Summer Safety in the Great Outdoors

For summer boating fun and safety, take along the most important device you’ll never need:  Your PLB (Personal Location Beacon)… or at least you hope you’ll never need.  In 2014, about 240 people did need one and, because they had one, they were saved.

Imagine a lovely afternoon sailing a catamaran off the Florida coast when the sky starts to darken. Just about then the wind kicks up, now you can’t see land. The wind and waves blast the boat and  your mast snaps. With a PLB device, you could be rescued.

The PLB is not just for boating either. You could plan a lovely hike on a lonely trail in the wilderness. If you fall into ravine and break your leg, only the PLB can give you that last-hope chance of rescue.

Personal Locator Beacons are high-powered devices that send emergency distress signals. They transmit a distress signal at 406 mhz, which is monitored by NOAA – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.

Once a signal is received, satellites fix the location and relay the coordinates to rescuers.

The best PLBs are equipped with GPS, according to rei.com.  With GPS, rescuers can fix on your location within a 100 meters. Look for a PLB with some kind of signal device built in, such as an LED light.

Each PLB device should be registered with NOAA.  That way, if an emergency ever occurs, your medical information is available as well as your identity.

There are many kinds of PLBs, designed for use in water and hiking, and they range in cost from $150 up to $500 and more. That might seem little salty for a device designed to be activated once — if at all.  But if you need help, this is technology that, for the first time in the history of mankind, can bring help in the wilderness.

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