Adventure Medical Kits officially announced the Pocket Survival Kit Plus at Outdoor Retailer this week. I have reproduced the press releases below. A few comments:

The pouch is still under development. It's going to very cool, part of why the kit costs what it costs, but we are working to make it truly waterproof and very secure while being very easy to open. It is more robust and abuse resistant than the standard PSP pouch. This would be a lot easier if it didn't have to fit in a pocket. (LOL!)

The component list provided will likely be expanded somewhat, but I am not at liberty to say exactly how. We have a number of useful components under development that we hope to include. Stay tuned!

As always, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of all Doug Ritter Gear goes to support the non-profit Equipped To Survive Foundation.

ADVENTURE® MEDICAL KITS & DOUG RITTER TAKE PERSONAL SURVIVAL TO NEW LEVEL WITH POCKET SURVIVAL PAK® PLUS

Follow up to Pocket Survival Pak® features new custom-designed
CRKT Knife and E-GEAR PICO Lite LED Flashlight

OAKLAND, Calif. (July 21st, 2009) - Adventure® Medical Kits, the leading developer of first aid and survival gear for outdoor enthusiasts, today unveiled the Pocket Survival Pak® PLUS to buyers attending the 2009 Outdoor Retailer Summer Show. The second iteration in the hugely successful Pocket Survival Pak® line, the Pocket Survival Pak® PLUS takes personal survival up a notch. Designed with survival expert Doug Ritter, who also designed the first PSP, the PLUS kit features many of the same high-quality components that were carefully selected for the original, in addition to new custom designed tools that give users the best shot at surviving a variety of situations in the outdoors.

Along with high quality components for signaling (signaling mirror, triple frequency whistle) and navigating (liquid-damped compass with lanyard ring), the new PSP PLUS also contains additional components for food gathering and gear repair (knife), working at night (flashlight) and collecting and purifying water (collapsible water bag, water purification tablets).

"The original Pocket Survival Pak remains the best survival kit at its price point of under $35, which was our goal," says survival authority and Equipped To Survive founder, Doug Ritter.

He continued, "However, with the PLUS version AMK and I sought to answer the question, 'what kind of pocket-sized kit could we build that would greatly enhance the serious outdoor enthusiast's ability to survive, if price weren't as much of a factor?' This kit is the result."

For the new items in the PSP PLUS, AMK and Ritter worked with a who's who of survival and outdoor gear companies, including Columbia River Knife & Tool (RSK Mk5™ fixed blade knife designed by Ritter); Essential Gear (eGear PICO™ Lite LED flashlight also designed by Ritter); Katadyn (Micropur MP1 chlorine dioxide tablets) and Nasco (lab-quality 1 liter collapsible Whirl-Pak® water bag).

"The PSP PLUS is designed for the serious hunter, hiker or backpacker who recognizes the full spectrum of dangers and contingencies that the outdoors poses and wants to be prepared to face them head on," says AMK marketing director Frank Meyer.

Every year, 50,000 search and rescue missions are conducted in the United States, according to the National Association of Search and Rescue. Despite all the best precautions taken, anyone can find themselves in danger, says Ritter, "weather changes and accidents happen, leaving even the most experienced outdoors enthusiast stranded and separated from their gear unless they are carrying it on their person. That's where the PSP PLUS can make a difference - its lightweight, compact design makes it easy to carry in a pocket and its high quality components really could save your life."

The 5.6 oz pocket-sized PSP PLUS comes housed in an RF welded water-resistant case that also includes a stash pocket on the back. Like all of AMK's survival and medical kits, the PSP PLUS includes a "Register Your Kit" card, which when activated provides users with refill updates and notices on upcoming sales promotions. The PSP PLUS (MSRP$80.00) is slated for January 2010 release. For detailed info on the Pocket Survival Pak® PLUS's components, see "PSP PLUS Supply List" doc.

