Personal Location Beacons
This weekend the Langdale and Amblesite MRT had a call out which caught our eye. The report of it says in part:
the Team Leader took a call from the Aeronautical Rescue Command Centre in Kinloss, reporting an activation of an emergency beacon in the vicinity of Crinkle Crags. Almost simultaneously we received notification of a 999 call reporting a group of 5 cragfast and benighted on Crinkle Crags... a bit of investigation and it was confirmed that they related to the same incident and identified a small area to investigate high on Crinkle Crags.
As it happens this group got lucky, they got mobile phone coverage so they were able to dial 999 but, as you'll know if you've done much walking in the Lake District, there's often no mobile coverage at all, not even 999 only - especially if you're not on a summit. And that's where personal location beacons aka PLBs come in.
If you've not come across these before a PLB is a device which broadcasts a distress signal on 406MHz and that signal can instantly be detected by one of a number of satellites. Your location is then determined by one of two methods. If you have a PLB with a built in GPS then the distress signal includes your location. If you have one without GPS (they're cheaper) then the satellites can use a less accurate method to get a fix to within about 2km².
Depending on where you are in the world the distress call is then sent to the appropriate authority, so Kinloss in our case, and there they can look up the details registered against the PLB, which includes contact numbers, and start the process of both confirming it's not a false alarm and organising a rescue.
Here at WalkLakes we've had one of these for a while. We've got a Kannad Marine Safelink Solo (which does have a GPS) and I originally bought it as I also go sailing and they've been legal for marine use from day one. I wear it in a holster on my belt so if I was lost overboard it's always to hand and it's in a floatation case so it can't sink.
But for a couple of years now they've been legal to use on land so Beth takes it with her when she's walking the fells researching walks.
It's easy to deploy, although let's hope neither of us ever have to, and the batteries last five years after which time you have to return it to have them replaced (or buy a new one).
Kannad are not the only game in town, although they are among the cheapest. The biggest player is McMurdo with their Fast Find range
You won't get much change out of £200+ whichever one you choose but they are subscription free, unlike some other similar location services, and we recommend them, especially if you're a solo walker.
In closing there is a sad postscript to the rescue I mentioned at the top of this article. Although the group were rescued the report says:
The bad day continued for two of the group, because when we returned them to their car, it had been broken in to and all their luggage stolen...
This is one of a number of reports we've read about over the last few days: it seems like someone is specifically targeting walkers' cars at known starting points. So don't leave anything of value in your car and, if you must, make sure it's out of sight.
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