I remember seeing an article a couple of years back about a group of mountain climbers on Mt. Hood who carried VHF radios and had the state SAR frequency programmed in. Trouble showed up and they used their radio to reach the sheriff's office and to get rescued. After the rescue there was some complaining on the part of the sheriff's office about how the group had a VHF radio and used a state frequency they weren't licensed on. What they didn't realize is the climbers were fully justified to use the frequency. It's not illegal to own any sort of receiver or transmitter, as long as you only transmit on the frequencies you're licensed on (unless in an emergency). This is in the CFR radio section somewhere, I remember seeing a copy of it. The bottom line is they got rescued and lived to tell of their tale, versus being just another statistic.

While the air band radio isn't a bad idea for catching the attention of a passing plane overhead and getting rescued, you'd probably have better luck and usefulness with a ham radio.

I'm a licensed ham and on backcountry forays I usually carry my radio and monitor the nationwide calling frequency of 146.520 MHz. The ham radio would enable me to reach people in areas without cell phone reception. It also comes in pretty handy for non-emergencies, too (if you car was stuck at the trailhead, for example). You'll also get much better coverage going through ham repeaters on nearby mountaintops than on a simplex 121.500 MHz AM channel on the aircraft band.

Many 9-1-1 dispatch centers are also staffed by people who are ham radio operators for a hobby, and in many cases there is a ham radio in the 9-1-1 center for emergency use. There is NOT likely to be an AM aircraft radio transmitter. Also, most SAR teams probably have a few ham radio operators and will likely be listening.

The short answer to your question is no matter what radio you get (ham, aircraft, etc), don't just depend on the rechargeable battery that comes with it. You can usually purchase a higher capacity battery. I'd also recommend getting a "AA" battery adapter for the radio. Fill it with fresh batteries and you have a backup battery if you need it. Don't depend on just one battery.

My advice: get your basic "technician" ham license (no morse code, and only takes a 2 day class), buy a ham radio, buy a repeater guidebook (lists ham radios by area), and carry a backup battery. If you really enjoy it you can always join a local ham radio club.

Check out the ARRL at: www.arrl.org

If you want to check out prices of ham radios, there are a lot of distributors nationwide, but two of the biggest are:

Ham Radio Outlet www.hamradio.com
AES www.aesham.com

For around $150 you can get a good 2M handheld ham radio with a AA battery pack.

Good luck!