You might want to consider for your briefcase:<br><br>A quality flashlight...something bright but small. I keep a Surefire 6P or a Streamlight Scorpion in my bag...along with an extra set of batteries. If I were buying now...it would be a Surefire Executive E2. LED's work great...but there are times when a very bright light is needed.<br><br>Extra cash and change. <br><br>Phone card <br><br>Emergency space blanket (weighs nothing and takes up very little room)<br><br>Ditto on the small radio<br><br>Kev Mullins<br><br>

I agree with kf4ebp, HAM is the most versatile communication, but does require a license. Your entry level license is easy to get and gives you very useful frequencies.<br><br>Most communities have fairly active 2m repeater systems which can give essentially line-of-site 2m handheld radios tremendous coverage. My community has some linked repeaters that cover from Portland Oregon to Vancouver BC Canada all the way to Montana. Some repeaters also cover other HAM bands like 6m.<br><br>Check out your local HAM clubs and systems and the Amateur Radio Relay League ARRL Getting Started

Thanks for the info. I contacted my local Amateur Radio Club today to begin the process.

While I agree HAM is a great resource (I have one in my daily kit), another thought is a satellite phone.<br><br>Pricing is down to about $35 a month with 30 included minutes.<br><br>http://www.globalstarusa.com/pricing/serviceplans/<br><br>-john<br><br>BTW, this is the guy I have in my kit:<br>http://www.yaesu.com/amateur/vx5r.html

You got a nice kit there, I'm going to borrow some of your ideas. Some suggestions from my kit.<br><br>1. I keep my kit in a small backpack. You may have to abandon your car, and a backpack is easier to carry than an attache. Also frees your hands for emergency work or carriage of other items.<br>2. Signal mirror. I added a small plactic signal mirror after reading of several incidents, where a driver was trapped inside a vehicle for days, with helicopters and other cars in sight. <br>3. Knife and sharpener. I carry a Leatherman Micra on my key chain and a Wave in my backpack.<br>4. I always keep a Lightwave 2000 LED light in my kit: it will burn for about 100 hours on a single set of batteries. Use lithium for their 10 year shelf life. I always keep a backup light in the bag, usually a small 2X AAA light. An ARC LS, LED light usually sits in my pocket, and my Photon II is always on my key chain. I am considering a Petzl headlight since it frees up your hands for fixing your car, or walking.<br>5. I bought a tiny Sangean AM/FM radio that runs on a single AAA cell for news if my car radio craps out or is unavailable.

Besides the kicense difference and the frequency range (assuming HF means High Freq.), what are the practical differences in the two Marine radios?<br><br>I received a reply fron the national park service regarding emergency communications on Isle Royal. His suggustion was a marine radio to contact nearby boats who would then relay the message to the rangers. Besides recreational boaters, there are several ferries plying between the island and the mainland. Plus there are tankers in the shipping lanes, which I have no idea on how often or how far away they are from the island.<br><br>I'd also be interested in advice on specific models, keeping in mind that it's a backpacking trip so size and weight are an import canosideration.<br>Thanks.

