I'm loathe to advocate anything that could potentially add more "nanny nation" requirements to any aspect of our sport. I took the SDI Solo class from my TDI cave instructor specifically to solo dive at Dutch Springs. Since we did solo training in the overhead that involved decompression, I learned a lot even though I had been solo diving since age 15 when I got my PDIC OW C-card. Although I have been solo diving at Dutch Springs and teaching solo diving there for about a decade, I never asked Stu Schooley (the owner of Dutch Springs) how he decided to allow the activity.
I don't know if profit from locator rentals played a part in the decision to allow solo diving or if that was a by-product of rules put in play by the insurers and legal team. Locator rental is pretty popular there for the privilege of solo diving. Allowing solo diving may increase daily admission, sell more season passes, more air or nitrox fills, more food, more items from the gift shop, and add locator rental as a revenue source. It also would bring more instructors and students for solo classes. Combined, these might make it worth it for Dutch to assume greater liability.
In a relatively small and controlled environment such as Dutch Springs where you have lake staff watching bubbles and a diver has to file a dive plan, there is a very small margin of safety provided by the locator. You could possibly be found quickly enough if you were thought to be missing that the situation would be a rescue rather than a recovery. But, this is a very slim chance. Usually, by the time someone's alarm bells would go off it would be too late.
Diving on your own in an uncontrolled environment, a rescue due to a locator is highly improbable. You may still have a chance when diving from a boat in which the crew is expecting you back at a specific time, but in reality, any chance of being rescued in a solo emergency anywhere is slim to none.
So, what can a locator do for you? It would just make it more probable that recovery divers will find your body easier with less risk to themselves and in less time sparing your family hours or days of anguish waiting for the closure that begins when a body is retrieved. Which, I'm assuming, is precisely why the OP started this thread.
Whether you want to spend the money and carry a locator to possibly help recovery divers and possibly reduce the time your family needs to wait to see if you are really dead is a highly personal decision. But, as a tech, cave and solo diving instructor, I often teach that we do not want to open a window of opportunity for an accident. Having a locator for a recovery purpose is kind of like acceptance that you are more willing rather than less willing to die solo diving.
Perhaps a person would be better off taking their locator money and finding the right solo instructor to kick his or her butt until they are properly equipped, pretty bullet-proof skill-wise, and hold the right mindset for safer solo diving? Or, perhaps without knowing your family won't have to wait as long for you to be recovered you will take less chances underwater while diving?
Of course, you can be trained, dive intelligently, and something can still go wrong. For example, you could have your first (and last) heart attack while solo diving. If you honestly see a locator as simply a tool that will make it easier for a recovery team and easier for your family, then there is nothing wrong with carrying one. Personally, I don't unless I'm at Dutch Springs.
