Nowhere near cheap and it uses the old 121.5 band but the Breitling
Emergency Mission is a wristwatch with an emergency locator:

http://www.breitling.com/en/models/professional/emergency_mission/

I bet Tom Hanks wishes he was wearing one when he was abord that FedEx plane

Chris

On 12/7/06, joel walker <jwalker17@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > Are there any inexpensive devices that would send a gps fix to
> > international
> > emergency satalite
> > the allow searches to home in on sone lost / stranded in the westy
> > wilderness ?
>
> any sort of radio transmitter (ELT or EPIRB)
> is gonna cost money. several hundreds of dollars.
> even the ELT detector is like $140 (tells a pilot that someone nearby
> has triggered
> their emergency beacon).
>
> but ...
>
> there are some things that are cheap (less than $40) that might help.
>
> personal strobe lights. horribly brillantly bright little strobe
> lights that can be seen by aircraft or anybody in direct line of sight
> for about two miles. usually capable of lasting about 8 hours or more,
> depending on the model and the batteries.
> downsides are ... this thing is BRIGHT. you're NOT gonna want to stand
> there holding it.
> which brings up downside number two: battery life in cold weather. not
> good. :(
> and you have to carry spare batteries for it.
> but if anybody is around, they're gonna notice it. even in the
> daytime.
> $15 to $40 each. standard household batteries.
>
> cyalume sticks. chemical light sticks. about $2 each. available online
> or sometimes in wal-mart, in the hunting section. stores almost
> indefinitely (fits nicely in the glove box). bend it in the middle
> time the inner tube of chemicals cracks and the two chemicals mix,
> shake it a bit, and you've got light. some colors (yellow) last 12
> hours.
> downside ... isn't really bright, especially in daytime. but at night,
> it shows up maybe 100 yards. if you tie a string around it and swing
> it around your head in a circle, it attracts a LOT of attention. but
> then, you've outside in the cold doing this. :(
> $2 each. yellow, green, red. blue and white are available, but are
> considerably dimmer than yellow or green.
>
> 12gauge flare guns for airplanes and boats.
> downside, limited ammunition.
> but it does attract attention, even in daytime. also fits nicely into
> glove box.
> attracts cops if/when searching your bus, and Officer Opie might not
> know the difference between a flare gun and a SuperWhoopie CIA
> Ass-Sassing Pistol, model 12 Guage. :)
> about $40.
>
> me, i chose the cyalume sticks. they can also be used to entertain
> children at campouts.
> :)  or used to work under your bus in the middle of the
> dark-as-the-inside-of-a-cow nights.
>
> unca joel
>