On Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 11:20:52 PM UTC-6, 2G wrote:
ELT measured effectiveness is less than 50% (they say 40-60%, why not be more specific?). If you are injured it may be higher because the damage is less, but not necessarily. 50% amounts "better than nothing", but not much more.

I tried inReach, only to switch back to Spot2 after spending over an hour on the phone with DeLorme to suspend service. They wanted me to do it thru the inreach so I wouldn't inadvertently cancel service, even tho I was on the phone with them!

Yeah, you could carry a Spot, Inreach, PLB, ELT, sat phone, cell phone, HAM radio, flare gun, etc., ALL ON YOUR PARACHUTE! After awhile one must reflect on how much protection you can stand. If that isn't enough maybe you should stay on the ground and go back to watching Gilligan's Island on TV.

Tom

The whole ELT concept seemed wrong from the beginning. Only someone who had never seen a crash site (Congress) would expect a wrecked aircraft to transmit it's location.

Far better for the undamaged aircraft to send location data just before it crashes using a tracker.