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Can you recommend a good gps locator?

B

Black Titan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2023
Messages
638
Looking for something to use in an emergency situation incase I end up somewhere without cell service. Some of these mountains and hollers in east TN can be pretty bad at keeping a cell signal.

I have a Garmin Etrx 22 that's good for navigating, dropping pins, breadcrumbs, etc but has no emergency alert functionality.

Something reasonably priced but not "cheap" or unreliable.

BT
 
If you want a satellite one I would recommend the Garmin Inreach Mini. Small, yet very functional and powerful. Yes, there's a monthly subscription, but you can do the month-to-month one and turn it on for the months you need it. We turn ours on for trips out west, salmon fishing, etc.
 
I do like the looks of those garmin devices, but seems like alot of bells and whistles thrown in. I don't necessarily want to stay "connected" while hunting, but more so looking for something like an emergency SOS button that would send gps coordinates and a call for help. Not sure if something basic like this exists. It seems most of what I found are like the mini mentioned, where you can send and receive texts, emails, etc.

BT
 
Gotcha. You don’t have to use the text feature at all just pick the basic plan & keep it on you for true emergency
 
Black Titan said:
I do like the looks of those garmin devices, but seems like alot of bells and whistles thrown in. I don't necessarily want to stay "connected" while hunting, but more so looking for something like an emergency SOS button that would send gps coordinates and a call for help. Not sure if something basic like this exists. It seems most of what I found are like the mini mentioned, where you can send and receive texts, emails, etc.

BT
Click to expand...
That is a good plan if you can turn it on and find a signal, even satellite, when you get into trouble. We got deep into some valleys in Alaska that we couldn't get satellite service on our sat phones. The in reach will keep a running tally of where you are. If you drop off they have a good idea of where to start the search. In reach is the way to go, just don't turn on all the bells and whistles.
 
In-reach mini and Zoleo are the best I know of. I have the zoleo and it has worked very well for me. It has a dedicated SOS function but also allows you to send and receive text as well without cell signal.
 
This last July, I took a 5200 mile solo motorcycle trip from Michigan which took me through Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. My BMW R1200GS has a Garmin Zumo GPS mounted on it and it works well doing what a GPS does. However, I chose to use my phone and Google Maps to do most of my navigation due to its much more intuitive to use and takes a whole lot less time to enter a desired location into it than the Garmin but the Garmin will work when I have no cell service.

All this to say that I didn't need another GPS. What I was looking for was a means of communication with my wife while I was in areas of poor or no cell service. Also, since I was planning on going into off road locations in sparsely populated areas and being solo I wanted some way to contact help should an issue arise.

What I chose was a Zoleo Satellite Communicator. It doesn't function as a GPS but as a means of connecting your phone with the Iridium satellite network. The Zoleo requires a Bluetooth connection with your smartphone through a free Zoleo phone app. All texting is done through your phone on the Zoleo app. I only used it when I didn't have cell service. When I had cell service I would call or text my wife over my normal cell service.

Another nice feature is the ability to provide my wife with pings showing my location at intervals of my choosing. I set up mine to ping her every hour. She had to also download the free Zoleo app to her phone to receive my texts through the Zoleo and also to receive my pings. Each ping would give her an "I'm okay" message and provide her with my exact latitude and longitude coordinates. If she clicked on the coordinates, it would pull up a map showing her exactly where I was at. It went a long way to alleviate her fears of me being out there by myself.

The Zoleo also has an SOS button to activate Global Rescue, the same service used by Garmin. Little did I know, on the third day of my trip I had to activate the SOS feature, not for myself but for someone else in distress.

