Friday, August 17, 2012

DIY Survival Gear - Building a Survival Kit - Part Two - Signal Devices


In Building a Survival Kit - Part One , a container was chosen to hold our survival gear. The container was compact, lightweight and waterproof. It was also of sufficient size to hold a reasonable amount of survival gear. Now it’s time to start adding our survival gear to the container.

One of the most important things required in a survival situation is a means to signal for help. Emergency signals generally involve sight and sound. If they can’t hear you, they may be able to see you or vice versa. This makes the choice for our next gear items for our survival kit a lot simpler. In order to save space, you also need to flatten your thinking when it comes to building a survival kit. Flat doesn’t take up as much space and will often weigh a lot less.



The first gear choice made for a signal device was a 3 inch x 4 inch stainless steel camp mirror. It’s flat, virtually indestructible and extremely easy to use to create a very bright signal flash. The camp mirror adds another $3.00 to the cost of our survival kit and an additional ounce of weight.




The second gear choice made for a signal device was a flat orange whistle (found in the boating dept.). It’s flat, brightly colored, waterproof and is very lightweight. The whistle adds another $2.00 to the cost of our survival kit and adds a little less than an ounce in additional weight.

The survival kit now contains the means to use both sight and sound to signal for help if needed. Total cost of this survival kit is now $10.00 and has a total weight of approximately 7 ounces. Keep in mind this survival kit is being designed for long term use with good quality gear that will help you survive.  


The next installment will be:



Don't forget to leave a comment. Thanks.

Got DIY Survival Kit?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker 

17 comments:

Ken said...

...my daughter brought up the fact(reminded me really...lol) that we have junk CDs as our signal device in a couple of our gear bags...

Anonymous said...

I have a flat Mylar mirror, protected with a cover sheet in on of my kits.
Takes up no room and weighs next to nothing.
Richard

riverwalker said...

To: Ken

The CD's are a fairly decent item for use as an emergency signalling device but lack the true reflective power of a good mirror...


Thanks Ken.

RW

riverwalker said...

To: anonymous 6:15

I've got a couple of those Mylar mirrors that were obtained from old make-up cases that I got at a yard sale for little or nothing.

They're nice when you can find them...lightweight, flexible and very good in the reflective department.

The stainless steel camp mirrors are pretty much indestructible and are my personal preference.

Thanks anon.

RW

Anonymous said...

I put together the kit, but I couldn't find the camping mirror. I found everything else though at Walmart. I will be putting in our BOBs that I starting to put together. Thank you for the idea.

riverwalker said...

To: anonymous 7:09

If you can't find a camping mirror at Wal-Mart, you can get the Rothco ones on Amazon. These mirrors are virtually indestructible and should last a long time. They are well worth the few dollars they cost.

Feel free to make substitutions or additions...after all it's for your survival. I only recommend that you use quality gear that won't let you down at a critical time.

Thanks anon.

RW

Anonymous said...

I keep a folded 11.25 Big Pouch Capri-Sun drink container in my wallet for getting drinks from a water cooler, rather than spending money on buying soft drinks (yep - I'm cheap, lol).

I think I will add a aluminum foil piece and tape onto the back of it - bet it would make a dandy reflective device. Something I carry every day, have for several years now.

JaMee said...

Thanks again! I'm hoping to do this soon!

Unknown said...

Made a wishlist of the items so far on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html?ie=UTF8&id=1V36GH2VNNEYA&type=wishlist

Jenna Bird said...

I'm equally guilty of keeping some junk CDs for this purpose.

I remember my mom used to carry an old make-up compact as part of her search & rescue kit. It strikes me now (as an adult), that this wasn't the safest choice when a steel mirror is more durable.

Addie said...

I keep 2 makeup compacts, not only for signaling, but for checking for ticks or damage (in areas you can't see without help.

Anonymous said...

Keep it coming

ARC said...

This looks like the start of a decent plan...

Unknown said...

In a pinch, the inside of most chocolate bar wrappers are shiney foil (I've taped them to one side of the little wind-up lanterns, to double my light). For the camp mirror, I keep it inside a dark cloth sleeve...in case I don't want to be found.

Ana said...

can that boating whistle be purchased at any sport store?

riverwalker said...

To: ana

Almost all of the items in the kit can be found at Walmart and the flat boating whistle is very common and could probably be found at several other stores as well.

RW

MacTx53 said...

I keep my old mirror carefully wrapped in and old piece of bandanna, has helped protect it from scratches. Figure I could use the piece of bandanna as tinder in a pinch.

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