Considerations for a Foot Passenger GHB.

[Lightspeed]

[NorthernRaider]

Mines a little civilian Victorinox laptop bag, very bland, compact and unassuming.

[TOF]

@LS
My Airline kit is tiny, it all fits in my handbag.
I have a little Samsung Phone, I can see the sense in having a back-up in the bag. Good idea! Still having trouble getting enthused about radio though.

[Lightspeed]

Funny I cut pasted and deleted that bag as an option...

A colleague of mine has one. they are excellent... but then at £185 a pop they ought to be.

But yes that's a great bag for this kind of operation NR.

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@LS
My Airline kit is tiny, it all fits in my handbag.
I have a little Samsung Phone, I can see the sense in having a back-up in the bag. Good idea! Still having trouble getting enthused about radio though.

Its a geeky kind of thing TOF, but with serious post SHTF importance.

What if the big one happens while you are travelling? I guarantee you, based on many, many reports, the mobile phone network will be overloaded. You may be able to get some texts out, and maybe receive a few. Quickly the mobile phone network will stop completely.. Then how are you going to communicate or get intel? OK your kit has a transistor radio in it, but the little walkie talkies I'm thinking of also have FM radio receivers built in.

[Scythe13]

LS, would a UV3r be okay for TOF? Smaller and lighter than the UV5r series.

[TOF]

See? Now you're talking Hungarian. I have tried to get happy about Radio, honest! Poor BoB has tried, bless her. I think she's going to have another go on our next practice bug-out.

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I do appreciate the importance of having a radio in your bag.

[Tarrel]

This is an interesting thread. I travel far from home on public transport a lot, so it is very relevant for me.

To my mind, one of the challenges is to be able to carry on with business as usual (i.e. fulfil the purpose of the trip), while being prepared for something to develop unexpectedly and very rapidly, and to meet both these needs within the limits of weight, size and appearance, as already stated.

I think you can extend the idea of multi-purposing outside the bag, to other things you carry / wear. Examples:

1. On most of my trips I'm expected to wear dress shoes and "smart casual" business wear. But I'm always conscious that I may end up having to walk a long way, on rough ground and maybe in the wet or slush. My answer is to wear a pair of country brogues. They're smart enough for business wear, but substantial, and with a good enough tread, to allow me to cover some distance in reasonable comfort.

2. I need mobile computing when I'm away, so I choose to carry an iPad instead of a laptop. As well as my business software, this is loaded with OS maps for the whole UK, is GPS-enabled, has an electronic compass and a 10-hour battery life. It's also small and light, leaving more room for other stuff. PDFs of street maps and local transport timetables go on this too, so I don't have to rely on getting online if I need to re-route or change plans.

3. I always carry a lightweight waterproof (or a more substantial one outside the summer). This is a Paramo jacket, smart enough for walking around the city, but waterproof and ultra-breathable, so I can wear it without getting hot and sweaty on public transport.

For me, lightweight is critical. Whenever I plan a public transport based trip, I always assume I'll be using buses or walking for the local legs of the journey. This has a direct effect on what I plan to take, with the fringe benefit that I never have with me more than I can comfortably carry some considerable distance. (If I need to transport bigger, heavier items - e.g, in my case - training materials - I courier them to the destination ahead).

[SlyUrbanFox]

I have a car yet wouldn't dream of taking it to London or Birmingham. I get the train there and then take buses or the tube. I carry a TNF tarpaulin messenger bag. I've had it for years and it's bombproof, still looks like new.

As for the contents there's food and water, a super lightweight pullover waterproof and matching trousers, valved face mask, gloves and buff. Mini 1st aid kit. I also carry a Maxpedition micro organiser that has a leatherman, led torch, pry bar, gorilla tape and glue, zip ties, pen and waterproof paper. The organiser is the result of having various bits and pieces in different pockets, bags and glovebox. It pulls everything into one place and means it can easily be swapped to whatever I'm carrying. When I leave the house now it's keys, phone and organiser.

I agree with carrying a small tablet computer too. My Nexus 7 is smaller and thinner than a single OS map yet contains 1:25000 maps of pretty much everywhere I go. It also has most of SDs file download site on it too.

I think the most important thing in the city is situational awareness and good footwear. I was in London over Easter and walked 10 miles after Sunday lunch. The amount of lemmings wandering around looking at their phones, getting run over because they were totally unaware of where they were or what they were doing was astounding.

[TOF]

Crikey SUF, your ears must be burning! Your name has been mentioned so many times it must be near worn out. I wonder if a mobile phone app would do a similar job as a computer tablet for maps. I'm not very techie, so will have to give it a try. I do carry an A3 size map book of Britain. I'm not sure how a network problem would affect mobile phone gps stuff.

[SlyUrbanFox]

I have the same apps on the tablet and phone. If bought through Google Play, they sync between devices so the new map app on the tablet magically appears on the phone. Make sure you download the maps for offline use in case the network is down. GPS should be fine unless EMP has taken it out in which case phone/tablet won't work anyway. I prefer the tablet for maps as my eyesight isn't getting any better and the phones too small.
The tablet has tube and bus maps/timetables, British waterways map, supermarket finder(surprisingly useful) sunrise/sunset app. Google Maps will let you set your own maps with useful points like water/cache points.