I frequently use one component of my BoB/GHB, a Yaesu RX-7 handheld amateur radio. I use it to monitor both National Weather service and local Skywarn network while traveling under severe weather warnings and alerts. I use the radio to avoid be out where I might need the rest of the gear.

The other thing I use frequently is the rain parka.

I commute through both urban and rural (Detroit to Lansing) by car-pool/van-pool, so my BoB/GHB is my REI laptop/messenger bag. In the cold months I carry cold weather gear in a separate backpack. Occasionally that cold weather gear gets used too.

I'd like to pose another, related, question. Is a survival kit meant to be used in it's entirety? I suggest not, and the posts here seem to support that theory. If you pack three different fire starting devices are you really planning on using all three or just the one that works in the environment your in at the time?

my kit,the overboard PFD "camping kit" is ment to be used in it's entirety. however i can see where most kits would be the sort of thing where you tell yourself-"if i only had---- i could get out of this" so you can pop open a container of some sort and save the day.for fire making i think the multi devices fall into --easy,hard,almost impossible categories.you don't want to waste a lifeboat flamer if a paper match would work.

I think redundancy is the primary reason most of us carry mulitple methods of firemaking. With the added benefit that if there were a power outtage at work say, you could just use your bic to light a candle rather than having to break out the firesteel. It'd be pretty awkward trying to make sparks on top of the copier.

The reason for multiples for me are several:

A) Incase your first option doesn't work for some reason and thus you have backup
B) Different items for different purposes. For flashlights, I carry one that is VERY bright, and one that lasts long. In fire starting a strike light may be better at starting a fire than say a lighter.
C) Multiple people. With two flashlights I can hand one light to someone and still have my primary light
D) Multiple use, Keeping extra means that I can light multiple fires (remember that 3 of anything is a sign of distress.) multiple flashlights means that when I run out of batteries for one,, well I have another flashlight
E) I loose things. And if I have multiple of anything I truly need, well then I am a bit better off, and hopefully I will not loose it due to Murphy’s law :P

Like someone said on this site (forgive me for forgetting who it is) Two is one, and One is none

Well I guess the point i'm trying to get at is this. If you go on a job to say fix a dishwasher. You don't neccessarily use every tool in your bag to accomplish the task. In a Survival situation the job is to get out alive, and the survival kit is your tool kit. Do you need every "tool" in your survival kit to accomplish this? It seems clear to me that the answer to this question is sometimes you might but not always. When planning a survival kit you try to cover every possibility that might come up making sure to cover the most likely possibiliies first, but when the emergency actually occurs you may well have covered some possibilities that you don't actually face on that occasion. I submit that you don't actually put together a survival kit with the intention of using everything in it, although in some cases you might have to.

I think you have the right idea Stoney.
I have a lot of tools in my tool boxes but I only need a few of them at a time for the jobs I do.
It is just that each different job might call for a slightly different selection of tools.

If I just had to fix a leaking sink then I could make a tool kit with just the tools for that job and no extras.
However it would mean I was hooped if I had to do anything different because I would only have what was needed to fix a sink.

So I have a slightly bigger kit that lets me have a chance for all sorts of general repairs.
Not every tool I would like, but the tools that I should have available at the very least.

That's my outlook also. At work every day I drive a van full of tools and parts. When I get to a jobsite, I carry in a tool bag, it has roughly 35 pounds worth of tools in it. I set it down where the majority of the work is going to happen. Then I unclip my smaller tool pouch from the side of it and clip it on my belt to carry around everywhere I go.

It has the most-used tools on it (3 different size straight screwdrivers, 2 different sized phillips screwdrivers, diagonal cutters, roll of electrical tape). It weighs a LOT less than the big bag, and the big bag weighs a lot less than the van-load of tools.

Even when I'm not carrying the small pouch on my belt, I still have a few tools on me: My Gerber Suspension, a pocket screwdriver, a pocketknife, a Sharpie, and a penlight.

For me, compartmentalizing stuff always makes my life and job easier.

The most complex thing in there is the SAM splint. No chest seal, no airway, no tourniquet, no suture set. Comeon Red, you can use everything in here.

So, do you prepare less for routine stuff because you are prepared with a kit?