To be fair, there are many instances where a simple homing beacon might be appropriate and far better than nothing at all. It may well be a useful tool for the right circumstances and persons.
However, also to be fair, don't current (actual) PLBs
come with a homing beacon? Isn't that what the 121.5 MHz portion of their signal is supposed to be? It allows Search and Rescue personnel to home in on the distressed person(s) location using
equipment they already have, as opposed to using separate, proprietary, and probably expensive direction finding equipment.
The difficulty with that proposition is that a real PLB is 3 to 5 times the cost and nearly 7 times the weight. You certainly aren't going to hand your 6-year old a PLB (I would hope).
I won't argue that this approach has some significant issues, which I'll review in depth in my evaluation of the device, but it may well have its place.
Certainly not trying to butt heads with you, but I don't feel like there's any obligation to "be fair" to TracMe.
You may have no such obligation. I do.
Their product is hokey at best, and could cost people their lives.
The device, per se, is not the problem. The problem is what they are calling it. That's what's more likely to cost lives.
If an FRS homing beacon were feasible and practical, I would think that it would be built into FRS radios.
I don't think that one follows the other. Lots of things that seem very obvious after the fact lie right under our noses for years, sometimes decades, before someone gets a why-didn't-I-think-of-that bright idea. In any case, if your FRS radio is working, you'd likely try calling someone. In fact,there is a movement to make Channel 1 a common distress frequency, but it's been slow to gain traction. But that's really beside the point.
Conceptually, TracMe has some merit, IMHO. Not without significant obstacles and problems, mind you. Whether they have approached it the best way is open to debate. Whether the pricing is reasonable is another question as well. Whether it will ever take off and gain enough market to make it viable is yet another question. It truly is as good an example of the chicken or egg problem you're likely to see anytime soon.
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