GPS personnal locator beacon ?
 

note: this title reads BEACON, not BACON.This thread is NOT about a bacon locator :)

I was wondering if there are quality personnal locator beacons available and if any of you has tried it.
Are these serious equipment or gadgets? do they work?
Can they be used as post-abduction locator devices?
I intend to use it in an area with cell phone coverage if that matters.Not for hiking.
I'm asking seriously and not as a joke/james bond fun.
I googled and there are apparently several devices that look serious enough.I'm browsing through them on amazon right now.
thanks for the info!

Garmin has a product that does the job

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=67686

If you can make your way over to MEC they have two really good ones on the market now. One which even allows you to use it as a GPS data hotspot so you can push small facebook updates about your travels in real time. Pretty cool stuff.

The second one is a standard SAR model which has a pull cord to activate its emergency beacon system. Doesn't do anything fancy beyond pushing out that SAR signal which all SAR services look for. Both have some insane battery life.

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/Paddli...ger-beacon.jsp

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/Paddli...os-android.jsp

Although I can't find the PLB on Mec's site... I think this was the one, or something similar to it. Register it with the Canadian government and away you go!

http://www.micro-mono.com/microplb.html

Hope that helps!

awesome thanks a lot

What Zeon said.

Or...
http://eseeknives.com/SWATMay09.pdf
http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advi...r-beacons.html

I'm not entirely sure about the levels alerts of those emergency devices... but don't some of them actually put you up on real SAR screens when you pull the emergency cord? Where did I read about that watch that if you activated the emergency transponder and it wasn't a real emergency you could be fined a lot of money when SAR deploys to find your ass in front of the tv on the couch.

Yes, if SAR is deployed for a non emergency you could be fined. Anytime emergency services are deployed for a non emergency, there is a risk of a fine.

The MPL emergency beacons require license registration with the government before they will actually be useful. However definitely a good tool to have if you are traveling somewhere high risk. They also do not require a subscription if I recall, just a phone call for registration into the database.

I have not used those personal hotspot beacons... but I have "heard" they are useful at Sea due to line of sight being decent.

Heard good things about this one. Know couple people who have them.

http://radioworld.ca/fast-find-p-6550.html