I always thought a kite would be a darned good signaling aid. I have a parafoil type kit (no frame) that goes almost vertical so easily. I would imagine putting a strobe on the kite and sending it a thousand feet into the air might not be a bad way to signal at night, and using the same kite in the daytime might also be useful. That kite and the line all fit in a little nylon bag about the size of a sandwich sized ziploc. I also figured that during the day you could blow up a bag of balloons and tie one off on the line every 10 feet or so. That'd be hard to miss in open country. Not so good in heavy woods, but then you have plenty of fuel to make smoke and fire signals with.