Category Archives: Camping

Hawaii Budget Travel Tips

As we previously reported, we were in Hawaii for the sunrise eclipse of October 2, 2024. Unfortunately, we were clouded out, but we still enjoyed a nice visit to the Aloha State.

Of course, Hawaii can be expensive, and we wanted to share some budget vacation travel tips. We decided to stay in Honolulu, on the Island of Oahu, so the first order of business was buying the flights to get there. I kept checking a number of sites for several days, watching prices go up and down, and I also checked departures from various cities. We flew from Minneapolis. We could have saved some money by flying from Chicago and driving there. But after the added cost of driving there and finding a place to park, it wound up being a wash. Eventually, we paid about $450 per person on Priceline, and had an excellent flight on United, with connections in Denver. According to Priceline, our tickets were limited to a “personal item” rather than a full “carry on” baggage item. But when we called United, were were assured that we could take both a personal item and a carryon. In addition, we booked a couple of checked baggage items for about $30 each, directly with United.

Lodging

Gallery image of this property Lodging options work differently in Hawaii than in the Continental U.S. My go-to source for hotel rooms is Hotels.com, and I can usually find a bargain. This time, I wound up using Priceline again, and the same room shown (not the same type of room, but the same exact room) was considerably cheaper on Priceline, so that’s how I booked it. The majority of the lower priced options are not actually hotels, but actually condos. The one I booked was actually located within a hotel, but it was owned separately. So, for better or worse, there was no front desk to deal with. We received instructions on retrieving the room key from a lockbox in the lobby. If we had concerns with the room, we could call or e-mail. We had few issues, but they were resolved promptly. For example, the coffee maker didn’t work, and (after a couple of calls), the delivered a new one. The property was managed by a company called Red Awning. While we never actually saw anyone from that company in person, we were satisfied. The view from our window is shown at the top of this page. We were on the 21st floor of the hotel. Specifically, we were in Room 2108 of the Hawaiian Monarch hotel, about six blocks from the Waikiki beach.

We paid about $150 per night for this room. This brings us to the first point about booking hotels in Hawaii: Make sure that the price you are quoted is the complete price. On Priceline, we paid Priceline directly, and there were no other fees. On some websites, and perhaps at other hotels, there is a “resort fee” or similar language tacked on, and you need to pay this later. So check the total price, and make sure there are no extras.

Our room was quite adequate, although it’s quite a bit smaller than the pictures on the booking websites make it look. But for a home base during our stay, it met our needs. Keep in mind that, unlike a hotel, there is no housekeeping. You’ll probably need to do laundry to wash your towels. There was a reasonably priced laundry in the building (and don’t forget to buy some laundry detergent at Walmart–see below). There was a swimming pool, and even an outdoor picnic area poolside with gas grills for guests to use. Overall, we were pleased with the accommodations.

Camping

Image of campground site With high prices, the budget-conscious traveler might be tempted to think about camping, and I looked into the option. But they make it difficult, for a few reasons.

First of all, Hawaii has some very nice state parks, and they are fairly reasonably priced. But they cleverly make them hard to camp in for long stays. The state parks are closed on Wednesday and Thursday nights! If you’re going to be there five days, make sure you arrive Thursday morning and leave Wednesday. But for those two nights, you’ll need to find somewhere else to stay. And it won’t be camping, because there are few, if any, other campgrounds. You’ll need to pay to stay in a hotel. (On other islands, the National Park campgrounds might offer some options worth looking into.)

Don’t even think about sleeping in your car or camping on the beach. They’ve also thought of that, and the laws against it seem to be enforced very seriously. Also, city parks are posted that they are closed overnight. In some cases, there are gates, but even if there aren’t, those laws also seem to be enforced. If you do find a parking place, parking fees are very expensive. (Parking is an additional fee at most hotels. At ours, it was $40 per night.)

Also, public restrooms are extremely hard to find. Most gas stations don’t have them. At one McDonald’s restaurant, there was no public restroom at all. And at another one, the door was locked, and available only for paying customers.

