hey i just took the time to open up my PSK and write an inventory:
Black rubber bands on outside of box
Black nylon strap attached to box
Steel carabiner on strap
Yellow nylon strap w/ buckle to hold box shut
2” x 2” sterile gauze pad
Wound white cloth medical tape
Paper: “Instant Guide to 1st Aid”
Bacitracin Zinc ointment packet
Packet: Motrin [contains 2 tablets]
Tube: Foille ointment
Glass applicator tube of iodine
Ammonia smelling salt
Butterfly closure bandage
Curad 2.25” x 3.5” bandage
3M steri-strip
2” x 3” strips duct tape
Thin white nylon line
Wire saw w/ string pull loops
Thin coated twisted steel cable
1 Liter clear plastic water bag
Needles, various sizes
Round magnet
Safety pins
Small metal compass
Fishing kit: 2 swivels; 4 split shot; 2 large, 4 medium, 8 small hooks
Monofilament fishing line on spool
Steel wire
“punk” firestarter
Iodine water purification tablets
Schrade SS1 folding knife
White LED Princeton Tec light
Match striking strips
Flint wheel sparkers
Straight razor blade
Sterile surgical scalpel blades
Sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil
Heavy duty black nylon thread
Blue transparent whistle
Cotton fluff in foil
Waterproof lifeboat matches
Waterproof strike anywhere matches

I decided that it was probably more realistic to focus on first aid with this. the whole thing is in the smallest otter box in high-visibility yellow with reflective tape on it. is there anything i'm missing?
ps i was thinking a morse code key would be useful, but haven't added it yet

>>2” x 2” sterile gauze pad

From personal experience, a single 2" x 2" gauze pad won't do much for anything beyond a small, probably superficial injury. Even a simple case of road rash will require a minimum of 2 4"x4" pads - more if you expect to change the dressing.

>>Tube: Foille ointment

I'm not familiar with Foille ointment - what's it used for?

>>Glass applicator tube of iodine
>>Ammonia smelling salt

I'd lose the smelling salts, personally - we don't teach that in First Aid and I can't think of a reason I'd ever want to use them. Plus, if it ruptures, then your entire kit is contaminated with ammonia.

>>Round magnet

Again, just out of curiosity, what use do you foresee for this?

>>a morse code key

I wouldn't bother with that unless you planned to use it anyway, e.g. for mobile hamming. In an emergency, you should be able to jury-rig a key if necessary (it's just a simple contact switch, after all). If you're planning on carrying a small SW ham radio, and you really want a morse key for it, I'd consider getting one of the small credit-card size iambic paddles.

>>I decided that it was probably more realistic to focus on first aid with this.

My humble advice is to think about the type of first aid you will most likely need to be performing. My personal philosophy when it comes to FA is that I'd rather have lots of what I'm likely to need, rather than have one each of everything that I might *possibly* need.

>>2” x 2” sterile gauze pad
I´d add more of those

>>Ammonia smelling salt
>>Butterfly closure bandage
I´d ditch both items. The use of smelling salt is no longer allowed around here (I had to take them out of our unit´s first aid kits about ten years ago). Wound closure may not be a good idea for first aid.

>>Steel wire
I´d suggest to use stainless steel wire. It will not rust if it gets wet.

>>i was thinking a morse code key would be useful
If it´s a cheat sheet sheet it can´t hurt having it.

I´d suggest to add at least a pair of latex or vinyl gloves to prevent infection and keep your hands clean when dealing with bleeding wounds.

Well, I will mention the unmentionable. I have not seen it included in any of the FAKs, but a few weeks ago it would have been a welcomed addition to one of my hiking companion's kits.
Preparation H, or some form of hemorrhoid ointment. One in our group had to cut short his trip due to the issue.
It is most likely up to each individual to take care of thier own personal areas, but had one of us packed some type of ointment for this problem, we all would have had to put up with less [censored] and complaining and our friend would have been able to finish the hike with us.
No doubt a "free giveawy" when required, replace after each use.

