Stower usb charger

[k0ua]

Even the smallest cup charger could make enough power to run a small cw transceiver that could give you communication for hundreds if not thousands of miles. Or to run a smartphone running one of the digital modes like psk31 and a small digital transceiver. You do not always need infrastructure to communicate. Amatuer radio works just fine without infrastructure. I think these device's have merit for what ever uses your mind can think up.

 

[IslandTractor]

From what your saying - you would rather depend on someone to provide bottled water to you rather than having two small devices with you - 1) a heat driven generator to charge up your (this can be swapped out for a solar usb charger if preferred) 2) Water purification device(kind of an essential)? You make it sound as if during a disaster that NONE of the advancements made in technology and portable devices are worth any thing... calling them craptastic junk... seriously the body can go what 3 days without water... from your own post - you stated water might not get you you in a week - so having a way to make sure any water you find can be made safe to drink is a way better option in my opinion. Both devices fit into your basic pants pockets (not to difficult to secure)... and they help to provide one of the requirements to keep your body alive. Like anything else - these are tools that can be used to enhance your ability to remain alive. I would rather have these two small devices in my pocket - providing a chance to have clean drinking water - than to wait for some government chopper to drop bottled water. Yes time did exist prior to invention of stuff, with your statement - you would use no technology - why are you using a computer - pen and paper are just fine....

There are disasters and then there are disasters. If we get hit by an asteroid big enough to eradicate the dinosaurs then a USB charger isn't going to save the day. If Seattle gets hit by a mega tsunami as happened in Indonesia, then hundreds of thousands will be dead in fifteen minutes but areas just fifteen miles inland will be untouched. There are relatively few examples of serious disasters that leave anyone anywhere in the world much less the USA more than a few days from relief. Water? Use the forty or fifty gallons in your hot water heater. That will keep a family hydrated for weeks. Take a hike to the nearest pond, lake or stream. Boil the water if you can but as we have literally zero cholera in the USA, the risk of drinking untreated water is only mild to moderate diarrhea which half the world lives with daily.

USB is NOT going to make a significant difference in a serious disaster and losing cell phone or radio contact for a while is not the end of the world. There will be thousands in the same boat and as recent major disasters have proved, strangers band together quite effectively for the common good in such circumstances and the global response to provide definitive aid just takes a few days more. Rather than investing $50-150 in a USB powered water purification device, just buy a week supply of bottled water and keep it in your basement.

 

[boggen]

hunting supplies for trips, or out for the day hunting in a blind or like. more likely to be more useful. not the guns and knives, but rather the tents, to heating, to cooking.

a campfire with some stones around it, (personally like to take a grill from a old charcol grill) and toss over fire, can cook a lot of stuff (can goods + can opener, plus a gril + campfire + tongues = warm food) some large metal pots such as canning pots for canning your food from gardens, can make for nice pots to boil water in over a camp fire.

there is no need for cell phones. a battery operated radio = good enough. you get news and location about info.

get over the shock and panic like doing, and it can be pretty easy.

EDIT: when i say campfire, i am not talking large pieces of lumber then has been split and chain saw'ed down to size. i am talking about using some hand purners that have a couple feet of length in the handles, that can cut approx 1.5" limb. saving up some of the fallen down crud out of trees. for more dry stuff.