PSP PLUS Supply List


NEW TO THE PSP PLUS:

CRKT RSK Mk5™ Knife - Doug Ritter designed the knife produced by Columbia River & Tool. Made of stainless cutlery steel, the knife is a compact, lightweight, but robust, fixed blade designed specifically to fit into a small survival kit tin or pouch. It offers multiple uses in the outdoors, including gathering food, building shelter and repairing gear.

Essential Gear eGEAR PICO™ Lite LED Flashlight - Doug Ritter designed this super bright micro-sized LED light specifically for reliable emergency use. It is ideal for navigating or working at night or in low-light conditions. It projects a powerful 10 lumen beam up to 30 feet from tough cylindrical 6061 anodized aluminum body- not plastic -weighing just two-tenths of an ounce. The knurled on/off bezel switch ensures it cannot be turned on inadvertently in storage and makes it easier for a user to grip if their hands are cold.

Katadyn Micropur MP1 Chlorine Dioxide Tablets (6) - Recognized as the industry standard in water purification.

Nasco Whirl-Pak® Water Bag -- A lab-quality, sterile, collapsible 1 liter water bag with roll-top closure that features custom-printed instructions and fill line.

Doug Ritter Enhanced Survival Instructions - Building on the waterproof kit-specific Illustrated Survival Instructions he wrote for the original PSP, Ritter expanded on multiple uses for the additional components in the PSP PLUS with additional detailed, easy to understand, practical information.


ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS:

Spark-Lite™ Firestarter - current U.S. military issue, waterproof, useable one-handed, over 1000 sparkings in tests

4 Spark-Lite™ Tinder-Quik™ - current U.S. military issue, waterproof, wax impregnated cotton tinder in zip-top plastic bag, each burns 2-3 minutes

Fox-40® Rescue Howler™ Survival Whistle - designed exclusively for this kit, triple frequency, exceeds U.S. Coast Guard and SOLAS specifications, bright yellow with dual mode lanyard hole

Rescue Flash™ Signal Mirror, 2 x 3 inches (5 x 7.6 cm) Lexan™ polycarbonate with mil-spec style retro-reflective aiming aid for one-handed use, instructions on back, protective cover to prevent scratches while stored in the kit, lanyard hole.

20mm Survival Compass - liquid damped with groove to accept an improvised lanyard ring

Duct Tape - 26 inches x 2 inches (66 x 5 cm), rolled around plastic mandrel, repairs, first aid, the ultimate repair and improvisation component, uses limited only by your imagination

Stainless Steel Utility Wire - 6 ft. of .020 inch (1.83 m x 0.5 mm) mil-spec grade, stronger than brass, won't get brittle in frigid cold, multiple uses

Braided Nylon Cord - 10 ft. (3 m) 150+ lb. (68+ kg) test, won't unravel, shelter building, repairs and much more

#69 Black Nylon Thread - 50 ft. (15.2 m), 10.5 lb. (4.8 kg) test, repairs, fishing line, light duty lashing and much more

Fishing Kit - 4 x medium Fish Hooks, 2 x Split Shot and 1 x Snap Swivel, in a clear plastic vial with cap.

Heavy Duty Sewing Needle - will penetrate heavy materials, easy to grip, large eye for easy threading

4 Safety Pins - repairs, secure items to prevent loss and much more

Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil - 3 sq. ft. (0.9 sq. m), make container to boil water, reflect fire heat and much more

#2 Pencil and Waterproof Notepaper - 2 pieces 2.125 x 3.667 inches (5.4 x 9.3 cm), leave notes, memory aid, keep log

Fresnel Lens Magnifier - 2 x 3 inches (5 x 7.6 cm), in protective sleeve, read small type in survival instructions if glasses lost, start fire using sun

Awesome!

Looking forward to it.

Another eagerly anticipated product.

Have a couple peops on my Christmas list who would appreciate the value.

:-)

Unfortunately, they will have to wait until Christmas 2010. AMK is saying January 2010 delivery. I can only hope we meet that date, wouldn't hold my breath for sooner. <~>

I had to put a bib on to keep from drooling on my scrubs.

