The first 2000 Pocket Survival Paks reportedly shipped to retailers on Thursday and Friday. FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

(As I'll be out of town all next week, my first opportunity to sign, pack and ship the Autographed PSPs will be the first week of May)

As such, I've made the PSP pages live on ETS. Still a bit rough, but all the good info is there.
http://www.equipped.org/psp/

Enjoy!

Wow, cool. One of the first things I'd add is a flashlight, probably one of the Countycomm $1.00 units that I call the "Countycomm 2" (since it's the second of three lights of this class that they've offered):

http://www.countycomm.com/light10.htm

They're not all that waterproof, but they're reasonably sturdy and the lithium batteries have a very long shelf life, and storing it in a small baggie can keep it dry. I'm surprised one of these wasn't included in the kit. I wrote a detailed review here that covers this model as well as the earlier CC1 and the more familiar Photon II. Everyone should have a few of these lights scattered around their gear.

I also plan to add one of the CountyComm lights as a backup to my UK 2AAA eLED.

Paul, how does the new "tough" CC3 compare to the CC2 in terms of size? I'm afraid that the CC2 light will break too easily.

Paul,

Thanks. Let me address a few of the issues your comments raise.

1. A light would be a good addition. Don't think for a second we did not give it serious consideration.

2. I can assure you that the economics are such that just getting what's in this kit, in it for this price has been a huge struggle. This experience has been quite a lesson in how a penny in raw costs translates into a retail price many times that raw cost. While I have been involved in producing things such as cars and homes in previous lives, never have I been involved in something where it was so obvious and where evey single tenth of a cent really mattered. Doing this on the "budget" we had to maintain a competitive price that would hopefully produce the sales volume required, while still maintaining the level of quality was extraordinarily difficult, one reason it's take so long to bring to reality.

3. Space is at a premium and lights, even those such as these, are relatively bulky.

4. Switching on in the pouch has to be addressed. You cannot have any sort of pressure switch, period. We have looked at most all the lights on the market and only found one that is both very slim and compact and relatively affordable (as wholesale) which can be made to easily and economically operate only via a slide switch.

5. We decided relatively early on in the process that we wanted no life-limited components in the kit. That pretty much excluded any battery operated components.

Hope this explains our reasoning.

Doug, the light I mentioned above has a slide switch, no pressure switch. The lithium batteries should be good for 10+ years, at least as long as the adhesive on the duct tape. I don't know what the light costs wholesale but presumably it's less than Countycomm's $1.00 retail price (after 10 years, the batteries aren't dead, they're just no longer as good as new). I'm not trying to make a sales pitch for Countycomm but just wanted to make sure you were aware of this particular unit. I have a bunch of them and I'd be happy to send you one if you want to evaluate it.

03lab, my review of the CC3 "super tough" light is here. It's basically the same size as the CC2. It's more rugged than the CC2, but is unsuitable for this PSK because of its pressure switch, as Doug explained, plus, it's momentary-only. I think the CC2 is fine for this kit. Any impact strong enough to damage the CC2 will bend or break other stuff in the kit as well, like the mirror, the needles and fishhooks, etc. The CC2's main bug is that if you drop it with the LED pointing down, the weight of the batteries can make the switch slide forward and turn the light on when the light hits the ground. In a PSK, there's a simple cure, which is simply put a piece of tape over the switch til you want to use the light. You could even use a printed label "sealing" the light, so if the label is intact, you know the light hasn't been used and that the batteries are fresh.

Paul,

If it has no pressure switch whatsoever, then it would work from that standpoint. Hadn't run across it during our earlier search, but will keep in mind for future. <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> In any case, for this kit right now, all the other issues hold.

Understood about the light. In any case, it's something users can easily add if they want to, along with matches. You might include a mention of it on the web site, or ask Aeromedix to sell them separately, or something like that. And to confirm, these lights definitely have no pressure switch. The LED lead is formed against the front of the light and the slide switch holds the batteries in a tray-like compartment and slides them forward against the switch. There is no way you can turn the light on without sliding the switch about 5 mm.

Another useful possible addition for some future iteration: a 1 quart Ziploc bag. These are great for carrying water and probably good for using purification tablets. They're not indestructable when full of water, but they're still pretty sturdy, and won't break if you're just a little bit careful. I've done tests like dropping them on the ground from several feet and they don't burst unless overfilled.

WHAT !!!! ... No condum(s) ??!!!!

Doug, I wonder if you could add something to the kit's FAQ page about how you chose the compass. I'm sure you evaluated a lot of them and had good reasons for passing over a number of smaller and cheaper ones to pick the one you did. I'm wondering if you could educate us a bit more about what criteria you used, i.e. are those plastic dry compasses worth bothering with, how do they fail, etc.? Thanks.

The compass has, albeit briefly, been dicussed here.