If you truly are going to be there only five days, you can buy, at fairly normal prices, camping gear at Walmart. So you can bring most items from home, and perhaps buy a cheap tent when you get there. But they do make it difficult to camp, so that’s generally not the budget lodging option it is many other places.

Transportation

A row of vehicles. The other problem with camping is that you probably need a car, and the cost of renting a car would probably make hotels a better option. (Although, as noted below, it’s actually possible to get to most or all state park campgrounds by city bus, so if you can haul your gear, that might be an option.)

That being said, car rentals are fairly reasonably priced. I have nothing but praise for 808SmartCars.com, where we rented a car on two separate days. They were located in our hotel lobby, and in another hotel several blocks away. The total cost was $47 one day, and $68 the other day. (And if it’s only two people, their Smart Cars are even cheaper.) For that price, you get the car for a full 24 hours. One day, we got it the first thing in the morning and returned it late at night. The next time (when we needed it for the sunrise eclipse), we rented it about noon and returned it the next day before noon. In that case, we had to pay for parking at a reduced rate, but we did have in-and-out privileges. Normally, parking, even if you have a hotel room, is very expensive, so it’s best to rent a car only on days when you need it. Mopeds and scooters are also readily available for rent.

Gas was not particularly expensive. I believe it was about a dollar more than in the Continental U.S. But Oahu is relatively small, and we really didn’t burn much gas, and it wasn’t a major concern.

For day to day transportation, the city bus system in Honolulu, TheBus.org, has excellent service. And it doesn’t just cover the city–it covers the entire island of Oahu. So even if you need to get to a rural area, it’s a good option. (If you do decide to camp, and are able to carryparall of your gear, you could easily take the bus to a State Park.) The fare is only $3.00, which covers transfers within 2-1/2 hours. That should get you anywhere on the island. And you will never pay more than $7 per day, no matter how much you ride. To take advantage, you will buy a HOLO card, which you can get at 7-11 and other locations for $2. You can add money at the store, or online.

USS Arizona.

For example, we took the city bus to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial. On the way back, we stopped at Target to get a few groceries, and the ride was extremely convenient. You can easily look up routes online, and it’s a very pleasant way to travel.

Food and supplies

Our condo had a small kitchenette. It included a sink, a microwave, a refrigerator, a toaster, a coffee maker, and a hotplate, along with an assortment of utensils. Also, as noted above, we had an outdoor grill available. Eating out is very expensive in Hawaii, even at fast-food restaurants. You will save a small fortune if you prepare most of your meals yourself, to eat in your room, or as a picnic lunch.

There are many convenience stores, but they all cater to the tourist market, and they are also very expensive. But you can get groceries at a reasonable price at Walmart! Not only do they have stores in Hawaii, but they deliver. I prepared a grocery order online in preparation of our trip. I selected the address of our condo and used my cell phone number. I was then able to prepare an order at the Walmart in downtown Honolulu (specifically 700 Keeaumoku St, Honolulu, HI 96814). When we arrived, I made a few last-minute changes and additions and placed the order. There was a small delivery charge, and I added a tip for the driver. But most of the groceries we needed for a week were delivered at 10:00 PM, and we were all set. That store, as well as Target, was within walking distance of our hotel. On one occasion, we were at Target and got a few things. Walmart prices were better, but Target wasn’t too far out of line. They were both much more reasonable that the convenience stores.

The Walmart where we placed our order was downtown, and didn’t look like a typical Walmart. But in more rural areas, the stores looked like the familiar ones at home. The other supermarket chain that seemed to offer reasonable prices was Foodland.

Some items were considerably more expensive than on the mainland. In particular, bread seemed very expensive. It was about $4 per loaf of the cheap stuff, as opposed to $1.50 at home. Milk was about $6 per gallon, as opposed to $3 at home. Much produce was unavailable or extremely expensive. But canned and dry goods were only slightly higher than at home. This undoubtedly explains why Spam is so popular in Hawaii–it costs about the same as on the mainland, whereas other meats are much more expensive.

