Survival kit/Wallet

This article describes how to make a "survival wallet" consisting of a breast wallet with imbedded suvival, communication and media equipment. It is taken from my website.

Overview

At the moment, no good Travel/Survival Wallet with integrated communication/media system exist which may be used in world travel (supplying both assistance in times of emergency aswell as good, usable communication technology). In addition, no good (low-tech, cheap, light) systems exist to allow world travellers aswell as everyday citizens to store all of their everyday items (ID card, laptop with communication technology, money, ...) at a centralised place on their body. As such, I created a design for this and the specifications/set-up may be found below. This info was taken from my original website.

The Basic Set-up

The solution I found that can store both regular items needed in civilian life (e.g. money, bank cards, international driving license, ...), some basic, regularly usable survival items; as a small knife, small light, antiseptic, ...) and provide additional benefits for communication, ... consists of a breast wallet (attached to a small, wireless headset), wrist band with combined compass/watch and a ultra-mobile pc with speech recognition, fixed to a belt (tie-down strap, waist belt or alternatively, webbing with ladderlock fastener; belt would also feature small pockets). The belt should be strong enough to carry the weight of a person, and should be able to be used for climbing. As such, an extra chain, rope with small carabiner should be present that can easily be attached between the two legs for this climbing feature. Aldough a additional webbing can be simple used, the use of a chain allows quick removal, which may be more practical for running. The breast wallet would hold money, ID-cards, papers, and most survival items while the belt would be hold some extra survival/observation items and ultra-mobile pc itself the media capability. Wrist band would include the watch/compass capability aswell as provide some lightning. This set-up is highly usable and may be used for everyday life, (world) travel and even in emergency/survival situations. In addition, the system would in its normal set-up also feature a ultra mobile pc. The ultra mobile pc would be used as a very cheap portable media player (similar to an Ipod), and also has a GPS-receiver, mobile phone functionality (trough wireless internet connection over VoIP and satellite communication) and extra capabilities (web-browsing, text-editing, e-book reading, ...)The Ultra-Mobile PC-battery would finally also provide the energy needed for a small faraday flashlight (connected inmediatelly hereon) and a small digital camera (to take pictures of the surrounding and of documents, ...)

Aldough composed of commonly commercially available items, it has distinctive differences which include:

For the breast wallet

non-irritating material; vegetable fibre (documents waterproofed by aloksak bag, put inside the breast wallet
11cm x 15cm

For the belt

very small removable belt pouches (around the size of the belt; thus less than 1,5 inch x 1,5 inch)
use of a a tie-down strap or alternatively, webbing with metal ladder buckle ( e.g. DIY Tactical's "Parachute Harnass Adapter")
use of keyrings, quickdraws, paracord 550, ... to quickly yet securely connect superluminova key marker, pocket scope, ...

For the bag (preferably sling bag):

durable material,
20x30cm

For the wrist band with compass/watch

completely shielded design (to prevent any hassle with putting on extra clothing as coats, ..)

Items included in the belt, breast wallet and Ultra-Mobile PC-part/satchel

For the wrist band with compass/watch:

combined ultra-flat wrist watch (digital) combined with compass and equipped with superluminova markings or with a backlight (e.g. Polar Fitwatch 97 with BCB Explorer/Silva SERE 40 button compass on watch band, or Oregon Scientific RA 202 or Suunto Core). It would preferably also need to be added with solar recharging (e.g. as in the Citizen-watches). The wrist band is best an ordinary Buff; this can also be used as air filter/head mask or for general protection of the face (e.g. in desert environments)

For the breast wallet:

small wireless headset with earplugs (connected to breast wallet with keyring and reel, when not in use it may be put inside the breast wallet)
mini neck knife connected trough the wallets neck cord (e.g. Emerson Knives LaGriffe WWR SFS, Spyderco SPOT, ...); alternatively the knife may be put in the breast wallets pouch (e.g. Cold Steel 20BTJ Bird and Trout, KA-BAR TDI LDK, FS HideAway S30, ShivWorks Lil Loco, Fred Perrin LaPel, ...)
5x5 cm ziploc bag with potassium permanganate stuffed herein
5x5 cm ziploc bag with wire saw
ultra-small flint rod with striker (e.g. WSI Hot Spark flint rod, Swedish FireSteel Mini, WSI Flint and Steel)
several 5x5cm ziploc bags with 5g of salt, stuffed herein
several 11x15 cm ziploc bags (for water carrying, water production, keeping tinder dry, ...)
extra keyring with superluminova kit marker (for light and may be used to attach keys)

For the Ultra-Mobile PC-connected belt:

pocket scope (monoculars)
1m paracord 550 rapped around the belt itself

For the flashlight

The flashlight should be a faraday head torch, that is recharged by motion (walking) and by the OLPC (for fast recharging). The battery used should be a capacitor. The flashlight should be build into the hood of the Multipurpose_clothing, worn with the survival wallet/OLPC.

