Kits (2)
Grab it If You Can

It is currently impractical to include a duplicate of some high value items in the IBTN bag - I can grab these and stuff them into my main bag, or a second one, with about 15-30 minutes notice.

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The IBTN Bag

The IBTN Bag. It's better than nothing! Have had the "Grab what I need on the way out" mentality for a long time. finally starting a proper BOB with a discount backpack and spare gear. Costs are only for items purchased specifically for the bag. All else was already on hand with outdoor gear.

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Discussions
Reply to: Boil water alert – Washing your hands Posted September 5, 2022

At an outdoors show years ago, there was a company that had a solution to this. Their thing was nifty and gadgety enough that I bought a couple, though in honesty, even while out camping or the like, I’ve always either forgotten to bring them or not bothered to use them. Here’s the website: https://www.saveaqua.com/ A more all-around solution for washing up with limited water is one of those pump up pesticide sprayers (obviously, a new one, that’s never held pesticide). https://www.homedepot.ca/product/hdx-7-5l-pump-sprayer/1000755741 You can pump it up for a persistent spray, and wand yourself down to get wet, then to rinse off for a very water efficient shower. You could probably find a way to rig up the sprayer so that you could lock it open for hand washing, or just get someone to help you by spraying your hands down. There’s also another relatively easy solution for a boil water alert specifically – just wash your hands at the sink like you regularly do, and if you’re concerned, hit them with hand sanitizer after to kill whatever bugs were in the water. Most of the boil water alerts for my area are for Giardia, which I’m almost certain you can’t get through skin contact, so the only (and minimal) concern would be washing your hands and then handling food, in which case you could maybe do a second hand wash with some bleach-treated water. (Alcohol hand sanitizer doesn’t kill giardia cysts.)

Reply to: (Official discussion) Best mobile apps Posted October 12, 2021
Reply to: (Official discussion) Best mobile apps Posted October 12, 2021
Reply to: (Official discussion) Best emergency radio / NOAA weather radio Posted December 28, 2020
Reply to: (Official discussion) Best emergency radio / NOAA weather radio Posted December 27, 2020

I’ve been looking for an AM/FM/SW/WX radio for a while, and was actually not far off from requesting this as an article because it was a big hurdle to get enough  knowledge clumped together to start any good research. I have one minor hang up here, though. Amazon is infested with Chinese made garbage with no quality control and nonsense word brands. I know for sure Baofeng is one of those brands (often considered worth the low quality because of the price), but Yaesu (not mentioned in the article, but a brand I know of) isn’t even though it sounds like it is. I know Eton/Grundig used to be decent quality but they’re mass produced and have a ton of issues now. It’s likely that CountyComm’s radio is something made offshore but tested by their staff and deemed acceptable. Can anyone decode as to whether C. Crane in particular, and/or the other brands mentioned/recommended in the article are real brands, or Chinese nonsense-word brands?

Reply to: Best gas masks and respirators for survival Posted December 12, 2020

Standard disclaimer, I’m not a doctor, lawyer, medical expert, 3M rep, or even a particularly good cook. The below is based on my best understanding, it’s not gospel. The mating between 3M masks and 3M filters/cartridges is universal – either 40mm threaded mounts (like gas masks), or the 3M bayonet style mount. Your 7502 uses the bayonet style. I’ve leveraged 3M’s filter selection poster a lot for reference, you can generally assume that all of the filters here fit your mask: https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/40744O/3m-respirator-cartridge-and-filter-selection-poster.pdf The closest simple solution for you would be either part number 2071 (P95), or some new filters 3M made that are P100 but designed to be easier to breathe through. These would be 2291, 2296, and 2297, for a plain P100 and models that deal with “nuisance levels” of acid gas or organic vapour. You might also want to try something like an O2 Canada Curve mask: https://o2canada.com/ They’re not officially N95 rated but the company claims to exceed the standards, ant it’s a lot more public friendly. I have both a 3M half face mask (but not the 7500 series specifically) and an O2 Curve and the latter is much smaller and more easy to wear. For sources for the 3M filters, I’ve had the best luck with industrial suppliers in the past – think about places like Acklands Grainger, Uline, Shippers Supply, or so on, though some might not sell to the general public.

Reply to: Best gas masks and respirators for survival Posted March 31, 2020

My current understanding is that for the mask itself, a wipe down with a clean damp cloth, or alcohol wipe, is pretty much all it needs. 3M also sells specific cleaning wipes for masks. https://www.3mcanada.ca/3M/en_CA/company-ca/all-3m-products/~/3M-Respirator-Cleaning-Wipe-504-alcohol-free-1-pack/?N=5002385+8709320+3293806380&rt=rud If the o-rings start to go or the mask leaks, you can get maintenance kits too, though I’m not sure how commonly they’re sold and for the price of a new mask, if you used it that much just replace it entirely is my theory. For the filters, once they’re “used up” (which is a really, really vague and hard to determine amount of time), you pretty much chuck them. In the case of the N95/N100/P100 filters, there is a lot of talk about leaving them somewhere isolated, or in a sealed bag, for 4 or 5 days to let the virus in them die, before using them on a mask again, and then you can get several uses before they’re “used up”. I’ve also seen descriptions of baking disposable masks at a certain temperature to kill the virus faster, however in the case of cartridges I imagine the plastic would make that a poor idea, since it could melt. I don’t know how good this information is or if it has any validity. I don’t want to spread any false information, so please take this with a grain of salt. It sounds reasonable, but I don’t know to what extent this has actually been tested.