Happy New Year!

thanks for your responses. here are mine:
as to butterfly bandages, i can't imagine going without them. i have had a knife cut bandaged with one while camping, and i have also 'saved the day' with one of these from the kit once or twice.
i don't think gloves are going to work, because one pair would take up about half the volume of the box.
i'll take you guys' advice on the smelling salt.
i'd add more guaze, but nothing bigger fits (maybe cloth can be used if needed).
the Foille Ointment is old stuff, probably not around anymore. it is labelled as an analgesic and antiseptic for burns and cuts.
i decided to add the magnet for 2 reasons: it holds the needles neatly in the kit; if the crap compass i have [couldn't find anything better] fails, it can be used to make one out of a needle.
for the morse code key, i had imagined it being more likely to be used with light rather than radio, but perhaps even that is unrealistic. anyways, it's just a piece of paper, no reason not to have it.

a side note: after i wrote that post, i tested it again for buoyancy because i had changed some things. what i found is pretty funny: the box floats, but with the addition of the steel carabiner on the strap, it does not. when i went back to a weaker (but lighter) aluminum one, it floated. i'm glad i checked--it's funny to imagine the box being pulled under by the carabiner on the end of the strap.

thanks for your interest guys

Everett, I think the confusion over the Morse Code Key is due terminology. Amateur radio operators refer to a "key" as the piece of equipment used to generate the tones (dah-dit) heard on the radio. The thing that the telegraph operator tapped furiously in the old movies, that is a key. I understand that you want to include a list of the Morse code characters, correct?
You are right, it won't take any room in your kit, and if it helps your confidence in an emergency situation, priceless!
JoeBob

there, you got it exactly right. haha i didn't realize that's what those guys meant. yeah i was talking about a paper with the characters on it. thanks for clarifying.

I wondered that myself! "Morse code key?? What good's that going to do without a transceiver...especially if you don't know the code by ear?" Oh well, at least that's cleared up!

If you wish to pack a true Morse Key along with a transciever in your PSK you might try the rock mite Simply wind a random-long wire antenna around the box and add a bundle of lithium AA's and you are GTG. You might not have much room left over for the iodine tablets tho...

Everett:

dot dash dash, dot dot dot dot, dot dash, dash
dot dot dot dot, dot
dot dot dot, dot dash, dot dot, dash dot dot
dot dash dot dash dot dash

<img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

.....CLIFF

P.S. Does that "suburb of Boston" include 'Cabot's' on Washington Street? If so, please let me know. That's my adopted home town.

Cliff
-- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / .. ... / .- / --- .-.. -.. / .- -. -.. / -.. -.-- .. -. --. / .-.. .. -. --. --- --..-- / -... ..- - / .. - / -. . . -.. / -. --- - / -... . .-.-.- / .. - / .. ... / .-. .- - .... . .-. / ..-. ..- -. / - --- / .-.. . .- .-. -. .-.-.- / .. - / -- .- -.-- / ... .- ...- . / -.-- --- ..- .-. / .-.. .. ..-. . / ... --- -- . -.. .- -.-- .-.-.-

Take care, Stargazer
ASAP= Always Suspicious Always Prepared

miniMe,
What does that fancy altoids tin do? It looks dangerous. <img src="images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> (or atleast really fun <img src="images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />)

HF Transiever in the 40 meter wavelength capable of ccw transmissions. Headphone jack and little tapper switch on the side for sending little less than 1/2 watt output. Everything you need for international comms less power, headphones, antenna, experience and lisence. Antenna can be a length (rather long) of tripwire wound round the case for storage and strung in the trees for use. Headphone can be simple in-ear earphone. Power can be an altoids tin full of AA batteries. Fully equipped this station could fit in two altiods tins with some wire wound round the outside of both. Not too much of a burden for comms equipment capable of reaching the world.

