was HF, and I'd bet they had an external antenna, not the rubber ducky that's on handhelds.

Most handheld ham radios are VHF/UHF, and they are line-of-site range with crappy antennas and 5W of power (or less). I don't know where you canoe, but I'd not want to bet my life on raising another ham on a handheld radio.

There are portable HF radios which have world-wide range, but you'd need batteries, a good external antenna, a way to set up the antenna, and that pesky license. I'd stick with the satphone or a PLB. I sometimes camp in out of the way areas, and I rent a satphone for the week or so I'll be out of cellphone range, but my goal is to be able to reach AAA for breakdowns and towing, although I get local hospital and ambulance numbers, too. You can't beat calling locally if you need help.

besides what Philip said (which is correct)

A PLB and a Ham Radio are basically designed for 2 different things. PLB is a "I NEED Help HERE" - not too much more information, but it gets through, and it's paid to be monitored

Ham Radio is a communications tool - does all sorts of communications besides "Mayday" - from "Hey, how are the fish biting" to "We MAY have a problem - you have any ideas on how we can get help before it's a Mayday?" The thing is, it's not full time monitored, and requires larger gear and antennas. There ARE things like the Maratime net which are active at certain times every day, but it's NOT pros, it's people who do it for the love of doing it

So there IS an overlap, but the overlap is rather small. It comes down to - what are you looking to do?

lots of good information..i'm going to have to do some web
searching to find out what a few of you are talking about..
FRS??--i don't even know what a "repeater" is--and no, i
did not know about hand held SW--i have seen the little
radios in the hunting catalogs but when i saw bigger and
more "real" SW on web sites i could see that alot has gone
right over my head in the past 25 years..i do have a SW
receive..a Hallicrafter S38 that i use to search around
stations with just for the hell of it..i have looked around
this site for something i could take when i go farther out
on my canoe trips..i use the BWCA in Minnesota and Quetico
park in Canada,but now that i'm retired i plan to get into
the big parks northwest of Lake Superior--Wabakimi and
Woodland Caribou in Ontario--much more remote and very
much larger..i could not depend on a scout troop or a
fishing party running across me if i needed help..
yes---the canoe trippers with the SW had a wire strung
between a couple paddles and the radio looked to be the
size of a bread loaf--the more i find out about PLB's
and such a Sat-phone seems the way to go.....thanks--

PLBs go to a 24 hour, 7 day a week monitoring system run by the U.S. Coast Guard. If you are in view of a satellite, the system will pick it up. If you're not, you're probably in an area so remote that even a portable amateur radio transmitter won't help you, unless you're using HF. Yes, there are limitations to the satellite system, just as there is with Amateur Radio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Position-Indicating_Radio_Beacon

It is also worth noting that after February 1, 2009, analog beacons of any type will not longer be monitored.

http://www.cospas-sarsat.org/FirstPage/121.5PhaseOut.htm

Actually, I believe that it's the AFRCC that monitors PLB's although the coat guard does monitor EPIRB's.

From your link:
Responsible agencies
In the U.S., offshore beacons are investigated and victims rescued by the Coast Guard. On-shore beacons are investigated by local search and rescue services in Alaska. The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center is charged with land-based emergency signals, usually dispatching volunteer members from The United States Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol. In the U.S. there are no published notification systems for other locations.