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At worst, they may create a breeding ground for pathogens. A study of healthcare workers found that “moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection.” Stick with real N95 respirators, which may not look as hip, but do actually work.
Ten year ago I discussed the humangear capCAP. My conclusion was: the capitalization of the brand and product name is stupid, the cap itself is a good upgrade to any wide mouth (63mm) bottle, but it will allow a few drops to leak out of a wide mouth Klean Kanteen.
Recently I was made aware of a new model: the humangear capCAP+. This one adds silicone gaskets to both parts of the lid, and boasts compatibility with a wider range of bottles. However, humangear explicitly states that this one remains incompatible with the wide mouth Klean Kanteen.
I like to live dangerously, so I bought the new model anyway. For a couple weeks now I’ve been using it on the same Klean Kanteen Wide 27oz bottle used in the previous review. Despite humangear’s warning, I have had nary a drop leak out from the cap. I have tried to make the lid leak by filling the bottle and storing it on its side, and by balancing the bottle upside down on the cap, but no water has escaped.
Other changes in the new model include redesigned grip cutouts, which I find to have made no practical change to the functionality of the cap, and a cap retention thing that I thought would be kind of a gimmick but is actually surprisingly useful. (I will point out that the full name of this feature is the “humangear capCAP+ CapKeeper”. Someone at this brand hates English.)
The new model weighs 56 grams (2 oz), which is 20 grams (0.7 oz) more than the original capCAP.
I’m happy with the capCAP+. If you have the original capCAP, and it doesn’t leak on your bottle of choice, it probably is not worth upgrading. If it does leak, consider trying the new one. If you have neither model, but you use a wide mouth bottle and rely on something like the Guyot Designs Splashguard, the capCAP+ may improve your life.
I’ve worn the Casio Pro Trek PRW-3000-1A for the past 1,746 consecutive days. This is probably the longest I’ve worn any watch that doesn’t say “G-Shock” on it.
The Pro Trek performs all the basic watch functions you’d expect: it tells time, it provides the current date and day of week, it has a stopwatch, and it has a countdown timer. It supports a second timezone, which I usually keep set to UTC for quick reference but is useful if I’m briefly passing through a different region. It provides sunrise and sunset times for current, past and future dates. These are not exact, but tend to be within 20 minutes of reality, which is close enough for planning purposes. It has four alarms, which I never use.
Beyond those basic functions, the PRW-3000-1A has two characteristics that differentiate it from other timepieces. First, it is both solar and atomic: the battery never needs to be changed, and the time is always accurate. (Eventually, I’m sure, the battery will no longer charge itself, but that doesn’t seem to be imminent.)
The second characteristic is that it is an ABC watch, which means it provides an altimeter, barometer, and compass. Of these three features, the compass is the most useful. It works great for identifying the cardinal directions when you get turned around. It can also store bearings in memory, but using something other than a real compass for actual navigation strikes me as silly. The watch can be configured with declination, but I always leave this off so that the compass points to magnetic north. I apply this strategy to all compasses and GPS receivers, ensuring that they always agree.
The barometer is neat, but not especially useful. I have not found the current atmospheric pressure to be advantageous information. The watch can be told to monitor the barometric pressure over a period, and then alert the user if it sees a rise or fall in pressure, which would indicate a change in weather (very roughly: a rising barometer is good, falling is bad). This is more useful than knowing only the current value, but it only works when altitude remains constant.
The barometer screen also displays a thermometer, but because the watch is worn next to skin I find that this reading is not an accurate representation of ambient air temperature.
The altimeter mode is more useful. The reading is based on barometric pressure. The watch can either convert the barometer readings to altitude based on its stored values from the International Civil Aviation Organization’s International Standard Atmosphere, or it can calculate altitude based on a provided reference value. With the latter option, you tell the watch the current altitude (based on a map reading, survey marker, etc) and the watch then uses changes in pressure to calculate the difference as you ascend or descend. This is how I use the altimeter, and I find the results accurate enough for my purposes (which tend to be “rough navigation”).
