Urban Escape and Evasion Kit: Electronics

 

            In this day and age, electronics have become an intrical part of our lives. As such one must consider how they could be intergrated into an urban escape and evasion kit. There are many benefits that could be realized in using electronics in the kit. We will discuss some of the electronics available and how they can be used in an urban escape and evasion kit.

 

GPS

 GPS has come along way since its first inception and use by the military. Modern day units are handheld and extremely portable. Units are also offered integrated into a variety of electronic units including cell phones, PDA’S, Laptops and Netbooks.

            Features that could be useful for urban escape and evasion include the ability to store predefined routes. One could have a Primary, Alternative, Contingency and Emergency (PACE) escape routes stored to and from a variety of locations. Most units also have the ability to show the distance traveled, the distance to go, automatic route updating (useful when an unexpected route modification is required) and a digital compass (Should not replace your primary compass).

  Handheld units also offer high battery life and the ability to charge from 110/12v Outlets. These features could be quite beneficial in an urban escape and evasion situation.

 

Police Scanner
  As we have mentioned in previous articles the handheld scanning receiver could be very useful in the Urban E&E Kit. Information vital to your survival is broadcasted over the airwaves every second of the day. One can receive a variety of information including weather reports for the area of operations, raw news feeds being reported to news crews via TV station’s radio network. The location and status of Police officers, Fire Fighters and EMT’s Reacting to the situation. Such information will give key information to what areas of the city to avoid.

 

PDA or Netbook

   Knowledge is power and survival. No one person can possible remember all the survival and escape and evasion training they have acquired over the years. This is especially true in a high stress situation such as implementing an urban escape and evasion plan.

  As such I highly recommend including a PDA or Netbook into your urban E&E kit. A mobile device equipped with PDF reading/viewing capabilities is an invaluable tool. Almost every Survival Manual, Escape and Evasion Manual, Survival Books and Military manuals are available on PDF. Just check UrbanEvasion.com download section which is constantly updated. Having the manuals available during an escape and evasion situation will allow for a quick refresher course in the field.

 

Night Vision Monocular

   Night vision is pretty self explanatory. The small handheld Monocular allows one to see in total darkness. The advantages of seeing in the dark while others can not are too numerous to list. Read: Tactical Advantage.

 While the technology has advanced the price has thankfully gone down. I remember seeing an ad in Soldier of Fortune magazine for Gen III Military Grade goggles running $5000 USD. Now handheld monocular units can be purchase for around $250 USD.

 

 

This article is not intended to be a must have list, but rather show some of the possibilities available. In articles to come we will discuss power options.