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Comment by virgulino | Hacker News Reader

You are looking for a PLB, a Personal Locator Beacon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_position-indicating_...

You buy it, you never pay anything else, it works all over the planet, in extreme conditions, you never need to charge its battery (good for 7+ years), and most importantly, it communicates with an exclusive satellite constellation dedicated to search and rescue, operated by national governments. Your emergency call is handled directly by local government agencies, the military in many parts of the world, who have a duty to respond to the emergency - in accordance with international treaties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cospas-Sarsat_Pr...

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So how does rescue work-- I assume you do have to pay the people who rescue you

Undefined. But at zero cost in every case I know of, in a multitude of countries. Be it a simple policeman driving into the middle of the desert to help a cyclist, to a complex joint, multinational, civil-military operation in the middle of the ocean, with aircraft and the rerouting of container ships.

https://www.acrartex.com/survivor-stories/

This isn't true everywhere. E.g. in the alps you might be billed for rescue, particularly if you're not injured or in a medical emergency. That said, SAR insurance is cheap. Many alpinist associations and the likes offer it as part of their membership, which is often less than 100€/yr. There's no reason not to have it if you're going out into the mountains.

Depends on where in the world you are.

For the US, it's on a state-by-state basis but rescue is usually free as long as it's a true emergency and you weren't blatantly reckless to begin with.

For other parts of the world, you might get a bill to recover the cost of rescue. But in most cases it's still usually free.

(Medical care once you get back to civilization is a different story.)

Wow. That's honestly quite amazing. Our world would really be incomprehensible to someone just a few hundred years ago

Most places provide it free, although if you're in an area that sees a lot of rescues you very well might get a bill.

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