For the ultra mobile pc

ultra mobile pc with handwheel generator for recharging (similar to OLPC), connection for the recharging of the head torch and digital camera. The umpc is ideally made according to this design. Note that as an alternative to the handwheel generator, certain biomechanical energy harvesters (eg the Max Donelan harvester) may be used instead. Also, PV solar panels on the outside of the UMPC (or alternatively on the Multipurpose clothing) can easily recharge the device, yet this option may be expensive (depending on type of PV cells used, and -if used on the clothing- not too easy to connect.

In addition, a small blood pressure meter should be added to determine the salt intake and vary it depending on the amount and type of food eaten.

Benefits

Its benefits are:

it is not heavy or bulky and its very usable in everyday life (you'll never feel the need to leave it at home)
it is very usable for survivalists/travellers (e.g. a light in the form of a tritium marker can be used in theater, compass can be used for city navigation, international driving licence can now be kept on the body for travellers, ...)
the materials chosen would be durable (instead of using plastic buckles, metal buckles, ...)
the complete Load Bearing System is composed of only 2-3 parts, thus limiting the time it takes to put them on (gathering wallet, keys, ... may even take longer)
as the system is only composed of 2 parts, very few textile, ... is needed and it may thus be created very cheaply (especially when made diy)
it removes the need to take a large container along to store mini survival kit items
the survival items are limited to the basics, yet retain the capability of giving a better chance of survival in extreme situations
the materials and equipment chosen would be maintenance-free (e.g. the tritium light, rather than a regular battery torch does not need to be revised for battery depletion, ...)
webbing, pouches, breast wallet, ... can be made do-it-yourself
the webbing, belt pouches, ... can be made extremely environmentally-friendly (even non-polluting). This may be done by naturally extremely durable fibres as climatex, flax, jute, hemp, ... and natural, durable coloring (by Rohner, ...)
the UMPC is cheap compared to its functions; it is the only device that can achieve so much functionality (media playing, gps, ...) at such low price. For example a IPod-player may only provide a small amount of its features (no gps, e-book, flashlight, ...) while still having a comparable price. In addition, I also have submitted a self-made UMPC design with some extra features (dynamo, WiMax, ...).
the UMPC allows people to save on costs by eliminating the need to buy home appliances (e.g. radio, tv, .. is no longer required). In addition, all of a persons home appliances can now be taken along (making a trough nomadic media lifestyle possible)

At the moment, aldough such most components can already be simply bought at the commercial circuit, some cannot (belt pouches of less than 1,5 inch cannot be found). Also, most commercially available equipment are of poor quality, have unusable features/design, are too expensive, ... Aldough when you carefully select your supplier you might get relative good material, equipment that incorporate all the benefits, quality, ... found above will never be achieved. Simply the non-polluting feature is something which not one supplier is currently offering.

Note on the UMPC-satchel: Aldough it is possible to simply put the UMPC in a satchel; it is even more efficient to opt for an alternative. The belt in which the survival items are placed may be simply attached to the OLPC so that the waist belt does not need to include so much items and so that the faraday flashlight/camera may be easily used from the laptop.

FAQ

Why is such a plain knife used and why is no pocket survival tool (PST) included ? The survival items mentioned in this document focus mainly on true survival and emergency situations. As these situations typically only last only a few days, no items involving food gathering need to be foreseen (people can do without food up to 30 days without problems). In addition, water gathering is a much more serious problem and needs to be solved immediately (within 3 days). Also, if food is consumed, extra water gathering needs to be done as for the food digestion extra water is required. Finally, if extra items for food gathering are taken, the pack gets larger (which may result in not carrying it all the time and it would also get heavier (requiring one to spend extra energy for carrying it along)

Why is salt and blood pressure included/discussed ? Another serious issue (next to water gathering) is salt intake. Besides being required heavily by the body, maintaining a good blood pressure is also vital for survival. This as low blood pressure (which can easily result from not eating a few days) will make people less fit (dizziness, tiredness, ...) and thus less capable of getting trough the first few days of a survival situation (which are always vital). Also, for people going extensively abroad, the types of food consumed are seriously altered depending on the area visited (different cultures bring different foods/meals). In these situations too, checking your blood pressure often and maintaining a regular salt intake is vital to remain healthy while on the road and will make your trip more enjoyable.