A PLB is worth it if you can afford it. AFAIK there are no ongoing fees, but your particular location might have rescue fees if you use the beacon. The beacon communicates with satellites to a global centre that then sends your details off to both the national centre where you registered the beacon and to the national centre where the beacon went off. When I registered the beacon I supplied the contact details of a few people. These are the same people I tell my plans to when I go somewhere. The signal includes your GPS coords down to a hundred metres if the GPS can get a good fix. This particular model also has a radio pinger to allow rescuers to zero in on you once they get close. That's super awesome if you go non-responsive after activating the beacon.
It is frightening being lost and much easier to do than people realise. I sorry to hear about your colleague. Exposure is a massive killer in the outdoors here too. I've been changing my outdoors clothes to wool baselayers and including some warming solutions. In this particular kit there is a tea-light candle. Light that sucker, place it in the canteen cup and then put that canteen cup between your legs and sit under the poncho. It's surprisingly warm!
My own lost story is on steemit: Lost in the dark, mistakes were made.
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Good read!
One more thing about beacons. Apparently there's a new kind of Beacon called a SPOT that allows you to send short text messages with a location ping. That message goes to a website and I think emailed to people you nominate. It also has a distress mode. I think you have to pay a subscription fee.
Our rescue services don't yet recommend these devices over a SPOT. Though any beacon is better than no beacon.
I think the solution for me is to stick with group hikes in well marked areas. It would be unwise to rely on a beacon at this point, it would be a false sense of security and a disservice to whoever has to come rescue my dumbass, lol. It would be better for me to build skill and confidence in a safe/controlled way. I would be irresponsible to get myself into trouble on a whim to face my fear. Better to prove to myself that I'm committed by learning how not to get lost, then decide to look into beacons before testing myself. I'd feel ridiculous setting the thing off 100 yards from the road.
My approach too. I don't want to burden anybody either.