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Emergency Electronics

EMTDAD

EMTDAD

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Wife is doing hiking trips more often. I set her up with a backpack of emergency essentials: firestarter, bivvy, cell-charger, compass, etc.. Mainly NH/VT/ME white mountain stuff.. nothing overnight or too rugged, but afraid if she takes a wrong path or turn, she'll be in deep shit. Just looking for a way to contact humanity in case of emergency and no cell service.

She thinks she wants a Garmin inReach.. thing is $400 + satellite subscription fee.. Seems overkill for New England and more necessary out west. Wondering if anyone has alternative ideas.. Seeing a similar thing called a SPOT, or maybe a handheld CB radio, a 35mile Walkie Talkie, etc.

I can just see dropping $400+ on this thing and having it sit unused. Maybe I'm underestimating the danger of her hikes. I have no idea..

and before you all go in on it... I do want her to come back.. too much paperwork to deal with and who'll make my sammiches.
 
I wouldn’t bother with a walkie talkie or CB. It seems like there aren’t too many places left in NE where you can’t get a cell signal if you can get to a summit.

I have an InReach mini for backcountry, and it’s great to be able to send a free “I’m still alive” text to my wife at night. But it’s kind of a toy for me. It sort of comes down to the “packing your fears” debate. How prepared do you really need to be for something that has a very small chance of happening? Would you also pack pepper spray, or an epi pen, or splint?
 
When we vacationed in NH, before we bought our house, what I found was cell service was very poor North of Concord area. I stood at the weather station on Mt. Washington ~2005 and had zero cell signal. I doubt that they have put towers on mountains in NH, so I'd look elsewhere.

Ham radio (with a license) would be my recommendation and it definitely was a thought when I went for my license a few years ago.
 
I'd say if she wants it, get it. You'll get all sorts of bonus points for caring about her. $400 isn't that much in the grand scheme of things.

Plus...I'm thinking about the woman who was hiking the Appalachian Trail, and got confused in Maine. Took a couple years to find her and she was frozen in her tent, not far from the trail.
 
If she's doing day hikes in New England, and she stays on trail, then she'll be fine with just the basics. Walkie-talkies are great for small groups. Garmin watches have every function you can think of.
Again, for day hikes on trail, if she downloads the map to her phone ahead of time, she'll be more than fine.
EMTDAD said:
Maybe I'm underestimating the danger of her hikes. I have no idea..
Click to expand...
She'll be having a blast. She's clearly caught the hiking bug [smile]
 
Len-2A Training said:
When we vacationed in NH, before we bought our house, what I found was cell service was very poor North of Concord area. I stood at the weather station on Mt. Washington ~2005 and had zero cell signal. I doubt that they have put towers on mountains in NH, so I'd look elsewhere.

Ham radio (with a license) would be my recommendation and it definitely was a thought when I went for my license a few years ago.
Click to expand...
It seems to be even worse now with 4G (I picked up a new 4G phone last year. I have no idea what 5G is currently dealing with). I do know that I had much better coverage before with 3G.
 
EMTDAD said:
Wife is doing hiking trips more often. I set her up with a backpack of emergency essentials: firestarter, bivvy, cell-charger, compass, etc.. Mainly NH/VT/ME white mountain stuff.. nothing overnight or too rugged, but afraid if she takes a wrong path or turn, she'll be in deep shit. Just looking for a way to contact humanity in case of emergency and no cell service.

She thinks she wants a Garmin inReach.. thing is $400 + satellite subscription fee.. Seems overkill for New England and more necessary out west. Wondering if anyone has alternative ideas.. Seeing a similar thing called a SPOT, or maybe a handheld CB radio, a 35mile Walkie Talkie, etc.

I can just see dropping $400+ on this thing and having it sit unused. Maybe I'm underestimating the danger of her hikes. I have no idea..

and before you all go in on it... I do want her to come back.. too much paperwork to deal with and who'll make my sammiches.
Click to expand...

The inReach is pretty cool (has maps and waypoints, too). I have one that I used for some long treks out around the Yellowstone basin. I was able to satellite text the SO back East regularly while she was tracking my progress via the GPS pings.

Funny, while I was setting up camp one night, I was moving around back and forth and in-circles getting all of the gear set up for the night and prepping for dinner.

My wife got it into her head that there was a bear mauling me.

Somehow, I have no idea how, she managed to get in touch with the nearest ranger post. The ranger told her that it was not likely, that things will be fine in the morning. Needless to say, I had a ranger make a visit at 0-dark-thirty to check in. Lol.

Cool gadget. Advantages ... disadvantages. Good for sketchy situations, overkill otherwise. It works well though where there is no cell service or bodies nearby.

Oh, and you don't have to keep the Garmin activated. They let you go into maintenance mode where there is a small yearly fee.
 