Excellent. I'm already excited about chistmas. Thanks for all the hard work Doug.

Sounds perfect. That's almost exactly what I add to my PSP. I'll take two, please.

Slick; very slick! I think we will have Christmas late this year.

A few questions Doug:

What is the colour of the PICO light included in the kit or will it be a random selection of colour OR a user choose selection?

The HD aluminum foil - can you confirm if does or does not have micro holes in it? There was an earlier thread about consumer grade HD foil having pin holes and not being able to hold water.

Any more details on the MK5 - what is the angle on the edge for example? I use a Sharpmaker which has 20* and 15* angles. You probably mentioned it somewhere but I don't recall - what is the steel type? ATS-34?

The Fresnel magnifier: is it the standard 2x magnification of the quality found in bookstores or the better 3-4x magnification that would work better for fire starting?

None the less, the package sounds like a winner. I would strongly recommend that anyone who purchases such a kit also purchase (or assemble) a quality First Aid kit such as one from AMKs selection. (I use a modified ultralight .7) A survival kit and medical kit - one in each pocket of your cargo pants or gear! A great compliment to other gear a person should have on them when they are out in the wilderness OR as a standalone for day hikes and urban situations.

Any announcement of DR products is a great thing.

It will probably be the Blue body color.



It is the same foil currently used. It sometimes does develop a few holes from wear in the pouch where it is folded.



Details of the RSK Mk5 can be found at: http://www.dougritter.com/rsk_mk5.htm



Don't recall off top of my head, sorry. No problem starting a fire with it, for sure.

As a big fan of the PSP, I am really looking forward to getting my hands on the new PSP+.

Doug, can you please confirm the release date; you said "Unfortunately, they will have to wait until Christmas 2010. AMK is saying January 2010 delivery." I take it that is a typo and we can expect it at the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010?

No that's right, as are you. :-) It won't be available for Christmas 2009. So, if you want to give it as a holiday present, you'd need to wait until Holiday 2010 (or I suppose, as someone suggested, make it a late present). AMK says they will be available in January 2010. We'll see. Expected delivery dates tend to be less than accurate in my experience. This one is at least far enough down to road that I am somewhat confident we might come close.

Thanks for the reply Doug. I brought the other information forward from your other page:
3Cr13 stainless steel (similar to 420-modified) is hardened to 52-55 HRC and 18° nominal high flat grind; pretty high resistance to corrosion; very easy to sharpen, even just using a found stone (a good feature on a survival knife IMHO). The relative softness in a blade this size should not be an issue - that's what the Mk3 in your main pack is there for!

I'm using a 15° edge on my smaller knifes to make them better slicers while the 20° edge is use on big blades which take more abuse.

...remember that nothing says "honey, I love you" like the gift of survival.

This message brought to you by the Valentine's Day Consortium.

I dunno - in my experience, there tends to be something lost in translation. Somehow the brain can interpret it as "it's not shiny and pricey and gaudy and (fill in your own adjective) so therefore you're not worth that to me."

though, c'mon, staying alive should be worth something!

That's too bad!

Well I'm lucky then. My wife loved her pink Mini-RSK I got her for valentine's day a couple years ago.

This seems like a great and needed upgrade to the PSP, bu I'm a little dissapointed at the choice of flashlight(www.dougritter.com/PICOlite.htm). Alkaline batteries, and a light with such short run times, seem like a poor choice for a survival light. I think it would be a very good idea for 1 or 2 extra sets of batteries to be included standard in the PSP+, given the very short battery life, especially in cold weather.

I know the fatal flaw of the Photon lights is the lack of a lockout funtion, and its a shame that Doug couldn't work out special version with this feature. But even with that drawback, I'd rather have a photon with a couple extra CR2016s. They take up almost no space or weight, and the extra batteries greatly mitigate the problem of accidental activation.