The watch features a trip recording mode, where it will periodically record altitude readings and then report back with your maximum altitude, minimum altitude, total ascent, and total descent. I’ve never used this.
I’ve been using the same nylon band that I hacked together 4 years ago. It works great. I repaired it once with my expedition sewing kit.
The watch remains in excellent condition. The bezel is scratched, but that has no practical impact on its function. The face itself has managed to resist all scratching.
The buttons are more exposed than a G-Shock, and they will sometimes activate themselves if I’m doing something like pulling my wrist through a tight cuff. These accidental discharges happen rarely and are only a minor annoyance, but I do wish the Pro Trek was available with the thicker bumper of the G-Shock. (Casio does offer ABC G-Shocks, such as the Rangeman GW9400-1B. I’ve not looked closely at these, but they are probably worthy of consideration.)
Kikuo Ibe’s original G-Shock DW-5000 is the watch against which every other timepiece should be judged. Today I would appreciate the addition of solar atomic functionality, which is available in derivatives such as the G-Shock GWM5610. I purchased the PRW-3000-1A in 2015 for $200, which is a little over twice the common sale price of the G-Shock. I think this has been worth it for the added functionality. Unfortunately the PRW-3000-1A is no longer available. The current equivalent of it seems to be the PRW-3100Y-1. Casio’s list price for this model is $320, which is more than I think the watch is worth. If my watch was lost, I would happily purchase the newer model (or an ABC G-Shock) for $200. If they wanted more than that, I’d likely revert to the solar atomic G-Shock GWM5610 for $80-$100.
A Cleaveland Mountaineering Fork Clamp Mount allows me to mount a King Cage to my old Tubus Vega rack, providing another option for carrying water. I’ve wanted something like this since I saw Logan’s Vega modification on bikepacking.com. Cleaveland’s mounts makes it easy.
I use Norma Torro Worm Drive Hose Clamps to attach the mount. These German made clamps are far superior to the Chinese hose clamps frequently found in hardware stores. The 9mm wide, 8-16mm diameter clamps are the right size for this job.
The Sawyer Squeeze water filter can attach directly to the threading on common disposable bottles. For other bottles you can aim the output freehand, or attach half of a Sawyer Hydration In-Line Adapter to a piece of hose and let that drip into your bottle. I prefer a closed system, both so that no debris fall into my reservoir while it is being filled, and so that if the reservoir is accidentally knocked over I don’t lose all the clean water. There are a number of adapters that can aid in this.
Previously I mentioned my hacked together solution for attaching a Sawyer filter to an MSR Dromlite bag. The Dromlite lid is 63mm in diameter and uses the same threading that is present on the majority of wide mouthed bottles, so I can use this adapter to attach the Sawyer Squeeze directly to a wide array of bottles: Nalgene wide mouth, Klean Kanteen wide mouth, Hydro Flask wide mouth, CamelBak Podium, and reservoirs like the HydraPak Expedition or bladders like the Source WXP.
This adapter – including the Dromlite cap – weighs 40 grams (1.4 oz). 18 grams (0.6 oz) of that is the Dromlite lid, so if I’m already packing a Dromlite the adapter only adds 22 grams (0.8 oz) to my load.
Last autumn I bought a Platypus GravityWorks Universal Bottle Adapter. This consists of an inner lid with nipple, and outer lid ring, and a protective cover for the clean side of the lids. To integrate this adapter with the Sawyer Squeeze, I cut a short length of hose. One end I shoved over the nipple of the GravityWorks Universal Bottle Adapter. The other end I attached to one part of another Sawyer Hydration In-Line Adapter.
This adapter – including the same length of hose as the Dromlite system, and both caps, and the protective cover – weighs 70 grams (2.5 oz). 20 grams (0.7 oz) of that is the protective cover, which I’m not sure is really necessary.
The inner lid of the GravityWorks adapter is tapered so that it can fit into a range of narrow mouth bottles. The Sawyer Squeeze is already threaded to attach directly to common disposable bottles, but this adapter also allows me to get a seal with the Nalgene Oasis canteen, the smaller part of the humangear capCAP, the Hydrapak Stow, Vitaminwater bottles, or Vapur bottles.
When the inner lid is attached to the outer lid ring, the adapter can then attach to the standard 63mm wide mouth bottle threading, giving me all the same capability I have with my modified Dromlite adapter. But the outer lid ring can also attach to bottles with narrower mouths. Specifically, it works great with Klean Kanteen classic bottles, HydraPak Seeker, Nalgene “Wide Mouth” 16oz HDPE (which has a narrower, 53mm “wide mouth”), and with my Zojirushi SM-SA48.
I also have a Jetflow 63mm adapter. This takes the standard 63mm wide mouth bottle threading and steps it down to the narrow threading used by the Sawyer filter and most disposable bottles. You can then attach the filter directly to the bottle lid rather than going through a hose like my other two adapters.
The Jetflow adapter is neat because you can attach a bottle cap from a typical disposable bottle to the smaller end and then use it as your normal water bottle lid. It turns the whole contraption into something like a humangear capCAP. The Jetflow adapter weighs 18 grams (0.6 oz). Add a lid from a disposable water bottle and the total weight is 20 grams (0.7 oz).
One of the things I learned over the years at 2 Meter Critical Mass and other radio events is the value of a good clipboard. The Field Message Pad or Field Memo Pad or even the Field Notebook are great for my own notes, but when responding with a radio on behalf of an agency, said agency will probably have official log and message forms, and those forms will probably be on 8.5” x 11” paper. A clipboard is an important tool for making those forms usable in the field.
Many people end up with a Gibson approved Saunders Storage Clipboard. They’re nice, but too bulky for my tastes. I use a WhiteCoat Clipboard.
These clipboards are hinged, allowing them to fold in half. They are intended to be folded so that they fit in the pocket of a lab coat and protect patient information from shoulder surfing. But when folded they also fit well into a decent sized cargo pocket, or larger jacket pockets. Folding the clipboard also provides some protection to the paper itself. Even if you’re just putting it in a pack, it’s nice to be able to fold the board and not worry about the paper becoming wrinkled.
The WhiteCoat Clipboard is available with different quick reference medical stickers. None of these are extremely useful to me. I went with the EMT Edition because it has a scale for estimating pupil size, which is something I have struggled with in the past. I’ve considered printing my own stickers to put on the board – perhaps with some kind of radio reference material – but I haven’t decided what information would be useful to include.
A simple rubber band is available to secure the bottom edge of the paper. This is critical to one’s sanity in windy conditions. A pen clip to keep your Fisher Space Pen M4B close to hand completes the package.
The system is overpriced, but I am very happy with its functionality.
While I still believe in the supremacy of the 4” x 6” Field Message Pad, there are times when something smaller is wanted. Perhaps you need something more pocketable, or you have little room in your bag, and you only need small sheets for incidental notes. For these situations I use the Field Memo Pad.
The Field Memo Pad is built around the Mil-Spec Monkey Notebook Cover Plus. This holds 3” x 5” top-bound spiral notebooks, such as the Rite in the Rain 935T. These notebooks are large enough for incidental note taking, and slide easily into a pocket. “Slide” is perhaps not the correct word when the notebook cover is added. The cover is made of Hypalon, which is quite tacky. However this is a feature, not a bug. When you are seated or kneeling and using your leg as a writing surface, the tackiness prevents the pad from slipping around, which is actually quite useful.
The rear flap of the notebook slides into a pocket on the front of the cover. An identical pocket sits on the other side of the cover. I use this rear pocket to hold a few business cards and a universal device reset tool (it’s also a great place for your Bogota Pi picks). An elastic band across the bottom of the cover marks your current page, making it easy to flip to wherever you left off when opening the notebook. Two elastic bands on either side hold writing instruments. I most often use these to keep a Fisher Space Pen 400B Bullet with clip and a black Sharpie Mini, though full-sized writing tools will also fit. The spiral binding of the notebook sits above the top of the cover, allowing the notebook to be opened and folded over completely.
The Field Memo Pad provides everything needed for an all-weather analog data dump, in a pocket friendly format.