Home Front: Outages, news and contact

As you may have heard (or been affected by) there was a widespread internet outage in Australia yesterday which hammered home one clear message. I need a radio. With all my technological toys, and EDC kit, all stashed away, it took the plug being pulled to remind me that without data, I was just sitting in my office, wondering where the flash was. Of course, the power was on, the phones and cellular networks were still functioning, and some national sites were still active, so I wasn't worried about an immediate, local situation, but when the internet dries up ... I sat up and paid attention.

So, a radio. I was thinking a lightweight, world-band battery powered one, as it could also be charged by one of my solar chargers and would give me the potential for listening out to further reaches than just FM or AM reception, which is why I favour this over the hand-cranked emergency radios I've seen, even though they have a range of good functionality as well.

I'm of two minds on what to equip myself with, but the message was clear, when the internet went out, I was cut off from all news-sources I currently had available. Web-cast radio was offline, as was Google, Twitter, Facebook and so on. There were plenty of jokes about the Arab Spring going around, and even about current Australian political cat-fighting being to blame (a petulant cable-pulling was mentioned).

I really didn't like not being able to get the news. I'm glad I got that wake-up now, when it doesn't matter.

Review: Going Solar!

When the going gets rough, and the lights flicker out, we will want to power and run our gadgets and drive back the night with the familiar glow of electric lights. I've been collecting solar chargers for a while now, and I thought I would give you a quick review of them.

First up is the B-Squares Modular Solar Electronics which I backed on Kickstarter. This allows the user, in theory, to run a USB outputting rechargeable triple AAA charger, a set of LED lights, or a iPhone charger. The single solar square generates 0.325W of power, which is enough to run the LED's, charge the batteries or run the iPhone. Or at least, it's supposed to. I have had little or no luck with it, and am afraid to say I've been very disappointed with this device. 

 The second of these devices is the original Solio Universal charger which is a mains-capable charger, with a battery pack. It folds out into a tri-leaved floret  is capable of output ranges from 1.5 to 5W, the internal rechargeable battery has a capacity of of 3.7V 1000mAh. It comes with a variety of output ends for the included cables and will even charge iPhones via a USB output. One cool feature of this is that it can be orientated by feeding a pencil through the central hole, propping it up to achieve maximum solar  contact. I've been very happy with this device, and take it camping and adventuring with me frequently.

Lastly is the solar charger that came with another Kickstarter project, the Packlights which I have previously reviewed. I delightful sweetener to their deal was the inclusion of these purpose built charger and battery packs. Also mains-chargeable, these these packs generate  0.77W at a Voltage of 5.25 +- 5% and the internal battery has a capacity of 2200mA with an output of 5.6V at a maximum current of 600mA. It includes a USB output, and both a bright LED light, and a dim LED charge indicator. Another interesting feature is that they give estimated times for charging, which are: by Solar Charge:10-14 hours depending on lighting & weather conditions and by DC Charge: 2-3 hours where the charging current: 140mA (per hour). This is a really nice package, and I'm very glad i acquired two of them. They fit nicely stowed into one of the Platatac FUP pouches so I can imagine wearing them out in the field, ready to recharge my tech.