I have hiked with both a Sat. Phone and PLB (plus traditional signals) but only on short duration trips, I agree with you they are heavy and very rarely needed; but put one to use in an emergency situation ... and they are light as a feather.
Boy, and howdy; you've got that right. I sure wish I'd had something along on this one day hike that I did in 1984. My day hike turned out to be a three day hike with two unplanned bivvies in the wild. Guess where some of my "penchant for preparedness" comes from?
Question: How much did you pay for your Sat Phone and PLB? How much is monthly service. I've seen ads, and they've always been a
lot of money.
The backcountry areas I frequent have decent FM radio coverage, especially at night to find out about approaching bad weather or forest fire alerts; some local radio stations even have a service called "Campers Call" that allows people to broadcast short messages to others in the field. Cell phone coverage is iffy but for some reason in certain remote places it works?
The good FM coverage you have may be due to terrain. I think it's a litte flatter in N. Ontario than here in California where we have mountains that go up to 14,500'. When you're in one of the canyons between peaks, FM radios and cell phones are dead, dead, dead. However, on many summits, FM radios and cell phones get some coverage, albeit spotty. One time I was on a summit in S. Nevada and picked up a Southern California cell tower. Talk about line of sight!
The reason I bring up the topic of wilderness communication equipment is due to the frequency each year in our area that emergencies occur in remote locations and there is no quick, reliable means of outgoing contact with authorities.
Wish I'd had one on my 2001 ski trip to Alberta. Went backcountry skiing and fell and fx my right femur. People hiked out for help, but that took a while. I sat in the snow, in shock, for two or three hours. A PLB or Sat phone would've been mighty handy.
absolutely
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