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Reviews > Health & Safety > Emergency and Survival Gear > Ultimate Survival Technology BASE Kit > Test Report by Jamie LawrenceTest Report by Jamie LawrenceUltimate Survival Technologies - BASE KitTest Series by Jamie LawrenceInitial Report - 27th November 2009Field Report - 11th February 2010Long-Term Report - 13th April 2010Tester Information
I was introduced to backpacking/tramping/hiking as a young child in Boy Scouts and through my school physical/adventure education. After leaving school, I mainly did short daywalks until recently when I started to re-walk some of Tasmania's key routes and try others I have yet to attempt. I mainly walk in the winter months, in Tasmania's central highlands area. I prefer light gear, extended walks (3-5 days) in a group of 3 or shorter walks (1-3 days) walking solo. I would generally carry a base weight pack of around 8 kg - 10 kg (17 lbs - 22 lbs). Initial Report27th November 2009 Product Information & Specification
The Ultimate Survival Technologies BASE Kit (Basic Adventure Survival Essentials) is a lightweight emergency kit has the bare signalling and fire starting essentials everyone needs when heading outdoors, as described on the product packaging. The BASE Kit has 4 components. The Sparkie™ fire starter, 2x WetFire™ tinder cubes, the StarFlash® signal mirror and the JetScream™ whistle. The entire kit is contained within a waterproof plastic bag/case that is claimed to be waterproof to 60 m (200 ft). The
individual components are described as follows: StarFlash®
Signal Mirror: This signal mirror is made
from 2
layers of plastic, can be aimed precisely, floats and can signal for
communications up to 100 miles away (160 km).
The InstructionsAlso contained within the BASE Kit is a small instructions booklet. Given the nature of this product, I assumed it was pretty self explanatory on how to use the various items. However I was surprised that the instructions contain some handy hints, mainly for the StarFlash® mirror and Sparkie™ fire starter. These were spotting the reflection with your hand then aiming the reflection to ensure you attract attention as well as the fact that the flint stone in the Sparkie™ can be rotated to ensure a long life. As the kit is packed inside a waterproof bag, I intend to keep the instructions with the kit all the time for future reference in the field. Trying out the BASE KitThere
isn't really a lot to the kit so it is pretty easy to try out. As I did
not
want to waste one of the WetFire™ tinder cubes just playing
around (UTS
included an extra pack of 8 WetFire™ tinder cubes which was
nice!) for my
first impressions, I have not yet used one to start a fire. The
StarFlash® and JetScream™ are pretty basic and easy
to use.
Just a blast of air to work the JetScream™ or just hold the
StarFlash®
towards
a light source. I was able to
reflect the light from a lamp across my lounge. The Sparkie™ only took a few seconds to
figure
out. Simply press the button to release the flint then press it into
something
to create sparks. As the flint was coated with a paint of some form, I
had to
press the Sparkie™
down 3 times to get sparks. It is easy to use with one hand as claimed
by UST.
It certainly produces a bright spark but I am yet to test if this is
sufficient
to ignite the WetFire™
tinder or any other type of fuel. SummaryI
was quite impressed with the BASE Kit as soon as I opened the box. I
find it is
a simple, lightweight and useful kit that appears to serve its purpose
of being
able to light a fire (or at lease produce a bright spark at this stage)
and
signal for help. I look forward to testing this kit out in the field
but hope
that it wont be in a genuine emergency situation! Field Report11th February 2010 Field Locations & Conditions I continued my field testing of the UST BASE Kit with some backpacking and camping. For far all my testing has been during my summer, I have spent a lot of time at the beach and in coastal locations. I recently spent 2 nights camped at Bridport, at sea level. There was no rain and temps ranged from 35 C (95 F) to lows around 12 C (53 F). I also packed the BASE Kit on an overnight walk into Mt Field National Park. During this walk I was between 1,038 m ( 3,405 ft) and 1,272 m (ft). Again the weather was lovely and sunny with no rain and temps were hot, getting to 38 C (100 F) during the day and only dropping to 18 C (64 F) at night. Performance in the Field So far I have been fortunate that I haven't had to test the BASE Kit in a genuine survival/emergency situation. However one situation that caused a near death moment was when some friends and I were meeting up at a coastal location for a spot of camping and fun in the sun. However, when I arrived early I noticed that the gas BBQ was indeed wood fired! This posed a major problem as no one thought to pack any matches. Lucky for me I had the BASE Kit handy. After finding some dry grass and a few bits of bits of wood (there wasn't much small tinder laying about) I was able to use both a WetFire™ tinder cube and the Sparkle to get a fire going.
Although
the directions in the BASE Kit suggest shaving the WetFire™ tinder cube to assist
lighting, I did
not have a knife so I assumed that if I could get the Sparkle to ignite
the dry
grass then the tinder cube should then ignite by the flames from the
glass. I
am pleased to report that it took only 2 presses of the Sparkie™ for the grass to ignite. I
have no
idea how hot the sparks are, but the grass took off straight away so I
assume
the sparks were quite hot. Once the grass burnt away (around 20 seconds
or so)
I noticed that the WetFire™ tinder cube was alight. I
glanced at
my watch to get a rough idea of the burn time of the tinder cube. I was
surprised that such a small cube was able to burn for so long, around 6
minutes
in total. By the time the tinder cube was basically burnt out, I had
sufficient
heat in the fire to add some larger pieces of wood and at no point did
I think
the fire would die out. Not sure if being able to light a BBQ is what
UST had
in mind when they designed the BASE Kit, but it was a handy life saver!