The nice thing about ordering online at Walmart is that you can shop around by price long before your trip and make your selections. When you get there, finalize your order, and you’ll have all of your groceries delivered the same day you arrive.

Taking the Radio Camping, 1924

A hundred years ago, this father-son duo were entertaining themselves on an otherwise slow afternoon by tuning in a radio program in some distant city. They are pictured in the July, 1924, issue of Radio Age, which notes that no camping trip was complete without its radio equipment. No matter where you went, you couldn’t be so far as to not be able to pull in a broadcasting station.

POTA/WWFF/U.S. Islands: Rock Island State Park, WI

Over the Fourth of July weekend, my son and I decided to make a spur-of-the-moment camping trip to Rock Island State Park, Wisconsin, which is at the northern tip of Door County and at the entrance of Green Bay. It’s a state park accessible only by boat. Unless you have your own boat, you take a car ferry from the mainland to Washington Island, drive across that Island, park your car, and then take a passenger ferry to Rock Island. No reservations are required for either ferry, and they add as many boats as necessary to accommodate the traffic. We bought a round trip on both ferries at the dock, and the cost was about $90 for one car and two passengers.

The campground is about a quarter mile from the boat landing, and the park provides carts, shown here, to move your stuff. My son did the hauling, and we quickly had our campsite, which was right on the shore of Lake Michigan, set up.

Like most state park campgrounds, sites fill up fast, especially on a holiday weekend. But when I checked two days before arrival, there were sites available for both Friday and Saturday night. They were different sites, meaning we would have to move after the first night. But fortunately, the occupants of one of the sites had left early, and after checking with the campground host and warden, we were allowed to have the same site both nights.

QRP Labs image.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a camping trip without bringing a radio, and I brought along the QRP Labs QCX Mini, shown here. This is a handheld CW transceiver for one band (in my case, 40 meters). For the power supply, I brought along my fish finder battery, which I also used to charge my cell phone. (We did have good cell phone service from most of the island, including the campground, through Boost Mobile. My son, on the other hand, who has service through Tello, had no signal, so your mileage might vary.)

I made a total of 33 radio contacts over the course of a couple of hours, covering the eastern half of North America, from Quebec to Georgia. If I had stayed up later, I would have been able to work the western United States. But 40 meters covers long distances best at night, and I shut down around local sunset, meaning the West Coast didn’t have a chance to work me. Ideally, I would have been on 20 meters as well for some daytime contacts, but I wanted to keep the station size and weight to a minimum. The complete log is shown below.

I used my usual antenna, namely, a dipole supported by my trusty golf ball retriever leaning against the picnic table, with the two 33-foot wires extending out from the table. The wires were actually just draped over tree branches. You don’t need an elaborate antenna to get out well. Despite the various reasons that it shouldn’t work (too low, touching trees, etc.), it got out very well.

You will notice that many of the contacts are with 1×1 call signs who, along with WM3PEN, were taking part in the 13 Colonies special event. If you are doing a park activation during a similar event or contest, that’s always a good opportunity to put some contacts in the log.

Our campsite

Other notable contacts included WB8IZM, who was operating from another park, Potagannissing Flooding Wildlife Management Area near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and KB0HXL, who was operating from his car in Indiana.

I’ve always enjoyed operating from remote locations with portable equipment, an activity which has gotten easier over the years with the advent of radios such as the QCX. It’s also become a very popular activity. Starting in 2016, the National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) activity was extremely popular, and after it ended, many American hams continued, thanks to the WWFF (World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio) activity that had started to enjoy popularity in Europe. Shortly thereafter, a separate program, Parks On The Air (POTA) has become extremely popular. In addition, since I was on an Island, I was able to participate in the U.S. Islands Award Program. I was able to hand out contacts for all three programs. I didn’t make the required 44 contacts to make it an official activation for WWFF, but I was able to meet the minimums for both POTA and US Islands. If I had been able to get on 20 meters, I’m sure I would have made many more contacts, but as it was, I was able to give credit for a fairly rare park.

