The 'high tech tracking system' is Outerlink. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's often down, either at the Outerlink site, on the phone links between there and PHI, or at PHI's end. Plus the comm specs in LFT have to be paying attention. They don't always do that.
Activating the ELTs would not notify PHI at all, only the underfunded government rescue center. It can take hours for an ELT signal received there to be responded to, partly because there are so many false activations.