Equipment Check

Well, while I spent 4 hours in the basement yesterday with the Tornado Sirens going off in my town, I began to look through my equipment, and figure out if I have everything I really need for an emergency. The answer of course, is no, and no, the time to realize this isn't while sitting in the basement wondering if you Tornado will hit your house. Although we didn't even loose power, and the winds were rather calm (even for the Chicago area), bad storms hit to the North and South of my house. I realized the following.

I must get an emergency radiio!!!

Spending the first 20 minutes of the Siren Alert gathering equipment from around the house is a bad idea!!

Check all your items (especially medical supplies) to make sure it hasn't met it's expiration date. Check your batteries in flashlights, and have candles ready.

So, I made my checklists, and have been gathering all the rest of the stuff. Luckily, no one I know was hurt down in Uttica, IL, but a couple of the guys I work with live in that town and it was hit pretty hard.

I saw a $10.00 AM/FM/SW radio on the www.countycomm.com site. For the price they look OK, definetely worth a look.

I have one of those Countycomm radios. It's ok if you want a cheap portable shortwave receiver. Otherwise I'd just get a generic AM/FM portable radio. The trouble with the Countycomm is the tuning control is a bit of a pain to use, because it has to move that rather large cursor across the dial (because of all the different shortwave bands on the radio). Mine works fine on both AM and FM, but I haven't been able to get any shortwave stations with it. I think that's the fault of the terrible reception area I'm using it in, rather than the radio's fault though.

For a home kit, I'd say get a bigger radio (small boom box) powered by D cells instead of a pocket radio. The D cells will run the radio practically forever, and the bigger speaker is useful for playing loud enough for several people to listen at once.

Thanks, Paul I have been wondering about them .I wouldn't care about the SW, just need the AM/FM for a BOB radio. I really don't need one now. Between the scanners and a small AM/FM that runs off AA's or the hand crank (for the BOB) I've got it covered. I put a 60 foot piece of wire about 20 feet up and alligator clipped it onto my portable Sangean SW receiver for good results. I think I logged 20 countries including Israel ,South Africa and Austrailia. The antenna winds up being much more important than the radio. During the Loma Prieta quake it was amazing how many people didn't have a battery powered radio.

As mentioned on the radio thread, IMO a crank radio is sort of silly for a BOB. The crank radio is for spending 5 years in the jungle but in a BOB you want to minimize size and weight. Also, shortwave isn't that important. Anywhere near a population center, even AM-FM isn't important; AM-only or FM-only should be fine.

Walgreens has small FM-only earphone radios at $2/5.00. They are POS, but the reception is decent, they weigh just a couple ounces, and will run 30+ hours on a pair of AAA cells. At a few hours of listening per day, one of those with a couple spare batteries will last for weeks, which should be plenty for a bugout situation. I have a few of these.

Sony makes a similar but much nicer radio called the SRF-M37 which has AM, FM, TV and weather bands, runs on one AAA and also weighs just a couple ounces, but it costs about $30. Some folks on CPF have them and like them. I haven't tried one myself.

The radio is actually pretty small, about 2x4x8 inches . If at all possible the plan is to stay put so the size/weight issue isn't a big concern. If it has to be carried , it can be and I don't have to carry a lot of batteries. Depending on what part of California you live in you might run out of AA batteries before the official help arrives. Here the goal is to be ready to go 1 week without outside help. Once that goal has been reached work towards 3 weeks.The hand crank is a backup to the AA's and recharging using the solar panels, car or hand generator. All the critical things( communication, water, food, cooking, FAK etc.) have at least 1 backup. Anyway that's the plan, and so far it's worked.

I have a Coleman Freeplay crank radio that I find to be perfect for the home kit. It is pretty durable and can handle the cranking necessary to charge it up. It also has a back up solar cell power source, you just set it out in the sun and it does its thing. I only wish it had a digital tuner, the dial can be a pain. It also has a jack for headphones in case you don't want the kids listening in a stressful situation.

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemancom/detail.asp?product_id=5325-721&categoryid=28000

For my BOB I use an inexpensive Coby CX-9 mini radio. It's cheap but not a piece of junk. It covers AM and FM with a bunch of digital presets available to you. It comes with a lanyard and a belt clip which makes it really convenient. I don't know about the weight, but it is small 1.75" x .75" x 4.25". My father-in-law saw it when I was re-packing my car bag and really liked it. I got him one and he uses it regularly, so I am pretty confident it'll work when I need it.

http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.proce...duct_Id=3664025

Good luck restocking your home kit.
-Derek

One of the most important things I do with my gear is take it out and check it every three months or so. I set it all up in the basement, or sometimes outside, but I get it out, in use and tested. I once found mice in my food stash, and a tent that I thought went away dry was all moldy.
Also - nothing - not ONE THING - ever leaves an emergency kit unless it's an emergency or it's a drill.

This is something I picked up at the fire department - what's on the truck STAYS on the truck, even if it would make some non-emergency project much easier by pulling something off the truck "just for a few minutes" - which is exactly when the call will come in.
Likewise your emergency radio is just that - a radio that sits there, batteries out, in your kit until there is an emergency.

As with many other things, there are various points of view about survival equipment use. During my Air Force training, they said we could either pack the stuff and keep it only for emergencies or use it every day. Both techniques have their value. Depends on the person. I prefer to use my emergency kit daily. I know how everything works, I know it’s its current state and I have developed confidence that the stuff I carry will indeed work when I need it. There are only two items that I carry which I do not use routinely, the led light and a lighter. I carry two of each of these, one in my kit and one in my pocket. These are the only “expendable” items that cannot easily be replaced. But everything else gets used, and replaced as needed. And when the ones in my pocket need replacing, the replacements come from the kit and new ones are put in the kit.

Another variation of this issue is, should the stuff be carried in a kit, or spread through your pockets. You can loose the kit, but are less likely to loose all your pockets. Still, I prefer a kit. Although my EDC stuff gets supplemented with other modular kits depending on how/where I am traveling. Then stuff usually ends up in the pockets of a vest, or a backpack. But I have heard many stories about pilots taking off their vests, just for a second, and for one reason or another, being separated from their vests and all their gear.

My point is that there is no “best way”. Depends on the individual circumstances. I tried many methods until I found one that works best for me. But it probably won’t work best for you.

Nomad.

Hi all,

First of all, I'll introduce myself... This is my first post here. I really like the whole website. It's filled with objective, no-nonsense information. I appreciate that a lot. I'm a 29 y.o. self-employed survival instructor living in France. I'm not French, though. I was born in Belgium, and I grew-up in Quebec. I'm half Mi'gmak Indian (mother) and half European (father). I studied in archeology/anthropology, and then communications/web usability. I worked in that field for a while, but never really let go of the wilderness. The woods and the mountains are just the only places I really can call "home". I've been teaching survival for a few months now, and I'm still learning a lot about it every day. I really think this quest never ends <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Re the "use it or not" debate about the survival gear. The more I go, and the more I end up using my gear on a daily basis, while having a few key items in a back-up kit... and always using the oldest first. The things I use most often, anyways, are the most important pieces of gear, so having 2-3 of each is not an overkill.

The items that don't get used often, but that I still want to carry (mostly the first aid stuff, iodine pills, etc.) are checked periodically for expiration dates, etc. The rest is slowly but surely being considered useless, and just stays home.

Cheers,

David

Reminds me of a fire safety training video we watched in the army - barracks catches fire at night, soldier runs down the hall for the fire extinguisher, only to find a note "Borrowed for barbeque, will bring back on Monday" <img src="images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

ROFL <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />