How much does it cost to use this emergency rescue beacon?

While anyone who spends a lot of time traipsing around outdoors, particularly in some form of wilderness, should probably be carrying some sort of emergency locator device, many don’t. Those devices are often annoyingly large or heavy and require a regular paid subscription in order to use them, which some can find hard to justify for a thing that we try very hard to never have to use.

Enter the Hero emergency rescue beacon. This device is about the size of a household pepper grinder and requires not one single cent to operate. That’s because, when activated, it transmits a distress signal to a search-and-rescue satellite network funded by various countries’ governments. This is a worldwide network, operated by Cospas Sarsat, so it can be reached from anywhere on the globe.

When the network recieves the transmission, it will send the beacon’s location and personal info on the user to staff at a 24-hour manned rescue coordination center. They will then alert the nearest search-and-rescue teams and notify any predetermined emergency contacts. Once all this is done, the beacon will receive a confirmation signal and illuminate its LED in blue to notify the user that help is coming. As responders get close to the beacon, they will be able to trace its radio signal and activate its strobe light and audio buzzer to help them find it.