Monday, September 28, 2015

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Emberlit Wood Burning Camp Stove

Earlier this month I posted about camping stoves, including the Emberlit wood burning stove which I bought last winter, but didn’t get a chance to use it until Labor Day weekend. This is a follow up.

The stainless Emberlit weighs 11.45 oz., has a footprint of about 4.5” inches square, and is 6 inches tall. The stove walls taper so that the top is a little smaller than the bottom. I think the earliest production models did not come with the cross bars for the top, which allow you to use smaller cups on it. They also add rigidity.

On the Labor Day camping trip I used it to make coffee in my percolator and fry up some Spam.

emberlit-percolator

It worked to get the coffee boiling but really isn’t ideal for use with this percolator. It really needs a wider footprint for better stability. (That’s my friend’s modified Kelly Kettle in the background. Both are sitting on top of a park-type grill he has at his place in the mountains.)

On the other hand, it worked well to fry up some Spam to go with our breakfast.

emberlit-spam

Today I decided to give it another try, this time to make some Lipton chicken noodle soup.

Here’s what it looks like unpacked, ready for assembly. As you can see, it’s still has some soot on from the camping trip but the case kept it off the rest of my gear.

emberlit-unpacked

And put together, loaded, ready to be lit. I wasn’t sure how much fuel I’d need to get a cup of water boiling so I prepped a good amount, which turned out to be more than required. To get the sticks going I used some dried out flower stalks from my garden, lit with a match.

emberlit-assembled

Until the flower stalks burned off and the sticks ignited the Emberlit gave off quite a smoke cloud. But once the flower stalks were gone it burned cleanly with little smoke.

emberlit-burning

(This picture was actually from the second burn of the day. For the second burn I moved the stove into the shade so I could get better pictures.)

I used a 750 ml Toaks titanium pot with lid and bail to make the soup. The dimensions of the pot are 3.75” in diameter at the base by 4.375” tall, not including the lid or bail.

emberlit-cooking

I’ve used this Toaks pot a few times on my last couple of camping trips, and like it a lot. It weighs only 4.7 oz. and holds a decent amount of water. If you remove the lid it’ll fit over the bottom of a 32 oz. Nalgene bottle. The bail stays upright on its own and allows you to either hang it over a fire or pick it up. The handles are robust. The lid fits well and has a little loop handle on it that can be set to stand up, so you can easily grab it, yet still folds flat.

The one cup of water took only a few minutes to start boiling.

boiling

So, I added the soup mix and in a minute or so it boiled over, even though I only had one cup of water in the pot. I took the pot off for a few seconds then set it back on the stove but off to the side a little so the soup could simmer.

boiling-over

I used an 8.5” long Optimus titanium spoon to stir the soup and later eat it. The long spoon is also handy for eating from Mountain House pouches.

optimus-spoon

After a few more minutes the soup was done and I had lunch. Afterwards, there were a few coals leftover in the stove. It had burned the sticks very efficiently.

leftover-ash

As I was eating lunch my daughter wandered out and asked me to make her a cup. After finishing I was able to rekindle the flame from the coals, using some more of the dried flower stalks, some sticks, and a lot of blowing on the coals.

Compared with my first time using the stove I now have a better impression of it, based on:

  1. Using a more suitably sized cooking vessel.
  2. Having an adequate supply of fuel prepped and ready to go.

However, compared with my Kovea Spider canister stove, it’s:

  1. Dirtier (not just the stove, but the soot left on your pot).
  2. Requires more attention while you’re cooking something.
  3. Generally less convenient.

That said, it’s a very viable option for backpacking and even for emergency use. For example, charcoal briquettes are a fuel commonly found in urban and suburban areas, and for which it’s cheap and easy to store a large amount. For use in an emergency, an Emberlit would be make more efficient use of briquettes than a typical grill. I need to give this a try.

Emberlit also sells a titanium version of this model which weighs only 5.8 oz., making it even more attractive to backpackers.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Polish Lavvu Tent

After seeing previous posts about the Polish surplus rain cape/shelter half tents (AKA "lavvus") I decided to get one. It's currently hard to find them in the US, so I ordered a complete set from a Polish eBay seller on 9/8/15. It arrived yesterday here in Pennsylvania. Priced including shipping was about $70. (As of this writing Sportsmans Guide lists the Polish rain capes with an expected in-stock date of January 2016. I'm hoping to use mine before then, so I splurged.)

This is the Polish equivalent of the old US military shelter half tent pup tent, used from the Civil War up at least until the 1990s. I like the Polish setup better. It has more floor space and headroom, and each half is also intended to be used as a rain cape.

The two halves were unissued. One was dated 1974 while I couldn't find a date on the other. They had that four-decade-milsurp smell, so I washed them in warm water using Fel's Naptha Soap, and ran them through the dryer on medium heat. I was hoping that this would also tighten the weave of the canvas to make them more weatherproof.

I set up the lavvu in my backyard this afternoon with the help of my 11 year old daughter Amanda.

Rolled up next to a common rubber mallet for scale:




Unrolled, showing the collapsable aluminum poles and stakes. One pole in each set has the smaller end plugged, while one has a removable plug in the base. The former is used for the top while the latter is the base. One of the top poles has a small split but it shouldn't affect the function.



The stakes are curved so that when stored inside one of the pole sections they don't rattle. Unfortunately, the stakes are flimsy and don't hold well. Also, one half came short one stake so to set up the tent we borrowed a peg from my daughter's Walmart dome tent. After setting up the tent and deciding that the supplied pegs suck, we ran out to REI and bought some replacement pegs made from steel, and a bag to hold them.



