If you're going long range, bring a radio

[Eagler]

Originally posted by Xargos
Most kids today don't know what direction the North Star is in, and you expect then to know how to read a compass and map?

too many can't tell you east from west at 3pm on a sunny day

[Suave]

Originally posted by Airscrew
for crying out loud, they had a MAP and a COMPASS, and they still got lost.  I dont think a GPSthingamajigywhatchamcallit would have saved them.  If you cant read a map, and you cant use a compass what good would a GPS locator be??

Obviously so that they could communicate their position.

Of course one can't do that without commo.

[68ROX]

The "QRP" morse code radio could be a good option, PROVIDED that the user was LICENSED to operate it in their country.

Morse (or "CW") can be used at low power levels (2-5 watts) with a wire dipole antenna and get decent daytime results, on say 7.050 mHz out to four or five hundred miles, and night time results of thousands of miles under good atmospheric conditions.

I am licenced to operate that radio, and if I were a avid hiker, would take a solar rechargable battery and that rig with me.

The total weight would be less than say 7 pounds.

Not bad insurance if you get turned around in a canyon or two and find yourself low on food and water.

Sat phones are expensive, cell phones can be unreliable in wilderness areas.

Morse code cuts through the clutter and saves lives.

Read here:  http://www.arrl.org

68ROX
K5TEN, ex-KA9SOX, ex-KA9SOX/VE1, ex-KA9SOX/VE3, ex-KA0NIU

[Boroda]

Originally posted by Airscrew
for crying out loud, they had a MAP and a COMPASS, and they still got lost.  I dont think a GPSthingamajigywhatchamcallit would have saved them.  If you cant read a map, and you cant use a compass what good would a GPS locator be??

I second that.

In Grand Caucasus my friends once had to smoke used tea (they had to dry it in the sun after brewing it) when they ran out of cigarettes, wrapping it into pieces torn off the  map - from places they already passed. You can't wrap tobacco into GPS reciever

Anything that has batteries may become useless. Drop a GPS or a sat-phone into the water - and that's all. A liguid-filled compass will work until you'll deliberately hit it with an axe. I still have an East-German compass with a 5-degree scale that was made before I was born.