And even though we had cell phone coverage (except for a brief outage on Sunday morning), it’s reassuring to know that, in case of emergency, we have a reliable method of communications with the outside world.

Rock Island was originally developed as the vacation getaway of inventor Chester Thordarson, founder of the transformer company that bears his name. He built the iconic boathouse shown here, which serves as the terminal for the passenger ferry. The campground is located about a quarter mile away, with a more distant backpacking campground somewhat further away. We also hiked to Pottawatomie Light , Wisconsin’s oldest lighthouse, dating to 1836. The lighthouse is about 1.5 miles from the campground.

With carts available, setting up camp on foot was relatively easy. Unlike backpacking, where you have to consider every ounce, the carts made the trip fairly easy. It would have worked a bit better to bring a wagon from home, since we could have just packed it once before getting on the ferry. Also, the provided carts were somewhat heavy, and a wagon probably would have been a bit easier to move. Large wheels are important, because the paths on Rock Island are, well, rocky. I was initially thinking of just packing things in a roll-on suitcase, but this would have been a bad choice, since the wheels would have just been too small. We used an inexpensive tent and air mattress. The ground is covered with roots and rocks, so some kind of pad is a must.

Flush toilets are available near the boathouse, and the campground has vault toilets. Drinking water is available near the boathouse. We realized on the way that we hadn’t brought a water container, so we just bought a one-gallon jug of water and filled it as needed. Firewood is available on the island for $7 (cash only), We used that for most of our cooking, although I did some of it on the emergency stove I previously reviewed. I discovered that four fuel tablets were about enough to boil enough water for oatmeal and coffee. We had only a very small cooler, so for the first night, we cooked some brats on the fire, but on the second day, we ate packaged food such as ramen noodles, to which you just add hot water. Another convenient meal choice was a prepared meal such as Hormel Compleats. These avoid any cleanup, since you can just put the sealed meal in a pot of hot water. Packets of meat such as the pulled pork we previously reviewed are also easy to cook this way.

There is a very small camp store on Rock Island, but other than a few bags of chips and a few Clif bars, they don’t sell food or camping supplies. It’s mostly souvenirs and apparel. So you do need to plan ahead. But as long as you do your minimal planning, Rock Island provides an opportunity to easily do some camping completely off the grid.

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April 8, 2024 Eclipse Report

Photos and videos don’t do the eclipse justice, but the ones here give an idea of what we experienced when we viewed the eclipse on April 8.

This is my second total eclipse, and my wife’s third. We both agreed that this one was better than the 2017 version, mostly because of greater solar activity, resulting in a larger corona. Also, the length of totality and the width of the path were greater, which I think resulted in the sky getting darker. My wife thought it was on par with the 1991 eclipse she had seen in Mexico.

We wound up viewing it from Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. The entire area seemed well prepared for the eclipse. The park itself had what seemed to be additional staff, I’m guessing both paid staff and volunteers, on hand. We didn’t patronize them, but another part of the park had food trucks on scene. We tried giving the staff some extra eclipse glasses to hand out, but they already had some and were giving them to anyone who needed them.

The original plan was to view it in Dallas, but we awoke to clouds, which were forecast to last through the eclipse. Little Rock, Arkansas, on the other hand, had a forecast of sunny skies. So at about 6:00 AM, we hit the road toward Arkansas. Fortunately, Interstate 30 was within the path of totality for its entire run from Dallas to Little Rock. So as soon as we hit consistently clear skies, we got off the interstate and headed north, which led us closer to the center path. We passed a few good viewing locations, but kept following the state park signs, knowing that we could turn back if the park didn’t prove adequate.

We were greeted at the park entrance by a ranger. We told him the obvious, that we were there to view the eclipse, and he directed us to a parking area near the campground. There were trees around, but we had a good view of the sun, so we set in for totality. There was no admission charge to the park. T here were quite a few people in the other part of the park near the food trucks, and a dozen or so cars in our parking area.

