Use my Inreach all the time… never for the “SOS” function, but I was able to text my brother to come pick me up in his airplane and fly me to the hospital. Each way, the texts take from 3-15 minutes usually.
Another option is a Personal Locator Beacon. Friend of mine was in a boat that capsized, pulled the lanyard on his PLB, and searchers were on the water within 20 minutes.
Nice to have a "rescue service" in the family.
As to the preset messages mentioned above, they are handy. I generally send 3 a day when i'm out of cell range fishing. Send as many of them as you want on the basic safety plan for no extra charge
Even regular text messages are not really cost prohibitive if you exceed your limit, and need more. $.50 each is cheap if you need communication
I've had my device for about 3 years. First 2 months I went with the middle cost plan to allow me to play with it a little. Backed off to the basic plan after that and have never yet exceeded the text message limit.
