Hi,

My ETS PSK arrived from Oz yesterday. Actually, I ordered two, one for me and one for my wife-with-the-rolling-eyes...

My first impressions were good. It's small, light and complete. I will be adding stuff and repacking it into a tin though. I am using Doug Ritters own personal kit as a reference and will probably add the items in his kit that are not already in the ETS kit, if they are applicable to me.

The price is reasonable, about NZ$50 per kit, and worth it for the key items in the kit- the whistle, the signal mirror, the compass and the spark-lite/tinder-quik combo. These items alone are hard to source in NZ and would cost about the same as the complete kit. It is clear that the additional items in the kit (except perhaps the fresnel lens) are low-cost and easy to procure, but I don't feel ripped off just because I could get some thread, safety pins, aluminium foil or fish hooks for a couple of dollars somewhere. The point is that the kit is complete, and someone has taken the time and effort to put a lot of thought into what is in the kit and why. In some respects the cost (and consequently the price) is irrelevant.

The first thing I did was to protect the fresnel lens by cutting a credit card pouch from a spare wallet insert I had. The lens fits into that and the thickness is barely increased.

Next, I had a good look at everything, but I did not open the sealed packets (scalpel, mirror or tinder) as I don't want to damage anything (at least not until I've seen how robust these things are).

I am not sure how I will get everything in the tin. Especially as I don't yet have everything I want to include. The tin I have is about the same size as Doug's tin, which is very slightly bigger than an Altoids tin (which we can't get here). I am grateful to KyBooneFan for posting the Field and Stream article for another good example of a tightly-packed tin.

I have the following items to add: a Bic Mini, 6 Coleman waterproof matches and striker, a tin opener, 2 x $5 notes, Potable aqua, potassium permanganate, big hook, petroleum jelly, 40cm seep tube, paracetamol.

I need to get and add the following items: Gerber milk bag, fishing line, wire saw, LED light.

I've repacked the tin a number of times already, but I can't get everything in yet (although I am surprised how much you can get in and that repacking seems to make it possible to add one more item). One thing I do know is my permanganate vial is *way* too big! Anyway, it's not often you get this much fun for $50, and it just doesn't stop.

I don't think I will get everything in, so, as an exercise, I will select items similar to those in the Field and Stream article and see if I can pack those into the tin. If not then my tin-fu is not up to scratch and I need to work harder. Either that or there is sleight of hand involved...

A