To be fair, my experience with chem lights is roughly about twenty yearsago. Phaedrus, i trust your experiences are more recent?Perhaps things are getting better and the old codger is out of date....

Pretty recent. Not long ago I moved from Idaho to Montana, and during the move I found a long-expired box of Cayalume sticks. I've been snapping one occasionally just to see how they've held up and the results are encouraging.

Still, a few knocks on the light sticks; as you say they're a one-use items. Next even on sale they're $.50 or so each for a single use. Lastly they're light but somewhat bulky. In a very small kit I sometimes can't fit one in unless I remove the outer wrapper which I'd rather not do.

Have you tried the mini versions? They're around 1.5" long and still pretty bright. I will often carry a vial of them to mess around with as markers.

I'm not excited about the radio. I think one of the following would be better:

https://echo-sigma.com/collections/emerg...lti-power-radio
https://echo-sigma.com/collections/emerg...lti-power-radio

Jeanette Isabelle

The power bank unction of the Alibaba is a very goodfeature, although 2000 mAh capacity is rather chintzy. But it does have solar recharge capacity....

Though I constructed my EDC bag from the ground up, I wouldn't knock anything off-the-shelf. The reason is, even with my years of experience of building and modifying first aid bags, the better option is to mod an off-the-shelf kit because someone has already worked out some of the issues.

The second reason is companies such as this one, Doug Ritter and two others I know of have figured out ways to get the best performance per space and weight with out-of-the-box thinking and multi-purpose items.

Again, does anyone know of someone, or a company, who has managed to pack the best performance per space and weight?

If not, does anyone know of someone, or a company, who has promoted the idea of each member of a family having a survival device on their person in case of separation and priced that survival product for that purpose? Someone other than Doug, of course.

Jeanette Isabelle

This mess is a triumph of marketing over expertise - shoddy, low cost items that seem to work ( and that probably will fail when it counts).

Ultra light backpackers, or back packers in general, have progressed much further in the area of utility for lower weight. Check them out.

Everyone's circumstances and resources are somewhat different. In preparing for survival,, a good first step is to check out the stuff you already own. For most of us, many of the essentials are already at hand, and simply need to be organized. Other items can be purchased for far less than the cost of this random assortment.

If you are searching for a kit for each family member, it is even more important to prepare individualized kits. Grandmother does not need the same items as do the children.

Agree. I tend to avoid items that do too many different things. The item breaks just when you need it most and you lose everything. My small Anker power-bank has ~3400 mAh and I can drop it in my pocket to recharge things like cellphones. Other power banks have more mAh’s available but aren’t exactly pocket friendly. The lights & radios in the kit run on either AA or AAA Eneloop rechargeable batteries and I have multiples of both sizes. My brighter lights use 18650 Li-ion batteries and spares are available for those too.

Note & OT: I have been delayed finishing up my test of backpackable solar panels, but suffice to say you can expect 60%-80% of the wattage that’s included in the name on a nice sunny day — devil’s in the details. If I had to choose just one, my overall favorite is the Renogy 21W Solar Panel Foldable PowerPort.... It’s small/light enough to carry and can charge anything I’d take hiking. Small chargers are available for AA, AAA & 18650. The only requirement is that it accepts a USB input.

I suppose if you’re in tornado country a NOAA weather radio might be important, but for me, a good reliable AM/FM radio is enough. There’s supposedly a NOAA station here but I’ve yet to hear anything relevant. AM radio OTOH is very useful for news and weather. For that, I carry an old Sony ICF-S10MK2 radio (which judging by the prices on-line seems to have reached collector/cult status). The model has been around for a long time and is well tested, but it’s just a radio. The Sony ICFP26 Portable AM/FM Radio seems to be the follow-on model — better in some ways (battery life), not so much in others (signal reception) — read the reviews. Should be available for < $20.

If I bought something like that, I wouldn't trust the battery to be 2000 mAh anyway. Would replace with a known good quality, something like a Samsung 35E, which also would bump up the capacity to 3500 mAh.

Totally agree, especially if the battery is replaceable...

I appreciate every suggestion and I am in the process of thoroughly checking everything this company has to offer.

Jeanette Isabelle