>>1498131Then a PLB won't meet that need, and that's where the communicators are nice.
Know a lot of guys with wife/kids at home, who ride with a communicator. Peace of mind for those at home. PLB wouldn't do that either.
PLB is more of a professional rescue tool.
I usually carry a radio or three with me, so more often than not if I know i'll be out of phone coverage and i'm meeting someone, we'll coordinate a channel beforehand (or go off the IAP, if it's a planned event/traning/etc).
I'm less concerned about using satellite messaging for comms, since I have other equipment/networks I can use to relay messages if necessary. Forest service likes to see some redundancy with emergency plans for use permits too.
In my PLB's profile, I have a radio channel listed in there for responders to try and reach me on. It's a GMRS channel - since just about everyone has one of those radios, we can use any of them to monitor that freq while I can use my radios to try other systems.
Should get some fresh photos of the PLB on my pack... old pack, and I retired that shovel 4 years ago... way too big for rescue.
