I reset my search to PSBs: personal Survival Beacons.
I think this is the style of device that you are using.
These are more reasonable. $300-$400 - but the ones with GPS built in
seem to run $600.
They seem to come in two flavors: those with built in GPS, and those
with an interface to an external GPS source which are cheaper.

Some beacons feature 121.5 AND 406.1xxx because a coordinate
transmission gets rescue in the near ball park but (for aircraft at
least) a 121.5 transmission can be homed right to the (hidden by
trees?)site.

However, the climber/backpacker version PSB/EPIRB is probably not
approved for aircraft use - it's duration is certainly more limited.
The revised regs DID say a survival 406 ELT may be used for light
aircraft though.

Brian W

MikeW wrote:
Hi Brian,

I've just bought a new 406MHz EPIRB for the boat, cost me AUD400, so about
$350 of your variety I think. The "real" problem is that the COSPAS/SARSAT
constellation of satellites had the 121.5/243MHz capability turned off at
the beginning of this year, which suggests that the 20 inch whip is basically
useless unless there's an aircraft monitoring 121.5 within line of sight.
We've all had to re-equip during this year to cope (I've managed to leave it
until the beginning of our summer, when new stocks became available).
Incidentally, just measured the antenna: 175 mm from the top of the case so
rough approximation not too bad in this case.

Cheers ... MikeW