I am studying for my Technician license now, haven't started studying Code quite yet. The small low power radios such as the rockmite, pixie 2, tuna tin 2, etc look like a bunch of fun to play with. I might go ahead and build one, a good friend has his General ticket, and he could test it for me. Heck, I might build two and give him one! <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

people,

-... ..- - / -.. --- -. .----. - / .-- --- .-. .-. -.-- / .. ..-. / -.-- --- ..- / .- .-. . / ... .... .. - / .- - / .. - --..-- / .-.. .. -.- . / -- . --..-- / .--- ..- ... - / .-.. --- --. / --- -. - --- / .- / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / - .-. .- -. ... .-.. .- - --- .-. / ... .. - .

bushtuckerman

Magnet and Compass.

The idea of the using the magnet to magnatize the needles to make makeshift compass is worthy but.... The magnet may cause the real compass to be incorrect after storage.

You are better off magnetizing the needles before hand and storing them on the other end of the container away from the compass.

>> The magnet may cause the real compass to be incorrect after storage <<

It should have no practical effect, as far as I know. While the magnet is in proximity, it will cause the compass to read incorrectly, but that is all.

Think about it a moment.

1. The compass needle is either magnetized or not - there is no "degree" to it wrt orienting itself to the magnetic flux - if the North end is polarized "South", it will seek magnetic North.

2. At the conditions in a PSK and the field strength of any portable fixed magnet, there is no "transference" of magnetism from the magnet to the needle - you would have to have repeated and consistent physical contact and movement between the needle and the magnet in order for that to happen. Example: Leave a steel needle near a magnet for several days and then test it - nope, not magnetized. Stroke the needle point-to-eye with one end of the magnet several times - yep, it's magnetized now.

Make sense?

Tom

The new Elecraft KX-1 looks pretty good!
http://www.elecraft.com/KX1/KX1.htm
It is a bit larger, and costs more, but you get three bands transmit, and can even serve as a shortwave receiver in a pinch. All for something smaller than a paperback book. Not as small or as cheap as a rockmite, but not bad.

As soon an I upgrade to General, I will get one!

-KG4ZUD

hehe my morse code legend (there we go) decoded that just fine. my suburb is about 20 miles straight west--Natick, MA. it borders on Framingham, a slightly more well-known town.
p.s. good one <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

you guys have too much time

as cool as that sounds [no really, i'd love to try to do it], i think i'll stick with a cell phone:
i just got a new one, and it's a flip phone. i found out that the antenna unscrews, and with that off it fits in one of the same small otter boxes that my PSK is in [of course, i went out and bought another for it that same hour].
yeah, yeah, i know gsm cell phones won't work in a life raft in the middle of the atlantic, but hey at least I thought it was cool <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Ken's on Route 9 (next to Borders) was where my wife and I went for our anniversery dinners. My MBTA stop was Newtonville, on the Framingham Line.

Like we was practically neighbors. <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

.....CLIFF

wow, that is dash dot dash dot, dash dash dash, dash dash dash, dot dash dot dot <img src="images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
i can't imagine why you'd want to leave this lovely temperate zone (why, just today i got to run in a freezing rain ice storm) <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

The only reasonable effect that a magnet could have on a compass is to strengthen the magnetization of the compass making it respond more strongly - faster. This will not deminish the accuracy at all. Only if you were to force the needle of the compass out of alignment with the magnet and then move it about as was suggested in another post. Fortunately for you compass the needle will align itself with the magnet so it can only be strengthened. Further the needle is a permanent magnet as, presumably, is this other hypothetical magnet. Permanent is permanent. The only things that scatter the magnetic alignment of a permanent magnet are things that will disrupt the crystaline alignment of the metal itself - Extreme heat or impact. in the presence of these influences it is possible to reverse the magnetic alignment of the magnet or eliminate it. completely. But then again yyou are not likely to be throwing you PSK in the fire and then expecting it to continue to be useful are you.

We moved back to Louisiana because:

1) Hunting dinner in the back yard gets you in trouble. (They don't even HAVE a squirrel season in Newton. Who knew?)

2) We had enough of Howie Carr. Or was that Mike Barnicle?

3) Running in a freezing rain ice storm got boring. Running in a sweltering tropical sauna is thrill-a-minute excitement.