Again, words or pictures don’t do it justice. In my opinion, the total eclipse itself is on par with the Grand Canyon, or Yellowstone National Park in its beauty. But adding to the awe is its short-lived nature. We watched for about four minutes, until it was over. Two stars (actually, the planets Venus and Jupiter, I believe) were visible, and the darkness level was consistent with after sunset. There was a 360 degree sunset visible on the horizon. Everyone else saw them, except for me, but I’m told that the shadow bands were very evident until almost a minute after totality.

If you learned that another Grand Canyon was going to spontaneously form, be there for four minutes, and then disappear without a trace, you would want to go see it. This is why we went to see the eclipse. The next one will be in Iceland and Spain on August 12, 2026, and I plan to be there as well. And the August 12, 2045 eclipse will pass through Arkansas again, so maybe I’ll try to watch it from the same spot. If you see an old guy in Lake Catherine State Park in 2045, stop by and say hello, because that will be me.

I did hear reports of extremely heavy traffic in Missouri, and in New England. In those areas, large population centers had only a few routes to totality, and they were jammed. We notice very little, if any, extra congestion on the route we took. Of course, we were within the path of totality the whole time.

The states of Texas and Arkansas were well prepared for the invasion of eclipse tourists, and everything went without a hitch.

Our viewing location near the campground highlighted one ongoing problem with state park reservation systems. We were right next to the tent camping area, and only one of the about six sites was occupied. On the other hand, it looked like all but one of the sites had been reserved, based upon reservation slips on the posts. Over half the sites in the RV section of the campground were occupied, but I wasn’t able to see how many were reserved. I’m guessing a lot of people made contingency reservations which they didn’t use. This highlights a problem in many state park systems: People make reservations that they don’t use. This ties up the site, making it unavailable. This is an ongoing problem, not just for special events. The knee-jerk reaction is to penalize people who cancel, but this is counter-productive. A better solution, it seems to me, would be to make it easy for people to cancel, and have a way to put the site back into circulation immediately.

Chances are, the people who made those Arkansas camping reservations were watching the eclipse in Indiana, Maine, or some other state miles away. There’s probably no way for them to make the site available, or they didn’t have enough incentive to do so. States with state park reservation systems should figure out a way to make these sites available.

It turns out that the skies in Dallas cleared nearly miraculously right before the eclipse, and Dallas got an excellent view. Particular praise should be given to the Dallas Independent School District (and undoubtedly other districts in the area) that made sure all of there students were outside to experience it, and for supplying eclipse glasses to all students. MyEclipseGlasses.com had some left over, and we donated a thousand to one parochial school to make sure their students could safely view the partial phase. But eclipse glasses were not needed to view the most spectacular part, totality, and it appears that all children in the path had an opportunity to see it.

Another school district that deserves special praise is my alma mater, the Minneapolis Public Schools. Not only did they supply eclipse glasses for all K-5 students, but they organized a field trip to Indiana for some lucky students to experience totality, as well as visit museums in Milwaukee and Chicago. You can see pictures at Facebook #MPSEclipseTrip.

The photo and video above were taken by my daughter, with her cell phone camera. The lens flare actually shows the shape of the eclipse better than the main image. The video gives a pretty good idea of how dark it got in the area. Again, nothing does justice to being there in person, but these give an idea of what we experienced.

1923 Camping Afloat

A hundred years ago, “the newest way of camping is to pitch a tent on a barge,” and the August 1923 issue of Popular Mechanics showed you just how to do it. The construction article, penned by “widely known authority on outdoor life” Stillman Taylor, notes that the floating camp has many unique advantages. It was easy to build and not expensive, and provided a good comfortable canvas home with large storage places. And whenever the camper felt like picking up and changing camp, he could easily drift with the current and wind to a new spot.