Otherwise I'm glad to see these 4 key items added to the PSP+, they were the first things I added to my PSP. I went with a K.I.S.S. folder for the knife, which is great but by far the heaviest item in the kit.

I'm a little confused as to these additons too. A knife with a metal handle? How do we use that in cold weather? And why not stick to the steel we are told is so great on the other RSKs?
A torch with no variable light, so you have to use full beam just to find something in the tent and use up the already limited battery life.
Of the three lights Doug has designed (all of which take a different battery) which am I supposed to buy?
I make no claims to have any real knowledge of survival issues and Doug is an expert so fully expect to get shot down.
The Sock

Really? There's always a trade-off between runtime, size and price. This torch looks reasonable for the given role to me.

Just so we're on the same page, the article says: "Even after 48 hours we found that there is still enough light so that with fully dark adapted eyes, I could perform survival chores and find my way around, though the light by this time was certainly not bright, it was adequate. This rundown curve is what you get when running continuously. If used intermittently, in shorter bursts, as is typically the case for EDC use and even in an emergency in many cases, the alkaline batteries will recover significantly between uses and will provide more illumination during use and last longer. As an extreme example, after a 10-hour rundown and a 20 minute rest, they output approximately 75% of initial illumination for five minutes before resuming more or less where they left off."

What kind of run-times were you looking for?

people need to realize that any PSK is a back up(compromise) to dedicated gear.There is nothing that is perfect.If people are useing this as their primarry gear,they need to rethink things.For the size and weight and cost are the items in the PSP Plus suited for the purpose?YES!

BOATMAN
John

"I know the fatal flaw of the Photon lights is the lack of a lockout funtion, and its a shame that Doug couldn't work out special version with this feature. But even with that drawback, I'd rather have a photon with a couple extra CR2016s. They take up almost no space or weight, and the extra batteries greatly mitigate the problem of accidental activation"

I agree that the Photon is a better choice and I wouldn't even consider the Photon's lack of a lockout function "fatal". But I have pulled my Photon Freedom out of my pocket two or three times to find it on.
It is a concern but this has only happened while jangling in my pocket on a keychain every single day over the course of many years. Even with these instances battery life has been acceptable even factoring in the possiblity that it may get turned on THEN off in my pocket without me knowing.

Doug provided a partial solution to this very issue by illustrating how the Photon can be mounted in the clip upside down to eliminate this possibilty.

If you deep store it upside down in the clip, lockout is a non-issue.
But this is beside the point. You shouldn't consider your Photon your primary light. It's a backup. And a very good backup at that.

As mentioned, extra CR batteries take up almost no space or weight. Also, CR batteries are Lithium which should offer extened shelf life compared to alkalines.

It is a little strange for yet another light(and battery type) to pop up in this product line considering Doug's advice to standardize battery types as much as possible to provide cross-compatabilty with other electronic items in your total preparedness kits.

Worst case scenario: CR lithium batteries are the second most abundant type, after alkaline AAs, to easily find at the drug store (if you had to) due to their widespread use in car key fobs.

But I buy my CR's in bulk from Mouser or Digikey and we're talking $ .80 a piece for known quality, Panasonic. Mouser and Digikey don't offer crap, no-name batteries.

Brangdon, this is the line that really bothered me about the runtime: "There is a fairly steep drop-off in brightness during the first hour until it is producing at about 40% brightness. From there you can expect a slower drop-off of about 10%/hour". 40% loss in the first hour is pretty bad, and is unavoidable when using alkaline batteries for a high-draw, unregulated light.

Aside from the battery and runtime issues I think the light is well designed, but those are huge drawbacks to me. The short shelf life and poor cold weather performance are also a big problem, especially for the masses who are unlikely to bother changeing the batteries on a regular basis. If that light ran on lithium batteries, I think it would be a great choice.

Tino, I had forgotton about storing the photon upside down in the clip, that's a great idea and I appreciate the reminder.
I never used to have to problem with accidental activation, but lately I've been needing to carry it in a pocket, under a jumpsuit, or on a side beltloop, all places where it's more likely to get turned on and where I may not notice it until hours later. I've burned through full batteries several times this way.