Reply to: Best gas masks and respirators for survival Posted February 23, 2020
Reply to: Best gas masks and respirators for survival Posted February 4, 2020
No activity yet.
Reply to: Boil water alert – Washing your hands Posted September 5, 2022

At an outdoors show years ago, there was a company that had a solution to this. Their thing was nifty and gadgety enough that I bought a couple, though in honesty, even while out camping or the like, I’ve always either forgotten to bring them or not bothered to use them. Here’s the website: https://www.saveaqua.com/ A more all-around solution for washing up with limited water is one of those pump up pesticide sprayers (obviously, a new one, that’s never held pesticide). https://www.homedepot.ca/product/hdx-7-5l-pump-sprayer/1000755741 You can pump it up for a persistent spray, and wand yourself down to get wet, then to rinse off for a very water efficient shower. You could probably find a way to rig up the sprayer so that you could lock it open for hand washing, or just get someone to help you by spraying your hands down. There’s also another relatively easy solution for a boil water alert specifically – just wash your hands at the sink like you regularly do, and if you’re concerned, hit them with hand sanitizer after to kill whatever bugs were in the water. Most of the boil water alerts for my area are for Giardia, which I’m almost certain you can’t get through skin contact, so the only (and minimal) concern would be washing your hands and then handling food, in which case you could maybe do a second hand wash with some bleach-treated water. (Alcohol hand sanitizer doesn’t kill giardia cysts.)

Reply to: (Official discussion) Best mobile apps Posted October 12, 2021
Reply to: (Official discussion) Best mobile apps Posted October 12, 2021
Reply to: (Official discussion) Best emergency radio / NOAA weather radio Posted December 28, 2020
Reply to: (Official discussion) Best emergency radio / NOAA weather radio Posted December 27, 2020

I’ve been looking for an AM/FM/SW/WX radio for a while, and was actually not far off from requesting this as an article because it was a big hurdle to get enough  knowledge clumped together to start any good research. I have one minor hang up here, though. Amazon is infested with Chinese made garbage with no quality control and nonsense word brands. I know for sure Baofeng is one of those brands (often considered worth the low quality because of the price), but Yaesu (not mentioned in the article, but a brand I know of) isn’t even though it sounds like it is. I know Eton/Grundig used to be decent quality but they’re mass produced and have a ton of issues now. It’s likely that CountyComm’s radio is something made offshore but tested by their staff and deemed acceptable. Can anyone decode as to whether C. Crane in particular, and/or the other brands mentioned/recommended in the article are real brands, or Chinese nonsense-word brands?

Reply to: Best gas masks and respirators for survival Posted December 12, 2020

Standard disclaimer, I’m not a doctor, lawyer, medical expert, 3M rep, or even a particularly good cook. The below is based on my best understanding, it’s not gospel. The mating between 3M masks and 3M filters/cartridges is universal – either 40mm threaded mounts (like gas masks), or the 3M bayonet style mount. Your 7502 uses the bayonet style. I’ve leveraged 3M’s filter selection poster a lot for reference, you can generally assume that all of the filters here fit your mask: https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/40744O/3m-respirator-cartridge-and-filter-selection-poster.pdf The closest simple solution for you would be either part number 2071 (P95), or some new filters 3M made that are P100 but designed to be easier to breathe through. These would be 2291, 2296, and 2297, for a plain P100 and models that deal with “nuisance levels” of acid gas or organic vapour. You might also want to try something like an O2 Canada Curve mask: https://o2canada.com/ They’re not officially N95 rated but the company claims to exceed the standards, ant it’s a lot more public friendly. I have both a 3M half face mask (but not the 7500 series specifically) and an O2 Curve and the latter is much smaller and more easy to wear. For sources for the 3M filters, I’ve had the best luck with industrial suppliers in the past – think about places like Acklands Grainger, Uline, Shippers Supply, or so on, though some might not sell to the general public.

Reply to: Best gas masks and respirators for survival Posted March 31, 2020

My current understanding is that for the mask itself, a wipe down with a clean damp cloth, or alcohol wipe, is pretty much all it needs. 3M also sells specific cleaning wipes for masks. https://www.3mcanada.ca/3M/en_CA/company-ca/all-3m-products/~/3M-Respirator-Cleaning-Wipe-504-alcohol-free-1-pack/?N=5002385+8709320+3293806380&rt=rud If the o-rings start to go or the mask leaks, you can get maintenance kits too, though I’m not sure how commonly they’re sold and for the price of a new mask, if you used it that much just replace it entirely is my theory. For the filters, once they’re “used up” (which is a really, really vague and hard to determine amount of time), you pretty much chuck them. In the case of the N95/N100/P100 filters, there is a lot of talk about leaving them somewhere isolated, or in a sealed bag, for 4 or 5 days to let the virus in them die, before using them on a mask again, and then you can get several uses before they’re “used up”. I’ve also seen descriptions of baking disposable masks at a certain temperature to kill the virus faster, however in the case of cartridges I imagine the plastic would make that a poor idea, since it could melt. I don’t know how good this information is or if it has any validity. I don’t want to spread any false information, so please take this with a grain of salt. It sounds reasonable, but I don’t know to what extent this has actually been tested.

Reply to: Best gas masks and respirators for survival Posted February 23, 2020
Reply to: Best gas masks and respirators for survival Posted February 4, 2020