The camping scow shown here was good for many years of service. It was hauled out of the water each year and stored, bottom up, out of the reach of ice. The boat featured plenty of storage space, including a waterproof box accessible through a trap door in the tent floor.

The scow would be hard to row with the tent set up, but was fairly easy to scull. Therefore, an oar lock or scull plate could be fixed to the roomy front deck.

Today, such a craft would undoubtedly need to be registered in most states, but this shouldn’t present a problem. In Minnesota, for example, a homemade boat over ten feet in length can be registered. But save the receipts for the materials, as you’ll need to present them, along with four photographs of the completed boat.

Solar Cooking, 1923

Harnessing the power of the sun to cook your food is nothing new, as shown by this hundred-year-old illustration on the cover of Science and Invention, June 1923.

The accompanying article, penned by Dr. C.G. Abbott, the assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, isn’t quite a construction article, but it does provide some basic ideas. The model shown above was suitable for camping, or other situations where fuel and power were unavailable. The two concave mirrors, made of tin, reflected the sun onto the cooking surface, the bottom of which was blackened with soot. The complicating factor, possibly unnecessary, is the use of an alarm clock to keep the mirrors aimed.

For situations where it was necessary to cook at night or when there was no sun, the author also described a more complicated system, where the sun heated a reservoir of oil, which was in turn used to provide the cooking heat.

For a simple solar cooker, you can see our earlier post, where we provide plans for construction of a solar oven. If you want to save the work, the solar cooker shown below uses the same principle as the 1923 design, but it somewhat more efficient with the parabolic mirror. Also shown are some solar ovens:

While these can’t be used in the dark or on cloudy days, having the ability to cook using only the sun’s energy adds flexibility for camping or emergency preparedness.

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1948: Homemade Mess Kit & Scout Signaling

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Today, if you buy a mess kit like the one shown at left, you can inexpensively take care of your cooking and serving needs for a camping trip of a few days. But if you want to economize even further, you can take advantage of the plans found 75 years ago this month in Boys’ Life magazine, April 1948.

A Scout is Thrifty, and the magazine showed those thrifty scouts how to make a similar mess kit out of old tin cans. With a few simple hand tools, the cans can be cut to size. The article showed a technique for smoothing the cut edge with a hammer. Handles are made with stiff wire. The author used a fly swatter handle, but a metal coat hanger would work just as well.

The article notes that almost any kind of can may be used, although it warned to never use a paint can. It warned that since cans back then were neither aluminum nor stainless steel, it was important to dry the items thoroughly after washing. However, modern cans are probably more forgiving.

Advanced scouts could construct from a one-gallon can the combination stove/toaster/frying pan shown at left. It’s pretty self-explanatory–the fire goes inside the inverted can. The door for putting in the wood fuel serves double duty, as it folds upward to provide a spot to snap a slice of bread in place for toasting.

While the idea seems novel, we suspect the inexpensive camping toaster shown at right is an overall better performer if you’re interested in making toast on a campfire or portable stove.

This issue of the magazine is also useful to scout historians, because it includes a removeable booklet section showing the Tenderfoot-Second Class-First Class requirements which had just been adopted. Many of our readers, of course, will be interested to know what the signaling requirement was back then. I recall that about the time I joined in the 1970s, the First Class requirement was that the Scout be able to use Morse Code or semaphore. I’ve been told, although I haven’t confirmed it, that at one point, Scouts had to know both Morse Code and semaphore. But in 1948, the requirement was for Morse code only, although it could be done with flags, light, or sound:

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1937 Tent Stove

For those wishing to extend the camping season into the cold months, the October 1937 issue of Popular Science showed how to make this lightweight wood stove for your tent. If you need a lightweight wood stove for use in emergencies, it would serve that purpose as well.

It’s designed to burn with low oxygen, so when you get it started with kindling, you put in logs, and they give off most of their heat after they’re turned into charcoal. The result is that you can build the fire at night, it will keep you warm all night, and then you can cook your pancakes in the morning. The stove also features a small oven compartment.

