Nice find, esp. the signal mirror. i do have a question, though. Why the compass for a lost hiker? while I have never been lost, although to quote Daniel Boone, I have been "mightily confused" at times. I have never been so messed up that I wasn't aware of the cardinal directions. What is really essential is a decent map, typically a USGS topo or derivative.

I chuckle at the advice to float the compass needle on water. In the circumstances I have found myself in (desert rat here) it would be more likely advantageous to drink the water and eyeball the shadows for directions.

Things do change drastically when at sea, in dense fog, or similar, and I do routinely carry a compass- a good dependable one.

I have tested all of the components, after carrying it in my wallet in my back pocket for a couple of months, and everything worked. The compass was accurate, the fresnel lens started a fire, and the signal mirror worked (though not as bright as a good glass on). The ground to air signals are consistent with the CAP ones, and their illustration of the solar still was not great.

When I am out, and especially when I have students, I always give them an orientation and an escape azimuth. That usually leads to some road or other linear terrain feature where they should stay and make themselves easy to find. That way I know where to look for them. The terrain feature could be something that will take you to help, or get help to you. Roads, power line cuts, rivers. It is a line they should not cross, but find and stay put, or move in a known direction toward help.

You may not know exactly where you are, or where your goal is, but you can generally know that if I head in a certain direction I will hit this terrain feature. The compass (indeed the kit) does not weigh anything and takes up little space.

Do you encourage your students to use a map? I'll bet I can guess the answer to that question correctly....

For me, a good, up-to-date topo is really essential. Even with one, if you are as talented as I am, it is possible to become 'mightily confused," for a while at least (never for a long time)

I generally focus almost exclusively on map reading, using a compass to just orient and get general directions. Map reading and terrain association are the most essential navigation skills. Dead reckoning is rarely used outside of military operations, but could be critical in certain environments and situations. That said, the escape azimuth is still a useful tool for those bad situations (or bad students who just couldn't figure it all out).

From the above quoted article:


The blue tarps used to cover damaged roofs contrast very well, you would almost think they were added with Photoshop.

Gee, you think so?

But technically, they probably weren't added with Photoshop. Most likely just enhanced with Photoshop. Or maybe they didn't use Photoshop at all, and chose an alternate photo editor, like GIMP. Technically, they are telling the truth. But really, they aren't.

Blue may indeed be a good color for rescue, but media outfits like this that make obvious fools of themselves with blatantly edited pictures don't do service to the message. Instead, they detract from the message.

This is about the most amateurishly edited photo that I've ever seen.

Looking at the photo, white seems to stand out pretty well. I have used white panels to X mark survey points for aerial photos and they work very well, in the desert southwest, until the next snowfall.

Contrast is everything....

color, contrast, movement, shadow, size. Things that get seen.