Summary So
far I have found the BASE Kit to be a really handy addition to my
standard
selection of gear when I head outdoors. I really like the simple
lightweight
design and the fact that it is all contained in a simple waterproof
bag. After
my first attempt to light a fire went really well, I am confident that
if in a
real emergency that I could generate a flame with ease. I am also
confident that
I could use the JetScream™ whistle
to attract attention. Long-Term Report13th April 2010 Field Locations & Conditions I concluded my testing of the UST BASE Kit on 2 outings. The first of these was a 3 night 50 km (31 mi) summit of Frenchman’s Cap in Western Tasmania. This 1,446 m (4,744 ft) peak is regarded as one of the hardest walks in Tasmania with terrain ranging from boggy mud of open button grass plains to high exposed alpine cliffs. During my trip weather ranged from pouring rain to bright sunshine with temps roughly between 10 C (50 F) at night to a high in the low 20’s C (68-77 F). The second trip was an overnight camp at Fortescue Bay on the Tasman Peninsula. This camp at sea level was part of a training program for an outdoor education program of which I am a leader. Again temps were roughly between 10 C (50 F) at night to a high in the low 20’s C (68-77 F). Unfortunately I have no accurate readings of the weather conditions for both of the above trips, so my estimates are based simply on prior experience and average weather for the areas at the time of year.
Performance in the Field I have continued to be fortunate in that I have not had to use the BASE Kit in a genuine emergency situation. However I did use all 4 components of the kit during the above 2 outings. As can be seen in the above picture, Frenchman’s Cap features some extremely high cliffs on its south east face. Directly below these cliffs, around 400 m (1,312 ft) below, is Lake Tahune, a beautiful alpine lake which also has a small hut on its shore. During our trip, one of the party stayed behind tracked the progress of our climb from the hut. I thought this would be a good test of the StarFlash® mirror and when we reached the summit, I pulled the mirror out of my pocket and aimed it towards the hut in line with the instructions on the rear of the mirror. A gave the mirror a few flicks for around 15 seconds then returned it to my pocket. To my delight I was informed that the mirror flash was clearly visible from the hut! It was a lovely clear sunny day and I had visibility for many kilometers (miles) from the peak. Based on the distance from the summit to the hut below, I am confident I could signal an overhead aircraft or rescue party from a high peak in a genuine emergency situation. The other test I undertook during the Frenchman’s Cap walk was of the JetScream™ whistle. During this walk our party of 4 was separated into 2 groups of 2 due to an ankle injury slowing one party member down. This resulted in around a half hour ‘gap’ between our groups. Once the second group (which I was in) reached the start of the long open button grass plain of the Lodden Plain, I gave the JetScream™ whistle 2 quick blasts as we had agreed I would do this to allow the first group an idea of how far behind we were. The Lodden Plain is around 8 km (5 mi) of open plains. The first group was around half way across the plain, so approximately 4 km (2.5 mi) when I used the JetScream™ whistle. Once we had caught up with the first group they reported they could clearly hear the whistle. To my surprise they informed me that they had in fact tried to reply with 2 short blasts of the whistle one of the party members had on their pack (contained within the chest trap buckle). We had not been able to hear this at the time. This confirmed to me that the JetScream™ whistle is highly suitable for attracting attention if required. During the overnight camping trip to Fortescue Bay, I used a couple of the WetFire™ tinder cubes in conjunction with the Sparkle™ to light a camp fire. As I had experienced during my field testing, this was quite easily done by placing the WetFire™ cubes in with some small sticks or grass and then using the Sparkle™ to light. As a simple test I gathered a small amount of grass and leaves as well as some small sticks and then splashed everything with water to simulate starting a fire in wet conditions. I had not broken up the WetFire™ tinder cubes at all and at first could not get them to ignite with the Sparkle™. I then simply removed a tinder cube, roughly crushed it with a rock and then sprinkled it back into the wet grass. A few more strikes with the Sparkle™ and the crusted tinder cube started to ignite. Within a minute or so the larger uncrushed cube began to burn and with 3-4 minutes all the grass and leaves had dried and a small fire was started. Final Summary Throughout my testing of the Base Kit I have found that it is a user friendly and simple solution to being prepared for an emergency situation in the outdoors. As the kit is basically maintenance free and lightweight, I simply leave it in the top pocket of my pack so that it is always available if required. This proved to work as I actually forgot I had the kit with me on the Frenchman’s Cap walk until I went to remove something from my pack on the first night and went ‘ah! I can do some testing!’. I have no doubt that I will continue with this approach into the future for as long as the kit remains functional, which I anticipate will be a long time with the exception of the WetFire™ tinder cubes and Sparkle™ fire lighter as clearly both these items will either be all used or worn out at some point. This concludes my test series of the UST BASE Kit. My final thanks to Ultimate Survival Technologies and http://www.backpackgeartest.org/ for the opportunity to test this neat little product. Read more reviews of Ultimate Survival Technologies gear Read more gear reviews by Jamie Lawrence Reviews > Health & Safety > Emergency and Survival Gear > Ultimate Survival Technology BASE Kit > Test Report by Jamie Lawrence |