Photons aren't very expensive, less than $15 online(and even less wholesale), so I don't think that should prevent it's inclusion in the PSP+.

Chances are most of us on this board would never be caught with only a pocket survival kit, but the whole idea is that if all you have is PSK, and nothing else, then that kit alone will help you survive. It is on this basis that I judge survival kits. While I understand the need for compromise, I think its a mistake to justify poor equipment because "I'll probably have my other gear with me".

enjoy your psp+++++++++++++++ live with it die with out it..........

Well at least we get a proper water storage option. The previous one; some foil which develops holes in storage and relies on you starting a fire then drinking and carrying it in a bendy bit of foil, was meant as a joke right?
I never even noticed the new light doesn't use lithium batteries. I assumed it would. Can you get them for it?
The photon turns on accidently and shouldn't be used as a primary light? How come no one mentioned this before?
And we still have the compass with no lanyard ring.
The Sock

True, but I don't think the Photon Freedom is any better. According to the graphs on CPF, it drops to 40% after only half an hour. So new light is better in this respect.

Would it help to think of it as a 5 lumen light with a longish runtime rather than a 10 lumen light with a short runtime? I suppose I'm concerned that people might have unrealistic expectations, and might turn down a better light because Doug has been unusually upfront about its limitations.

Sure; I was just interested in the runtime issue.

The Pico Lite may perform better if the LR41 Alkaline cells were replace with the Silver Oxide versions i.e. the 392 silver oxide watch battery cell, giving a flatter discharge curve and higher capacity (45 mAhrs compared to 30 mAhrs, i.e. 50% improvement in capacity) and much better extended temperature use and better storage lifetime. A set of 4 392s would cost around $3.

As always there is a compromise between the size of the flashlight and its performance. The Pico Lite is half the size of the smallest AAA flashlight available, but its performance will be less than half that of the AAA flashlight, but that it just the nature of scaling down the size of the flashlight. Once you decide to make a flashlight smaller than a AAA cell flashlight, there are no easy choices to be made with regard to the battery type, chemistry etc due to limitations on the cells availability, capacity, voltage etc.

Re: Flashlight

Now that battery life is approaching perpetuity with the new LED flashlight technologies, in my view the Aeon by Muyshondt ( http://muyshondt.net/aeon.shtml ) would be the state of the art flashlight by which all other survival pack flashlight choices could be measured. 40 hours run time on low, fully regulated and if physically threatened, it’s blindingly good at letting you have your way with multiple perpetrators with 0 training and w/o fear of being sued. If it stays on your key chain or otherwise lives in your pocket, there's not much if any need for redundancy.

Grady

PS - the micro holes in the HD aluminum foil issue still does not seem to have been settled. Has anyone found a brand of HD aluminum foil that would dependably hold water in a survival situation ??

Doug's e-PICO light is the first light I've ever had on my keychain that I can be confident won't accidentally be turned on and burn up the batteries so that it's dead when I need it someday. That was the most important consideration for me. And the e-PICO light on my dog-walking lanyard (with house key) is so tiny that I don't even notice it. That was the other most important consideration, for me.

I'm surprised it only costs $12.

Since I always have a house key with me when I'm out of the house, thanks to Doug's e-PICO I'm now 100% certain in an emergency to have a light that's extremely likely to function. And I'll have 15 hours or so light available.

That should get me out of an elevator or any other likely urban blackout scenario. That's why I'm so delighted with the e-PICO.

That said, I'm interested in whether the lithium battery mentioned would be fine with the e-PICO. Longer shelf-life is nice.

I have so many flashlights and headlamps in my home and car and at least two LEDs in my backpack when hiking that I don't have to be totally reliant on any of them.

None of those would be comfortable on a lanyard.

{my other favorite emergency light is the Petzl e+lite headlamp with lithium wafer battery]

Hmm...Photon flashlights start as low as $7.95 each, the Muyshondt Aeon starts at $125 and goes up to $295 for the titanium version which they must be extremely proud of.

