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McMurdo PLB Fastfind Plus 406 Personal Locator Beacon

McMurdo FastFind PLs 406 Personal Locator Beacon - Black and Yellow. Condition is "New never used". Dispatched with Royal Mail 1st Class. For Sale at £104.
This is NOT the latest and greatest PLB (Personal Locator Beacon), but it has its place. If you've shopped 406 MHz beacons you know this is WAY cheaper than most others. And there are reasons for that:
1.) No built-in GPS. That means that rescuers will have to locate you using the satellite system's doppler location capability, which is considerably less accurate and much slower to derive a location (could be hours, rather than minutes). But, they should still find you.
2.) An old, bulky and generally "hinky" mechanical construction. If you accidentally deploy the antenna, it is very hard to repack, and damage to the antenna or case are likely. There is a trick to doing it that the importer (Revere) knows, so it can be done, but will require a call to them, or sending it in. When replacing the battery, extreme care is needed to avoid overtightening the case screw. They specify a torque setting in inch-pounds, exceed it and you crack the case, which ruins the water-proof/submersion rating. I could go on, but these are the biggies.
3.) These are old units. So the battery, which has a 5 year shelf life, however I had it checked and it still displays full power even though it says to change in 2008. If you want to change it it Is Not a BIG problem, because Overtons includes a free battery certificate from the importer (Revere). For the cost of postage, Revere will send you a free battery as they expire, every 5 years, for life.

So why do I recommend these? Well, ACR is the current top-of-the-line MFR, now into their 2nd (really 2 1/2 nd) generation, more compact, with much better GPS receivers, etc. But this old war-horse is the unit the Coast Guard chose some years ago when this system first went on-line, it still works, you get "free" batteries for life, and the PRICE IS RIGHT.
BUT MOST IMPORTANT - it was a "back-up" unit for me. I have a SPOT satellite messenger - which I highly recommend. It can send emails or text msgs to your friends indicating your exact location, and saying you are OK, need help, or are in an emergency - in the latter case also calling for search and rescue just like the McMurdo PLB. There are places on the earth that the SPOT won't work (though coverage has improved dramatically in the last year). The SPOT needs a better sky view than a PLB to get out a signal. The SPOT has a yearly subscription fee, not so the PLB. ETC. So, I carry the SPOT for casual travel, to signal friends where I am, and for help or emergencies when out of cell coverage. And if I'm going seriously into nowhere, the PLB comes along too. It has only one function - calling search and rescue - but it is a COMPLETE backup, end-to-end, for this function. That is, it uses different frequencies, different satellites, and a different monitoring and dispatching network.
So, for the man who keeps his pants up with a belt, and suspenders too, but is still on a budget, this old McMurdo unit makes sense as a backup to the much more fun and useful SPOT. And, if you are on a REAL budget and don't want the bells, whistles and annual subscription cost of the SPOT, but still think that a slow rescue sounds a lot better than no rescue, then the McMurdo can still save your ££ for half or less the ££ of a shiny new PLB from ACR.