Competition sometimes results in companies using questionable tactics to protect their turf or gain market share. It’s the nature of the beast. The line is often fine between a great marketing concept and one that wasn’t such a good idea. Sometimes it’s just how it’s done that raises a red flag. Oftentimes it is [...]

The RTCM (Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services) Annual Meeting and Conference was held the week of May 5, 2008. I was asked to make a presentation as part of a panel discussing “Innovative Satellite Technologies.” Invitations to be included on the panel were sent to a number of organizations currently marketing distress alerting [...]

The fires currently raging in southern California serve to remind us that it isn’t just earthquakes and floods and hurricanes that we must be prepared for. If you are not prepared ahead of time to evacuate quickly, or “bug out” to use the preparedness vernacular, you will not only likely suffer more than necessary, but [...]

Coming up for air after getting the TracMe Evaluation completed, it is time to update you on SPOT.
Click here to review our First Look article on the SPOT Satellite messenger
Last week I received a preproduction SPOT Satellite Messenger. Over next few weeks I and my associates will be playing with this SPOT to see [...]

The FCC Weighs In
For background, please see the original TracMe article, “That’s No Personal Locator Beacon! – When is a Personal Locator Beacon not a PLB?”
On Wednesday of this week, just as I was getting ready to leave for Salt Lake City to attend Outdoor Retailer, I received an email that included the latest [...]

When is a Personal Locator Beacon not a PLB?
406 MHz Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) are earning a well-deserved reputation for saving lives. These personal-sized distress beacons (large pocket sized) use the same technology that’s been used in marine and aviation (EPIRBs and ELTs) for many years and saved thousands of lives. If you’re headed out [...]

Renowned mountain flying instructor and author of Mountain Flying Bible, Sparky Imeson, was involved in a crash during an instructional flight in Montana over the weekend. He and the student survived. Details can be found here in this article.
The part that has me puzzled is why an experienced person like Sparky would leave [...]

A lot of us involved in the outdoors and survival have for years used Foodsaver home vacuum packaging equipment. There are lots of advantages to vacuum packaging your supplies and gear including reduced volume, protects the contents, longer shelf life, and more. It was not cheap and the special bags and bulk [...]

Seems like I touched a raw nerve during my interview on The Ten Essentials (see my previous blog entry). On the ETS Survival Forum a few folks have taken issue with my assertion that because so few people know how to use a map and compass today, they would do better to include a [...]

Steve Sergeant, Producer and Host of The WildeBeat recently interviewed me for a show on the subject of “The Ten Essentials.” Here’s his introduction and links to the show:
Since it’s mysterious introduction by the Mountaineers early in the twentieth century, the 10 Essentials have been the list that everyone should know, and few [...]