I'll take 10 Photons and a titanium bowl with some aluminum foil as a cover to boil my water in and still come out WAY ahead financially and I won't have to obsess over losing my extremely overpriced flashlight.

Photons are great lights (I have at least 10 disbursed throughout kits, autos, etc. and it would be an understatement to say the family has enough fresh batteries to launch the space shuttle), but they do not solve the problem during the moments of sheer terror when one needs a whole lot of light. I reread the offending post and see that the Aeon was suggested as a standard or benchmark for comparison (i.e. as a checklist) in that it covers a lot of bases and for no other reason, seriously.

Given that the thread is about the newest offering from Mr. Ritter and not about solving any problems during moments of sheer terror when one needs a whole lot of light, I fail to see the relevance.

Has Doug claimed that the light in his new survival pack is meant to disable would be attackers by blinding them? If so, please someone point that quote out.

Anyone relying on the flashlight packed away in a survival kit to help them survive an imminent attack by bad guys hasn't thought thru their scenarios very well. The light in question is packed INSIDE a case which is then presumably, packed into a pocket or a rucksack, possibly inside a car or other vehicle etc. If you have to resort to getting out a tiny flashlight from inside a survival kit, you've already lost the fight.

I'd suggest using the proper tools to do the proper job and carry them in such a way as to have them be available and usable when needed and to stop trying to make what seems like a decent little survival kit into a fully weaponised self defense tool.

If we want to talk about the use of a flashlight for self defense, I'll put my Pelican M6 up against anything the size of the Aeon, it may not be as bright but it's bright enough to disorient anyone and in a worsening threat scenario I can use it as a striking weapon, try that with a $295 titanium light that's "smaller than a stick of gum..." I also keep it deployed in such a way as to make it usable for such things, unlike the Photon, the Fenix, and the Minimags that I use in my survival kits.

Sorry, I'm really trying to sound so snarky I just can't see the point of changing the terms of the debate and then knocking something for not being something it never claimed to be.

I think some are picking nits.I believe Doug Ritter picked the PICO light because it wouldn't accidently be turned on in a survival kit.Members of this forum are not the only buyers of the PSP or PSP-PLUS.Few people will spend the time and effort to assemble their own kit as we do.Fewer still would spend the money we have to make one.I must have at least $250.00 in my two kits.These are not even my EDC.
Doug wanted to design a kit that any one could buy and rely on it.He also wanted it affordable.There are too many kits on the market made with sub-standard parts.Have you seen the kits with the toy whistles that you would get in a gum ball machine for a quarter.Half of them do not work.The makers of these kits only care about profits.They do not care about you.
If you could create the perfect survival kit with only the very best components it would cost beyond most pocket books.Even Uncle Sam and NASA use the lowest bidder.It would be interesting to see what others could come up with and see how much it would cost.Then there is the challenge of having everything in it work as intended.
Remember that Doug has to share profits with Adveture Medical Kits and this very site of which we all frequent.If he makes any money from them,it is not much.I dare you to do better...

BOATMAN
John

Nicely put.

I'm delighted with the e-PICO. It's much brighter than I imagined it would be.

In 2002, I was walking home from work on a moonless night when a blackout hit. You can imagine how disturbing that is in Washington, D.C. -- a block from where I'd been attacked a few years prior.

Thankfully, after 9/11 and the anthrax attacks, I'd stashed a first-generation Petzl Zipka headlamp in my purse. That little LED, less capable than the e-PICO, was an absolute God-send when the street blacked-out.

Couldn't see my hand in front of my face until I flipped that light on. The e-PICO would get me home just fine.

Sorry fellows - We feel your pain. You will never again catch these newbie nitpickers either changing the terms of the debate or ". . . knocking something for not being something . . .".

Glad to know that the micro holes in the HD aluminum foil issue has been settled.

