Has anybody seen these before?

[Hymie]

Spot Messenger > Home (http://www.findmespot.com/Home.aspx)
It's a GPS/Satellite personal locator that does just a wee bit more than an EPIRB.

[dmdigital]

Looks like an American reworking of one of the new EPIRB's.

See: GME - MT410 406 MHz PLB (http://www.gme.net.au/epirb/mt410.php)

[philco]

richie richs dad had 1 in the movie 10 years ago:wasntme:

[Xavie]

I looked in to one of these as I'm just getting back into the state forest and national park trails and after having an accident a while back I am pretty cautious. They look like an excellent idea because you can just log on to say your okay or you can send a distress message.

There is a yearly maintenance fee however.

I decided against it because a good epirb is cheaper and no ongoing cost and should be able to get help pretty quickly. And also a lot of the places I go I won't get a gps signal so it ain't so useful.

In America they are really popular and gaining quickly.

Xav

[DeeJay]

We looked at one of these ( another brand) about 5 years ago for our Autistic boy who was 17 at the time and would abscond from his community home sparking a police search & causing us premature ageing.
After a few escapes the "carers" got better at security.
A recent revisit to these devices shows there are a much larger number of distributors and prices have fallen dramatically. They are similar to vehicle tracking devices, they even have one with a 5 year battery that can go onto plant & equipment and be activated remotely.
The problem ( for our need) with them 5 years ago was the few available all had to be activated by the user.
Look around google under "personal locater"