It’s made out of sheet metal and riveted together, so it’s lightweight.

If you don’t feel up to building your own, the one shown here is available on Amazon at a reasonable price. And if you don’t want to cut a hole in your tent for the chimney, you can get a propane or kerosene heater that’s safe for indoor use. For more details, you can see our earlier post.

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1942 Rex Ristlite Wrist Flashlight

This ad appeared in Life Magazine 80 years ago today, June 22, 1942, extolling the virtues of the Rex Ristlite from the Flashlight Company of America of Jersey City, NJ. The light snapped on like a wristwatch, giving you full use of both hands. It was a “boon to mechanics, car owners, sportsmen, housewives, Army, and Navy men.” It sold everywhere that flashlights were sold for only 98 cents, including batteries. According to this online inflation calculator, that works out to $17.57 in 2022 dollars.

It seems like a practical idea, although it has been largely supplanted by the headlamp, of the type shown at left. After all, if you need to look at something, then your head is going to be pointing in the right direction, so it makes sense to put the light there. On the other hand, having it on your wrist could be handy in many cases, so they had a good idea 80 years ago.

And fortunately, the same thing is available today, only better. And the price (including batteries) is almost the same as the 1942 price, adjusted for inflation, of course. Like everything else, it is available at Amazon, and you can see it pictured at right.

This one also includes a clock (with 24-hour display, as our readers will appreciate) and compass. It’s customary to wear a watch on your wrist, so the clock seems logical. And since it appears to be much smaller than the 1942 version, you can wear it in situations where you might need a light, rather than putting it on as needed. Many of the reviews state that the compass doesn’t work very well, although I suspect that it works well as long as it’s flat. As long as it’s magnetized and spinning freely, there’s really not much that can go wrong with a compass. So if you take it off an lay it on a flat surface, I imagine it will reliably point north. And if you click on the Amazon link or the picture, you’ll see that the cost, adjusted for inflation, is about the same as it was in 1942.

One big advantage of the modern version is that you don’t have to worry about batteries. It has a built-in lithium ion battery, and it comes with a micro USB charger. If the charger gets lost, you can use the same one you normally use with your cell phone.

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1946 Compass/Match Case/Fire Starter

Seventy-five years ago this month, the well equipped Scout might have in his pack this combination compass, match safe, and fire starter. A compass was at the top, with a window to view the direction. To avoid confusion, the window was labeled “YOU ARE LOOKING” to make clear that if you saw an N, then you were looking north, rather than having the N printed on the north side of the dial.

Matches were stored in a watertight container, but just in case you ran out, the side had a “flint of pyrophoric metal” that could be struck by a knife. The ad declared that it was the only compass “that can build a fire in a split second,” and I’m guessing that would be done with one of the matches inside. With practice, the flint would probably work, but it would take some practice, and probably wouldn’t happen in a split second.

The product was manufactured by the DuPage Plastics Company, 10 South LaSalle Street, Chicago. It was officially approved by the BSA, and is advertised here in the October 1946 issue of Boys’ Life.

While this particular model is no longer available, there is a modern replacement, shown at left. I have one of these, and while I’m not sure it’s from the same manufacturer, it looks identical. There’s a compartment for storing matches, and as far as I can tell, it is waterproof. Strike anywhere matches are still available, but they’re often hard to find. I simply use regular strike on box matches and include one of the strikers from the box inside with the matches. If all else fails, it does include on the side what is now called a ferro rod.

The modern version also includes a whistle, which is quite loud, as well as a tiny mirror inside the cap, which presumably could be used for signaling.

I’m guessing that the compass on the 75 year old version was better than the modern one, but the modern one does, indeed, work. You have to be careful, however, because if you don’t hold it perfectly level, it will bind up and not move. The best way to use it is to check it once, and then check a second time to make sure that north hasn’t moved.

Especially if you buy the three pack, the modern version is very inexpensive. Like this Scout 75 years ago, it’s not a bad idea to have one of this in your pack.

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