I have a passion for wilderness for nearly 40 years I'm been travelling to the far flung corners of the planet, sometimes with others but often alone. For some strange reason the family have now started nagging about keeping it touch and “what would happen if something went wrong”. Never bothered them before, all very illogical.
For the past two years I've carried a Personal locator beacon, it's small (9 x 4 x 2.5cm) and light (200g). You break the seal, pull out the aerial and press the button, it sends out a S.O.S and your location via satellite. To me that's ideal but you can't keep in touch with it. I could get a SPOT thing, you can send text with them, but their £180 + £100 a year subscription. I've friends who have used them and their not without problems, like they suddenly stop working and people start panicking.
I've been looking on the interweb and I can hire a sat-phone for £5 a day + call charges (£3 a minute).
Has anyone had any experience of using one?
How did you find it?
Did you find any problems?