I was travelling through the Beartooth Pass somewhere between Montana and Wyoming when a frantic lady flagged me down. Her and her husband happened upon a woman who was unconscious and unresponsive. No one could get any cell service to call for help. The fear was that if she didn't receive help soon, whatever her issue was, could possibly cause her to die without help. I activated my SOS button and was soon in contact with Global Rescue. They asked me questions via text and I gave them information as best I could. They assured me that Search & Rescue were on their way but due to the remote location it would take between a half hour to an hour to reach us. Once I was off the phone, I started flagging down every vehicle that passed by looking for anyone that might have some medical background. The first car I stopped was an EMT (the lady in purple in the photo below) travelling with her son! A couple of vehicles later I stopped a couple on a Harley-Davidson who were both RN's! They really took over treating the woman. About a half hour after first contact, Emergency Services showed up in a pickup truck. They were EMT's. I was told that an ambulance would take another hour to arrive so a helicopter was dispatched. When I left, I was told that the helicopter was about 15 minutes out.

Woman Down.jpg

I wore my Zoleo attached to my riding jacket so in the event of a crash, the Zoleo would be within reach even if my phone wasn't. Even without the use of my phone, just depressing the SOS button would activate Search & Rescue and provide them with my location.

Zoleo.jpg

The Zoleo is probably the least expensive of the units out there, if you don't need a communicator in conjunction with a GPS. They list for $199 but if you shop around you can usually find them in the $150 range. Subscription options are reasonably priced too. Anyway, That's my experience with the Zoleo and I can highly recommend it. Oh, and the trip? It was awesome!!

BMW.png
 
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ricky racer said:
This last July, I took a 5200 mile solo motorcycle trip from Michigan which took me through Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. My BMW R1200GS has a Garmin Zumo GPS mounted on it and it works well doing what a GPS does. However, I chose to use my phone and Google Maps to do most of my navigation due to its much more intuitive to use and takes a whole lot less time to enter a desired location into it than the Garmin but the Garmin will work when I have no cell service.

All this to say that I didn't need another GPS. What I was looking for was a means of communication with my wife while I was in areas of poor or no cell service. Also, since I was planning on going into off road locations in sparsely populated areas and being solo I wanted some way to contact help should an issue arise.

What I chose was a Zoleo Satellite Communicator. It doesn't function as a GPS but as a means of connecting your phone with the Iridium satellite network. The Zoleo requires a Bluetooth connection with your smartphone through a free Zoleo phone app. All texting is done through your phone on the Zoleo app. I only used it when I didn't have cell service. When I had cell service I would call or text my wife over my normal cell service.

Another nice feature is the ability to provide my wife with pings showing my location at intervals of my choosing. I set up mine to ping her every hour. She had to also download the free Zoleo app to her phone to receive my texts through the Zoleo and also to receive my pings. Each ping would give her an "I'm okay" message and provide her with my exact latitude and longitude coordinates. If she clicked on the coordinates, it would pull up a map showing her exactly where I was at. It went a long way to alleviate her fears of me being out there by myself.

The Zoleo also has an SOS button to activate Global Rescue, the same service used by Garmin. Little did I know, on the third day of my trip I had to activate the SOS feature, not for myself but for someone else in distress.

I was travelling through the Beartooth Pass somewhere between Montana and Wyoming when a frantic lady flagged me down. Her and her husband happened upon a woman who was unconscious and unresponsive. No one could get any cell service to call for help. The fear was that if she didn't receive help soon, whatever her issue was, could possibly cause her to die without help. I activated my SOS button and was soon in contact with Global Rescue. They asked me questions via text and I gave them information as best I could. They assured me that Search & Rescue were on their way but due to the remote location it would take between a half hour to an hour to reach us. Once I was off the phone, I started flagging down every vehicle that passed by looking for anyone that might have some medical background. The first car I stopped was an EMT (the lady in purple in the photo below) travelling with her son! A couple of vehicles later I stopped a couple on a Harley-Davidson who were both RN's! They really took over treating the woman. About a half hour after first contact, Emergency Services showed up in a pickup truck. They were EMT's. I was told that an ambulance would take another hour to arrive so a helicopter was dispatched. When I left, I was told that the helicopter was about 15 minutes out.

