How about some scenarios with details of how to use the components of the Ritter kit?Think up your own or show how a RPSP could have changed the outcome of a known real incident. I am interested in seeing how people on this forum would use the kit. This info would be valuable to convince ordinary folk of its value so I can really recommend it to friends & relatives. This could be just the RPSP or that & some other items which are practical for EDC.

I suggested a similar thing. I wanted to see a survival campsite where someone used the PSP. You would have to assume they had the additional items Mr. Ritter suggests. This would be a great addition to his PSP pages. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I used the Fox 40 Micro from the PSP today.

I was taking an advanced compass class from a Phoenix Park Ranger. We were walking a compass course. One of the students missed the marker and walked to the other side of a hill and wondering away. I went up the hill and saw him on the other side and blew my whistle a few times. He looked around and saw me. I then waved him back to the location of the marker.

I keep my Fox 40 Micro in my pocket 24/7. I also have my boys keep one in their pockets 24/7.

I have carried a Ritter PSP for over a year now on every outdoor trip I have made, hunting and hiking. To tell the truth, I have never opened it other than to check and make sure everything was there and I knew how to use it.

The reason I have never used it is because I carry it as a backup to the things I aready carry. I keep in in an inside pocket of my daypack inside a small cheap nylon fanny pack. If I leave the daypack at camp, I strap on the fanny pack or stuff it in my jacket pocket and maybe add a few odds and ends that I think I might need.

But, to get to your question, I can think of a time many years ago where such a kit would have been wonderful.

I was in high school. One Saturday morning I went hunting at daylight on the land near our house. It was overcast with a lots of ground mist. As the morning wore on the clouds got lower, the temperature dropped and it started to rain. I decided it was time to go home, but realized that I did not know were I was, and of course I did not have a compass.

The wooded area I was in was boarderd on the North side by a clear cut area one mile long. East and West was bordered by roads that joined on the South end. After the initial panic, I stopped and thought things out. All I needed to do was walk a straight line in any direction and I would come out some where. So I started moving in what I thought was the right direction (remember it was overcast and raining, poor visability, thick undergrowth). If you have never tried it, walking a straight line in thick woods is not easy. I would pick a large tree or other land mark and move toward it slowly, keeping my last reference point marked. When I reach the landmark, I would pick out another object in line with the last point and continue. It was slow going, but I finally made it out. I was in the clear, but still had a mile walk to get home.

If I had had the button compass in the PSP, I would have made it home about 2 hours faster and much, much warmer and drier. Just a rough north west heading would have put me out near home in a matter of minutes.

It was an educational experience. You might say, I got lost in my own back yard. I had hunted in those woods may time before. Shortly afterwards I bought my first compass and have carried one into the wild ever since.

Here's a scenario where you are not somehow lost in the woods, but you are actually seeking the woods as a sanctuary.

You and your young family of a wife and two small children are in town shopping in the suburbs of any city USA. All of a sudden people start scrambling around and you are not sure why...you ask. A dirty bomb has dropped in the city and everyone is ordered to evacuate. Along with thousands of people you are attempting to bug out; unfortunately, your BOB is at home many miles away in the wrong direction.

You've done your homework and are cognizant of the wind directions. You've thought out this scenario and realize the expressways and main roads out of town are going to be crowded and at a standstill. People around you are panicing, you pass through a section of town where you see people breaking into stores and running away with their hands full of goods. You know if you're lucky, and are able to stick with your plan, you will be able to follow secondary roads out of town and away from a dangerous plume and the human chaos.

Twenty minutes out for town the traffic is clogged but you're away from the plume. You know of a state park just a few miles away, you take what's useful from your car, including your EDC fanny pack and a couple of blankets, you and your young family abondon your vehicle and take to the woods. There, you set up a simple camp, start a fire, and wait for the chaos to subside.

In a real-life city scenario, the actual event, whether manmade or natural, may not be the major risk. The reaction of the populations and the ensuing chaos will be the number one risk. While building four BOB's for my children, I realize that at a minimal cost, I can outfit them too with a pocket kit EDC that someday may give them an edge over those without.

Thanks for the thoughtful situation description. Clearly, it doesn't have to be something as exotic as a dirty bomb. Many things could cause an urban panic nightmare. Riots for one (been there).
I will have to rethink my car kit and EDC with this sort of thing in mind.

On a more mundane level I've tried to make my EDC include things for the little emergencies of life. A couple of iodine pads and a band aid have come in handy more than once. What about getting turned around on back country roads (with your wife getting uptight)? My button compass has come out in that situation and proved usefull in telling which way I will be going if I turn left or right. Even drinking water and a couple of Tylenol may save your day if not your butt.
Then there is the pocket knife/tool. Came in handy lots of times.
Things like that make me more likely to carry my EDC whenever I am out.

That's a great point that may get overlooked in the grand scheme of preparedness.