Rick...

Thanks for finding and posting that! I had started a response to OM but had to abandon it and got logged off. My point was that if you've met the criteria for your "home base" to call in SAR and you know that there is an active search underway, it is no longer just your health and safety at stake anymore - it is the health and safety of the SAR team to consider. Having the means by which to pinpoint your location and not using it when you know there are people looking for you puts people at unnecessary risk. Not to mention most SAR people are volunteers who may be taking time off from work to search for you... it really doesn't make any sense NOT to use the PLB at that point. Like Rick_D's post points out, the PLB signal triggers a phone call first - the people on the contact list could relay to RCC the situation and then they will coordinate with the Search Coordinator and decide what needs to be done. It may be that RCC relays the coordinates to the SAR team and then puts their own team on standby until called in by SAR. At that point it really isn't up to you, it is up to the SAR coordinator and the RCC to decide what to do.

MNS