View attachment 90821

I wore my Zoleo attached to my riding jacket so in the event of a crash, the Zoleo would be within reach even if my phone wasn't. Even without the use of my phone, just depressing the SOS button would activate Search & Rescue and provide them with my location.

View attachment 90822

The Zoleo is probably the least expensive of the units out there, if you don't need a communicator in conjunction with a GPS. They list for $199 but if you shop around you can usually find them in the $150 range. Subscription options are reasonably priced too. Anyway, That's my experience with the Zoleo and I can highly recommend it. Oh, and the trip? It was awesome!!

View attachment 90865
Click to expand...

Wow that's pretty awesome that it worked so well.

So is this network of responders solely for the SOS devices and others similar, or is it like a dispatch company that alerts local rescue, emt, etc?

The more I think about it, the more I wonder why we can't just use our cells for this kind of thing. I mean the phones have GPS obviously, or else map apps like google, waze, onX, etc wouldn't work. I feel like it's a feature that SHOULD be built in to a cell phone, especially today's smartphones that are in excess of $1k.

BT
 
Black Titan said:
Wow that's pretty awesome that it worked so well.

So is this network of responders solely for the SOS devices and others similar, or is it like a dispatch company that alerts local rescue, emt, etc?

The more I think about it, the more I wonder why we can't just use our cells for this kind of thing. I mean the phones have GPS obviously, or else map apps like google, waze, onX, etc wouldn't work. I feel like it's a feature that SHOULD be built in to a cell phone, especially today's smartphones that are in excess of $1k.

BT
Click to expand...
I'm not sure exactly how it works but Global Rescue is a world wide that I believe is used by all GPS based SOS platforms. I would assume, and it's just an assumption, that Global Rescue fields all SOS responses and directs the call to the appropriate authorities in the location of the event.

The problem with cell phones is when there is no cell service, they are no more useful than a brick. If you wanted an SOS feature on a phone, you would need a satellite phone. I've never priced one but my need was for a period of time and I can subscribe to the Zoleo service when I need it and cancel when I don't.

Keep in mind that every time I activate the service, there's a $20 activation fee and I they require a 3 month subscription. They offer a suspension option where for a $4 per month you can suspend your service and if you need it for a month there is no activation fee and no minimum subscription length of time. If you need it for a month you pay for a month then suspend it again.
 
ricky racer said:
I'm not sure exactly how it works but Global Rescue is a world wide that I believe is used by all GPS based SOS platforms. I would assume, and it's just an assumption, that Global Rescue fields all SOS responses and directs the call to the appropriate authorities in the location of the event.

The problem with cell phones is when there is no cell service, they are no more useful than a brick. If you wanted an SOS feature on a phone, you would need a satellite phone. I've never priced one but my need was for a period of time and I can subscribe to the Zoleo service when I need it and cancel when I don't.

Keep in mind that every time I activate the service, there's a $20 activation fee and I they require a 3 month subscription. They offer a suspension option where for a $4 per month you can suspend your service and if you need it for a month there is no activation fee and no minimum subscription length of time. If you need it for a month you pay for a month then suspend it again.
Click to expand...

It‘s maybe a bit more complicated and worth a deeper dive as to how this all plays out. From signals to response, there seem to be some intricacies. Idk.



D6055977-22A0-4219-BCA4-D281AB8C97DE.png
 
Black Titan said:
The more I think about it, the more I wonder why we can't just use our cells for this kind of thing. I mean the phones have GPS obviously, or else map apps like google, waze, onX, etc wouldn't work. I feel like it's a feature that SHOULD be built in to a cell phone.
Click to expand...

@Black Titan - The Apple iPhone 14 and 15 have Emergency Satellite SOS and Emergency Satellite text messaging (with the emergency center) built into the phone - and there’s no subscription cost for the satellite service for the first 2 years after you activate the phone. If you set up your medical info and emergency contacts, it will transmit your message, your medical ID info, your gps coordinates, and your iPhone’s remaining battery life to the emergency response center as well as to the emergency contacts you have designated.

