[pct-l] Emergency Devices

[Gary Wright]

On Nov 30, 2010, at 1:03 PM, ned at mountaineducation.org wrote:

> Just keep in mind that any true emergency will take longer to activate via a 
> SPOT than a sat phone or PLB. According to the Air Force Captain (these are 
> the guys that watch the whole country for emergency beacons) who taught a 
> National Response Course I attended a few weeks ago, the best way to get 
> help right now is via the PLB or sat phone.

Just out of curiosity, who exactly would you call on a sat phone in an emergency?  Does 911 get routed to some sort of national dispatch group or would you have to have with you a Search and Rescue phone number to call?  Do sat phones incorporate automatic location tracking in some way or do you have to be able to verbally communicate your location accurately?

I just recall several discussions on this list about the difficulty in finding the correct jurisdiction for a search and rescue on the trail.

Radar