The tragedy of the three college softball players who were trapped in their vehicle and drowned in a pond on Sunday was totally preventable, if only someone had equipped them to survive. A simple, inexpensive safety tool on their keychain could have saved them. Either the ResQMe or the Houdini Automotive Escape Tool [...]

Initial Hands-on Report – Second Generation SPOT
SPOT, LLC introduced their second generation “SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger” at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City, Utah, this week. The new device (I’ll refer to it as SPOT 2 to differentiate between it and the original SPOT) appears to address many of the deficiencies we [...]

AVweb reported today that according to Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) President Kevin Psutka, the Canadian Minister of Transport, John Baird, has suspened implimentation of a proposed rule that would have required most aircraft flying in and into Canada to have a 406 Mhz ELT (emergency locator transmitter) installed by February, 2011. The [...]

Ultimate Survival Technologies has resumed production of the StarFlash Ultra signal mirror after originally ceasing production back in October, 2008, based on concerns we had expressed after testing, primarily regarding the effects of immersion in water. When initially presented with our test results, they did some months of preliminary testing before they concurred with our [...]

BoatU.S. Foundation has published results from their recent tests of visual distress signaling devices, primarily pyrotechnic flares, but also including a few non-pyrotechnic visual distress signals (but not signal mirrors).
Click here to go to the BoatU.S. Foundation visual distress signal article.
As you might expect, their tests focused on the marine environment where use of [...]

One of the frustrating parts of owning a 406 MHz EPIRB, PLB or ELT has been that it is nearly impossible for the average consumer to actually test their beacon, at least affordably. We have been pretty much forced to rely on the beacon’s own internal self-test mechanism. It’s not that I don’t trust [...]

Some revealing information being reported today on the recent off-shore boating tragedy (from St. Petersburg Times originally and FOXNews.com). The difficulty is, we cannot verify the facts, but it makes for a plausible explanation and is entirely consistent with reports of others acting in the same manner in similar survival situations, so worthy a discussion [...]

ACR Electronics announced their next generation PLBs at SHOT Show in Orlando, Florida. All the specifications provided below are preliminary and subject to change.
Click on photos for higher resolution images.
This device has not been authorized as required by the Rules of
the FCC. This device is not, and may not be offered for sale or
lease, or [...]

Last week I received a sample of the new Swiss Army issue Swiss Army Knife from Victorinox and played around with it a bit this weekend. This will be a very brief review, at least in part because there’s nothing earthshaking new here. The decision by the Swiss to upgrade to a more capable [...]