Considering that the iPhone 14 and 15 also have crash detection and fall detection features that will contact emergency services for you if you’re in a crash or a bad fall and you’re unresponsive, that’s a great reason to upgrade your phone even if you weren’t planning to - it could save your life.

To find out more info, you can use the link below to the Apple website on the topic…

Link to info on Emergency (Satellite) SOS on iPhone
 
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I've used SPOT devices over the years. No emergency activations, thankfully. The one we had could be equipped with 3 pre-set messages; an "all normal, doing fine, just checking in" message, a "heads-up we're in a spot of trouble but expect to self-rescue" message, and a "Send Help Now!!" message. Worked as advertised. I've participated in searches in response to SPOT devices and other EPIRBs. From my perspective I didn't notice a difference between different brands or types of devices; all sent the appropriate message to the right authority (USCG or county SO) who responded as per their protocol.
 
LoadedLimbs said:
@Black Titan - The Apple iPhone 14 and 15 have Emergency Satellite SOS and Emergency Satellite text messaging (with the emergency center) built into the phone - and there’s no subscription cost for the satellite service for the first 2 years after you activate the phone. If you set up your medical info and emergency contacts, it will transmit your message, your medical ID info, your gps coordinates, and your iPhone’s remaining battery life to the emergency response center as well as to the emergency contacts you have designated.

Considering that the iPhone 14 and 15 also have crash detection and fall detection features that will contact emergency services for you if you’re in a crash or a bad fall and you’re unresponsive, that’s a great reason to upgrade your phone even if you weren’t planning to - it could save your life.

To find out more info, you can use the link below to the Apple website on the topic…

Link to info on Emergency (Satellite) SOS on iPhone
Click to expand...

I can only hope that Samsung follows suit with this as when it comes to Apple I am tech-dumb. Been using android since the touchscreen phone came out.

My wife has an apple and my 3 year old can operate it better than me. She will sometimes ask me to go to something on her phone and I just hand it to her lol.

BT
 
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I hope the Android phones follow Apple’s lead too but if they don’t, switching from one platform to the other isn’t as difficult as you may think. There’s the typical adjustment period of figuring out how to do things in the unfamiliar environment of the new device, but most people find that after a few days they’re pretty well adjusted to the new device, and what they don’t know right away can be learned from others soon enough. If you think about it - it’s probably no worse than setting up and having to learn what you need to know with a Garmin, Zoleo, Spot, PLB, etc.
 
One feature of the garmin I really liked was being able to upload a daily weather forecast. It costs 1 msg from your plan. Also if you leave your location on & there was an issue the emergency responders would have a place to start. I know price was mentioned ( garmin has 3 plans 10msgs/$19.99per month .
40 msgs/ $35/ per month
Unlimited msg / $70 per month account
 
I have the Garmin Messenger, it’s small, battery lasts a long time. I used it on a hunting trip to Alaska last year to stay in text contact with my wife. But usually it lives in my pocket turned on when I’m in the woods. The subscriptions aren’t super cheap but worth it to me.
 
Bigterp said:
One feature of the garmin I really liked was being able to upload a daily weather forecast. It costs 1 msg from your plan. Also if you leave your location on & there was an issue the emergency responders would have a place to start. I know price was mentioned ( garmin has 3 plans 10msgs/$19.99per month .
40 msgs/ $35/ per month
Unlimited msg / $70 per month account
Click to expand...
This is going back about 10 years and I expect the technology has improved dramatically.... but I remember a couple of wilderness excursions in the BWCA and Quetico, heading up to York Factory on Hudson's Bay, where they tracked their progress using SPOT devices. Offhand I can't remember if they did daily, or strike camp/lunch/set camp, but they had a 'ground crew' running a blog with their progress. I thought it was an interesting application for an EPIRB, but never considered "the emergency responders would have a place to start".
 
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