We suspect that the Katadyn Micropur MP1 chlorine dioxide tablets have been repackaged specially for this kit. Does anyone know if this is the case?

Grady & Bee



PS Click to join the NitPicker's Guild

I think someone said the Petzl e+lite headlamp batteries could be used in Dougs photon. Can it?
S

The petzl uses a pair of CR2032s, the photon uses either a pair of CR2016s or a single CR2032.

Note the first number is the diameter in mm and the second is the thickness in 0.1mm units. So CR2032 is 20mm dia and 3.2mm thick.
Obviously stacking two batteries gives you twice the voltage.

Thanks.
Some of Dougs photons and the petzel e+lite headlamp, sound like a good combination then.
If i can find a radio that uses the same ones it'll be great. actually anyone know of a good camping/walking radio. ideally one with a speaker but that also works with headphones for walking.

Sushi

Google Sinclair Radio for such a unit. Its a tiny earbud radio. I have two. They work great. I'm not sure they're still manufactured, but last I looked, they were still for sale.

Thanks,it doesn't seem to be made anymore, but as you say there are still some for sale.
Sushi

Dealextreme do a simple in ear FM radio for $4.50 in a similar design to the Sinclair Radios

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26502

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.60

the LR44 batteries are pretty cheap as well.

The reason I bought Sinclair was its availability in AM vs. FM . There's more news generally available on AM.

Actually I see Dougs own headlamp uses CR2032, so it's interchangeable with Dougs photon. An even better combination!
Sushi

Will the PSP+ come with the CRKT tin or will it be omitted?

The PSP+ will come in a pouch.

Doug, EtAl.,

Any update on when the PSP+ will be available?

Cheers,
W-W

Not this month. :-( I'm still hoping for first quarter sometime.

Hey Doug, I love the PSP! just bought my second because i wasn't eligible for a replacement ! well, i have a question. If the signal mirror gets bent with pressure, is it replacable (sp?) or do i have to buy another? Thank you!

Not a clue. <g> Best to just call or email AMK. They re usually pretty good about that sort of thing.

Thanks! its sorta bent latteraly and it is irritating since its almost parabolic. <-- i learn so much from this site!! Thanks

Now you can cook with it.

Besides irritating, it will severely restrict the range at which your signal mirror flash is visible, since your signal will be spread out into a broader, but less intense beam.

For maximum range, your signal mirror should give a reflected spot that is a tight circle whose diameter is about 6" plus the diameter of the mirror at 50 foot range from the mirror. I generally use a high quality glass signal mirror of the same dimensions as a comparative standard.

There's some discussion of this issue in this page:
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010566720;start=1;page=root;seq=88

from this superb seven-page article by the father of the modern signal mirror, Richard S. Hunter:

Hunter, Richard S., "Heliographic Signaling Mirrors", Air Se Rescue Bulletin
U.S. Coast Guard, NAVCG 128 VOL. Ill NO. 2, February 1946.

The online version, alas, is clipped one one side by roughly 1/2 inch, but it starts here:
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010566720;start=1;page=root;seq=86

For those unfamiliar with the items carried over from the regular Pocket Survival Pack, there is an excellent in-depth discussion of all of these here:

http://www.dougritter.com/amk_psp_faq.htm




While the press release seems good about crediting Doug's contribution to the new stuff, it is worth noting that he also was involved in the design of the (carried over) signal mirror, as discussed about 40% way down the FAQ link I give above.

Thank you for the info everyone, i should be getting my replacement mirror in the mail soon. For anyone who wants to know, THIS is what the new kit should look like, i personally dont know! you have to scroll down a bit though!!

Not exactly. That's an early prototype pouch packed by a monkey. :-(

Ha Ha! oh, i just saw it on google and figured, what the heck, post it! but, i cant wait to get a PSP+ even though i already modified my PSP. PS i found out, if you drop a altoids tin survival kit from a 65-70 ft. cliff, you will never get it open again! thats why i now prefer pouches like the PSP pouch!