Bill,<br><br>Marine radio and HAM 2m band are both VHF frequencies. The HAM band is between 144-148MHz and the Marine band is between 155-162mHz. The Marine radios are "channelized" into frequency pairs that are preset and allocated to specific uses. Channel 16 and 22 are US Coast Guard channels. Marine operators are required to monitor Channel 16 so this can be a great advantage if you can contact boats or ships. Gain as much elevation as you can, and attempt to Call on Channel 16. Most Marine radios come with a very short antenna, try and buy a longer higher gain antenna if possible. <br><br>VHF radios are line-of-site radios and their range is determined by both the power output and antenna gain. Handheld 2m HAM radios generally operate at between 0.5-7watts output, and their practical range is a few miles. Most operators in this band use repeater systems that have elevation and high gain antenna to receive your signal, then rebroadcast it at much higher power to a wide range. In Seattle, it is easy to hit repeaters from backcountry mountaintops from 30+ miles at 5Watts output, then have your signal rebroadcast for ~100+ miles from an unlinked repeater, and hundreds of miles in a linked repeater system. <br><br>Handheld Marine Radios operate at essentially the same frequency and have the same limitations. You generally do not have the ability to use repeater systems with these. The advantage in a Marine Environment is that if you have line-of-site to commercial or public boating, you have a high degree of probability to be able to contact the boat. Your range and elevation are the limitations. Some of these Channels are allocate to Marine Phone Operators, I have never used these, but again these could be valuable.<br><br>National Park Frequencies are again (many times) in the VHF frequency sets. Isle Royale MI has three frequencies 168.525, 169.675, 170.350Mhz. So neither the HAM radio or Marine Radio will cover these.<br><br>HAM radios generally allow the user to Monitor frequencies outside of the broadcast range, so you can monitor Park Service or Marine frequencies but not broadcast on them. As kf4ebp noted radios can be modified to broadcast out of the allocated frequency and it is illegal to do so EXCEPT in a true emergency.<br><br>NOAA Weather is broadcast on 7 VHF frequencies<br>162.550<br>162.400<br>162.475<br>162.425<br>162.450<br>162.500<br>162.525<br><br>HAM 2m and Marine Radios can receive these frequencies.<br><br>The ARRL has an assigned Simplex 2m frequency for its Wilderness Protocol. They advocate monitoring 146.520MHz starting at 0700 local time for 5 minutes, then monitor every 3 hours on the hour. I have no ideal how widely this is practiced, and you are of course limited to line-of-site contacts. But presumably if you could schedule your emergencies on moutaintops and your local HAM community was listening.....<br><br>I have an ICOM 2GAT Ham 2m radio (very old model w 7 watts output power) and a Raytheon Marine handheld. The ICOM is an excellent product, I wish I had purchased an ICOM Marine radio as the accessories and support are much better.<br><br>More National Park Frequencies to monitor can be found at this site:<br><br> National Park Radio Freqencies

>>2. Signal mirror. I added a small plactic signal mirror after reading of several incidents, where a driver was trapped inside a vehicle for days, with helicopters and other cars in sight.<<<br><br>Hmm. Well, motor vehicles have come with mirrors attached for quite some time now.... if the people involved weren't resourceful enough to think of that over a period of days, probably lack of equipment wasn't the real problem. :-)<br>

Very honestly, on the typical backpacking trip I wouldn't bother carrying a radio or any sort. The weight and bulk is better utilized for stamdard emergency gear.<br><br>I worked a project in Isle Royale some time ago - a beautiful area which I want to return to for recreation one of these days. In the summer at least, ISRO is a very comfortable and pleasant area with probably fewer intrinsic hazards than most wild areas - water, water, everywhere.The ranger patrol boats will monitor channel 16 direct and with all the boat traffic around the island you certainly have a "radio rich" environment, so lugging a light radio in a relatively large group might be worthwhile. Just be sure you have charged batteries, be sure that the unit can't be turned on inadvertantly, and that, if possible, you can rob flashlights, etc. for backups for the "charged" batteries. Murphy's Law applies with a vengeance to electrical gear in the great outdoors.

I suppose this is a typical dumb Canadian question, but what is your "Commuter Survival Kit" supposed to help you survive from? Being Canadian, I tend to think of survival as "lost in the woods", not "a flat tire at the corner of Jane and Finch". So I'm not sure how a regular street map fits the "survival" criteria. <br>Of course, I'm baffled by the mere notion of "commuter survival" in general, I'm afraid. Unless you're routinely driving down back-country roads that normally see one car every other month, I don't see how you could realistically get into a survival type situation without doing something incredibly stupid, like taking a short cut through the ravine.<br>If your area is subject to flash-flooding, I'd want a topographic map that shows the high ground and low ground. Other than that, I would say we can only make suggestions; only you can decide if the suggestions make sense. (A snow saw would make sense if you live in Whitehorse, Yukon; less so if you're writing from Jackson, Mississippi.)