Locator Beacons

In reading this NYT article about Mountain Locator Beacons making a difference on Mt. Hood, the question nags: Why aren't Personal Locator Beacons getting more mainstream press right now? For $500 retail, people like James Kim, Kelly James, and Jim Grey might have survived. (OK, so Jim's not necessarily dead... we all hope he's whooping it up in Mexico somewhere)

I don't own one myself yet, but since we're starting to do more adventurous travel, I'm thinking about buying one and keeping it in our SUV... just in case.

(As a side note, I am sure conspiracy theorists are trying to figure out why 3 prominent "James" variants have perished lately. I wonder if the popularity of the name as a baby name is crashing...)