Communicating from the backcountry for non-emergency reasons is a real challenge. Heck, that is an understatement. More to the point, unless you have a satellite telephone, very often one is simply cut off from the frontcountry world. Yes, of course, cellular coverage in remote settings has vastly grown in the last ten years, but it is still limited, and it is worse for those (like me) who use smartphones. However, thanks to a new generation of Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) this is beginning to change. Historically, PLBs have been used solely for emergencies. They are designed so that in case of an emergency, no matter how remote the location, one can signal for assistance with just a click of a button. Not all products are created equally, though, as some of the more popular ones have technical limitations, thus giving a false sense of security. Arguably the best and most dependable […]
Read more →