Last edited:
Here is a company out of Maine. Several years ago I bought an EMERGENCY LOCATOR BEACON that did not require a subscription, you just had to register with NOAA. I sent it in for battery replacement and it is good as new. Now they have a sat phone adaptor you pair with your cell phone that sounds pretty good. Here is their website, I would highly recommend them. Good luck
www.acrartex.com

Home - ACR ARTEX

ACR Electronics is the leading manufacturer of EPIRBs, Personal Locator Beacons, ARTEX ELT, AIS, Man Overboard, Searchlights for the Marine, Outdoor, and Aviation markets
www.acrartex.com www.acrartex.com
 
HAM and audiopatch

Or DMR

There's replication in HAM like AFRS or whatever the acronym is, but with eh right gear you won't get lost
 
lots of good replies.. thanks..

the hike-safe card is great.. TY
Ham radio is also great, but unlikely that she'd put in the time for that.
I know it's overkill, but you know how it is...
$400 is small potatoes to keep the wife happy.. and I have enough BPS points to cover it, but it cuts into my revolver fund.
 
EMTDAD said:
Wife is doing hiking trips more often. I set her up with a backpack of emergency essentials: firestarter, bivvy, cell-charger, compass, etc.. Mainly NH/VT/ME white mountain stuff.. nothing overnight or too rugged, but afraid if she takes a wrong path or turn, she'll be in deep shit. Just looking for a way to contact humanity in case of emergency and no cell service.

She thinks she wants a Garmin inReach.. thing is $400 + satellite subscription fee.. Seems overkill for New England and more necessary out west. Wondering if anyone has alternative ideas.. Seeing a similar thing called a SPOT, or maybe a handheld CB radio, a 35mile Walkie Talkie, etc.

I can just see dropping $400+ on this thing and having it sit unused. Maybe I'm underestimating the danger of her hikes. I have no idea..

and before you all go in on it... I do want her to come back.. too much paperwork to deal with and who'll make my sammiches.
Click to expand...
I have a spot x that I keep in my jeep. I pay about $12/month for satellite service and that includes the sos service. I also picked up a satellite phone as well with an inexpensive plan. I bought both of them off of Amazon.
 
Get the Garmin InReach Mini. I have one for snowmobiling and it's well worth it. It's pretty easy to get out of reach of a cell tower on the sled trails and just having the knowledge that I can send a message to my wife telling her we're running late is worth it. The device is only part of the expense though - you also have to pay a monthly fee to use the satellite communication portion, which is the reason for having it. You can deactivate it for any month you aren't using it but there's a small annual fee even if you have the device inactive.
 
Years ago, the first time that I was at Killington, there was a sign on a lift tower that read, "THE MOUNTAINS WILL BE JUST AS COLD AND LONELY TONIGHT AS THEY WERE 200 YEARS AGO."

If the Ms. is going to places where the above applies, and it will make her (and your) mind easier, buy it.

First world solution.
 
FRS walkie talkies need another person with one turned on, within range, and either on the same channel or set to scanning. In other words, don't count on it.

The inreach is a good investment if soloing or in 2 person groups. Still plenty of cell service dead spots in the Whites.

Years ago, some friends and I were having a good time skiing at Cannon with a snowstorm cranking up and laying down freshies. At the very same time, a woman doing a day hike just on the other side of I-93 on Lafayette was dying from exposure due to being caught in that same snowstorm we were enjoying. She ended up stuck on the mountain for a couple of days and didn't make it. She was described as experienced and fit. If she had comms, my group had winter mountain rescue and wilderness first aid experience and could have easily crossed the highway, gone up and gotten her out. We were doing a multisport weekend and had our ice climbing gear, snowshoes, etc.
 
juice said:
I wouldn’t bother with a walkie talkie or CB. It seems like there aren’t too many places left in NE where you can’t get a cell signal if you can get to a summit.
Click to expand...

If caught in bad weather in the White Mountains, moving up to a summit in order to get a cell signal can get you killed.
 
I got her the Garmin for Mothers Day... great deal on it.. one of my BPS benefits is a thing called Expervoice. Website where you do a short training on the merchandise, then get discounts off products. I got the $400 InReach Mini for $278 shipped
 
EMTDAD said:
Garmin inReach
Click to expand...

I've looked at them too but the cheapest sub when I checked only allowed 10 texts then I wondered why bother? Still cool though, text system completely outside the telcos. A coworker got one when he crewed a boat from RI to South America. He wanted an alternative way to reach out in an emergency. Never used it once though. The boat had satellite wifi and he was able to text his wife via an app on his phone the entire trip. So many different approaches like LORAWAN, phone based meshnets, & sat related like Spot. Seems like something will break out and become the dominant tech in this category. And that helps you not at all right now.
 

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