I still favor SPOT. My reasons: Family and friends can see where you are (if you use it as it is meant to be). If used for tracking, people can see that you are moving, which usually indicates you are doing ok.
PLB: I wouldn't use it, because it can ONLY be used in an emergency. Nobody knows where you are until you press the SOS button. They're good for groups hiking in avalanche zones, but not for hikers.
SPOT has several down sides:
1. People misuse them: turn them on and press the button, shut it down in 5 minutes. Signals usually don't get out that way. Should be left on 30 minutes, or hours where there are obstructions.
2. They don't work in deep canyons such as: last mile or two of the Main Mt Whitney trail; Bubbs Creek (Kings Canyon); Vernal/Nevada Falls trail in Yosemite -- all these have high cliff walls preventing line-of-site to receiving satellites.
3. They don't work in a forest -- trees block the signal.
They don't work hanging on your belt. I pin mine on my backpack shoulder strap top.
I believe Fishmonger here has said his never worked right -- signals did not get out. I don't know what would cause that, since mine has worked except in the situations described abvoe.
Spot has a "Poor man's tracking": use the Help (not SOS) button. It sends a signal every 4 minutes for 1 hour, but works with a basic subscription. A subscription that supports tracking costs more. If you use the "Help" button like that, tell people receiving it that it does NOT mean call any authorities. I might in use the "help" signal to leave bread-crumb signals when traveling in an off-trail situation.
My buddy has a satellite phone. I may borrow it this summer, if I can stand the extra weight. I'll still carry my SPOT, though.
It is my opinion that every solo hiker should carry a SPOT. The
story of Larry Conn illustrates. If he had been using a SPOT, he would have been found within days. Probably not alive, but family would not have been left wondering for months, and the huge expense of time and aircraft used in the futile search -- that alone would justify
giving every hiker one to carry.
An odd side story, though: I listened to a SEKI ranger present at a wilderness planning meeting. He expressed to me after the talk that he felt people could not truly experience the wilderness if they carried a SPOT or other communicator unit. IMO, that's a silly attitude, but it was real, nevertheless.
On the other side of that coin, an Inyo staff member related that they were considering giving a SPOT to their backcountry rangers to carry. Randy Morgensen's disappearance may have precipitated that.