Honestly though, we do miss Boston. You live near Natick Labs?

.....CLIFF

"USC claiming to be the National Champion is like Al Gore claiming to be President."
- LSU Chancellor Marc Emmert

omigod

I know from personal experience that is possible to reverse the polarity on a compass needle, so that the "North" end points SOUTH.

Some years back, while playing with a magnet & my old Boy Scout version Silva Explorer compass (non-liquid filled), I managed to stroke the magnet down the long axis of the needle, which, as noted elsewhere, will magnetize an item. It reversed the polarity of the needle. After an "Ooops!", followed by a couple of minutes of "Gee, did that really happen?", I repeated the process & returned the polarity to normal.

Could this happen "in real life", i.e., in the field? Possibly--if the magnet happened to be beneath the compass, & the compass was moved by sliding off of the magnet, rather than picking straight up.

If 'twere me, I'd leave the magnet at home, or at least, not have it near the compass.

David

any season is squirrel season hehehe
i can imagine the high-heat running is quite adventurous (i nearly died of heat exhaustion when i was on vacation in the caribbean and just set out to do 60 minutes <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> )
yes indeed, Natick Labs is not more than half a mile from my house.

i've got to go with Tom and minime on this one. the compass is going to orient itself pointing towards the magnet and will therefore not have any tendency to be demagnetized (i.e. magnetized wrong). i have good sources, as my father is a physics teacher. also, if somehow the magnet were swiped across the needle while the needle was held in a fixed position and this were enough to magnetize it with the opposite polarity, it would, as David said, be off by exactly 180 degrees. i think if i get that reliant on the compass, to the point where i can't tell the difference between north and south, there's not much hope for me anyways, compass or not <img src="images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

About the only time I ever actually absolutely needed a compass was when there was no way to determine North from South. White out conditions on Mt Rainier. It was hard to determine up from down let alone North from South. Any reason at all to not trust a compass is reason enough to not carry it in my view. I do not think the magnet will likely change the compass polarity though.

It just occured to me that if you are carrying a magnet in your PSK that is a stronger magnet than the compass needle and you are afraid that the compass will become miss-aligned magnetically because of that then all you need to do is to paint the south end of the larger magnet red and carry enough twine to suspend it. A compass is a magnet. If you are concerned that the stronger magnet will hurt the weaker one in the needle of the compass then you shouldn't be concerned that the weaker one will hurt the stronger one. Sooo. Hang the strongest magnet you have by a piece of cord around its balance point and watch which way it's south pole points - that's north. By carrying a magnet in your PSK you are actually carrying two compasses. No problem if all you want to do is determine north from south. If you use this trick to calibrate you more presice compass you can easily determine if it stills knows north from south and then use it to find your way degree by degree.

exactly. i had planned on using one of the needles since the magnet isn't a bar magnet. however, since i'm going to have to go through the trouble of magnetizing a needle it's beneficial to carry the other compass until i know it doesn't work.

An interesting story on the NASA Science site a few weeks back pointed out that magnetic north is on the move.

Earth's Inconstant Magnetic Field

"The pole kept going during the 20th century, north at an average speed of 10 km per year, lately accelerating "to 40 km per year," says Newitt. At this rate it will exit North America and reach Siberia in a few decades."

There's a lot of interesting info in the full article, including what happens when the entire field flips,

"They come at irregular intervals averaging about 300,000 years; the last one was 780,000 years ago. Are we overdue for another? No one knows."

About the magnet. In my kit in a niteeyes pouch. I have one of those extendable mgnetic pickups. I have replaced the pocket clip with a screw eye. It is rated to lift 10 pounds. The reason for its inclusion is that if I drop something matalic such as a knife. Said knife drops into an area I can't reach. The pickup extends my reach. Or I can tie some cordage to reach even farther. This is just one Item that it can work on. In a pocket kit a strong magnet that a cord can be attached can be used for similar retrivals. Since it should not adversly affect compasses I think it is a worthwhile addition. Plus it can make expenient compasses. among many other uses.