Armed Polite Society

Watched the Covid episode last night.

Wow did that bring back some memories. Empty streets, empty interstates, panic buying at stores, whole 9 yards.

GPS devices have improved dramatically in the last 20 years, they can get signal in much denser forest than they used to.

The PLBs you can get these days will let you send a message (some you have to preprogram) that will include the last semi-reliable location fix.  If you hit the panic button it will send messages a particular intervals until it's told to stop or the batteries die.

The sad death aside, it's interesting to think about how much less the likelihood is of this happening today, just eleven years later. At the time of the story, personal EPIRBS were already a thing. They were small enough that we wore them in our survival vests when flying, and I know that they were a thing with serious hikers, but they were still expensive enough and bulky enough that most recreational hikers wouldn't use them.

These days you can get a tiny personal locator for $300, and I just looked, and a McMurdo Fastfind, a PEPIRB similar to what I carried is even less, at $250. If Elon comes through, you won't even need a personal beacon - you could just use your phone.

I'm not sure you can just use your phone. First, that assumes your phone is charged. Beyond that, doesn't StarLink (like most satellite services) require a fairly clear view of the sky? In heavily forested terrain, I doubt she would be able to connect with a satellite. In days of youre, a Jeep club I was involved in was cutting a new Jeep trail at a now-defunct off-road park in Pennsylvania. One of the guys had a personal GPS that he was trying to use to plot waypoints for the trail we were building. It didn't work -- couldn't connect to the GPS satellites because of the trees.

I'm thinking an old-fashioned magnetic compass is still the best/easiest/cheapest solution. And if all you need is a general direction (east/west/north/south) rather than trying to navigate from a specific point to a known set of coordinates on a map, even a cheapie from Amazon will do thatwithout breaking the bank or adding significant weight.

I have a couple of good hand-held compasses I've had since Boy Scouts, but I bought a couple of these for just carrying in a day pack or in the glove box:
https://www.amazon.com/SE-CC45-1-Lensatic-Compass/dp/B000O5HL0I/ref=sr_1_22?crid=21S2LFG62QU8M&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.7BRPeOVY-YZfvoOY4bAP1pH1zHFxJ-NSIY0V5LkWa5oJp6gtzRCJleOgV6Q4-M3RUoUv8LDImnxp9J_iiYqtxwE-uVCBpwBbs8etq-fFqz6sf2NuwmkL1F8UYTM7ix2gzfWbkUeSG3xhsm95MeIV1Kikb3n9G6iAFswEWlxfBMj6xks_QaDsw5XdFVAVjAl3mIEUzAuy_nBqhtvK_K69Dz1ncJQIiit2_SHqGS1CuSqO7XlAbTOwS3aLrJTvF0lLQamSpKjm2nzJWBbqXOfvskc3phpSAALDw0A6LqbOSdE.9Q_eSd1r7ZQu9CHFPJ_XAwndft1tsyQdHVXOqo3OEbE&dib_tag=se&keywords=hand+bearing+compass&qid=1714930976&sprefix=hand+compass%2Caps%2C918&sr=8-22

I also have compass apps on my cell phone and tablet. Unfortunately, my phone and my small tablet are lower-end Samsungs that don't include a magnetometer, so the compass function only works on GPS and only when you're moving fast enough for the system to register a direction of travel. A normal walking pace is enough, I don't have to run -- but it won't work if it can't pick up multiple satellites.

This is one of those conflicts where it's worth remembering you don't HAVE to pick a side

A 40mm grenade launcher - especially something like an M19 - would be reasonably effective for taking out small drones if buckshot/beehive ammo were made for it. (Someone makes a 40mm shell containing 15 .22 lr cartridges - functionally, much like the old volley guns.)

Not exactly as portable as a shotgun, of course, but still a lot cheaper than trying to use Stingers on small cheap drones.