The new stakes are a lot more robust, hold better, and still fit through the grommets on the lavvu. They were a buck each, plus $4.95 for the carrying bag.

To setup the tent, we first buttoned one side together and laid it out on the ground. It looks like a milsurp Pac Man.



Then stake out a couple opposite sides and then put the assembled pole up, and put in the remaining stakes. One person could do it alone but having a helper makes it easier.

Hold off on driving the stakes all the way home until you have all of them where you want them. You want the tent as taut as possible, to maximize interior space and help rain run off. It could be a little tauter in this pic.


Note that I pitched the tent with the extra cape found on each half inside, opposite of how you'd wear one half as rain cape. This way, the arm holes will be more water tight.

I also tried it with leaving the flap open.



With an 11 year old for scale.



It was nice and dark inside which is great if you want to sleep in. A lantern could be hung from the center pole. With the door flap closed there isn't much ventilation and it quickly began to get uncomfortably warm inside. (It was about 77*F and sunny.) On the other hand, this should be a great tent for cool/cold weather. A candle lantern suspended from the pole would help to take the chill off if in wasn't too cold.

I've seen several places on the 'net where guys have made small wood stoves from .50 caliber ammo cans and run the chimney through a stove jack out one of the arm holes. That would be nice in subfreezing temps but would make it a one-person tent.

The lavvu has plenty of space for me and one kid, plus some gear. I'm 5'4" and can stretch out fully even when I'm not near the center of the tent. I think the intended use of sheltering two soldiers would be pretty cramped.

One potentially useful mod that I've seen is to sew a loop at the peak to suspend the tent from an overhead support, allowing you leave out the pole in the middle, for more room inside.

I am hoping to get it to the woods after we have a couple of frosts to kill off the creepy crawlies.


Pine Tar Soap as Insect Repellent

Before the advent of DEET, woodsmen used a variety of concoctions as insect repellents. Even today, many people don't like to use DEET since among other things, it'll damage plastic.

In Woodcraft and Camping, "Nessmuk" (George Washington Sears) described his bug dope" as follows:

It was published in Forest and Stream in the summer of 1880, and again in '83. It has been pretty widely quoted and adopted, and I have never known it to fail: Three ounces pine tar, two ounces castor oil, one ounce pennyroyal oil. Simmer all together over a slow fire, and bottle for use. You will hardly need more than a two-ounce vial full in a season. One ounce has lasted me six weeks in the woods. Rub it in thoroughly and liberally at first, and after you have established a good glaze, a little replenishing from day to day will be sufficient. And don't fool with soap and towels where insects are plenty. A good safe coat of this varnish grows better the longer it is kept on—and it is cleanly and wholesome. If you get your face and hands crocky or smutty about the camp-fire, wet the corner of your handkerchief and rub it off, not forgetting to apply the varnish at once, wherever you have cleaned it off. Last summer I carried a cake of soap and a towel in my knapsack through the North Woods for a seven weeks' tour, and never used either a single time. When I had established a good glaze on the skin, it was too valuable to be sacrificed for any weak whim connected with soap and water. When I struck a woodland hotel, I found soap and towels plenty enough. I found the mixture gave one's face the ruddy tanned look supposed to be indicative of health and hard muscle. A thorough ablution in the public wash basin reduced the color, but left the skin very soft and smooth; in fact, as a lotion for the skin it is excellent. It is a soothing and healing application for poisonous bites already received.

Nowadays, I'd avoid adding the pennyroyal oil, as it is known to be a liver toxin.

However, it may not be necessary to make up a solution, since pine tar by itself can do a pretty good job of repellent biting insects. Yesterday I gave Granpa's Pine Tar Soap as test as insect repellent, during the opening day of archery deer season here in Pennsylvania.

When I took my morning shower I used the pine tar soap as both shampoo and to wash my skin.

The temps ranged from the mid-60s up to the 80s in the afternoon. There were plenty of mosquitoes and gnats flying around but none of them would land on me, except for a single skeeter that landed on my pant leg, where I squashed her (only female mosquitoes bite).

It remains to be seen if the pine tar soap repels biting flies, but for mosquitoes and gnats it works. I may even wash the sniper veil I use to break up my outline in it, and maybe some clothes. You smell like a campfire after washing with pine tar soap, but that beats getting bitten.

Monday, September 14, 2015

A DIY Programming Cable for Baofeng Radios

One problem which has plagued many owners of Baofeng radios has been getting the programming cable, or more specifically the drivers, working properly under Windows. This may be a viable solution:

http://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_ProgrCable.php

I mostly use a Mac to program my radio so it hasn't been much of a problem for me, but I have had to deal with troubleshooting this on a friend's PC, and it was a major PITA. Miklor's page on troubleshooting the drivers has been the best that I've found.

Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Camp Stove

Another piece of kit that I got to try on this past weekend's camping trip was the Emberlit stove that I bought last Winter, but has since languished in my camping gear box.

(Picture borrowed from Amazon.)

The Emberlit stove is well made from stainless steel sheet metal that takes down into a flat package, and comes with a nice little carrying case. Emberlit also sells a titanium model, and a smaller version as well.

It can burn pretty much any solid fuel and is also usable as a windscreen/pot holder for alcohol burners like a Trangia stove.

I used it Sunday morning to heat my percolator for coffee. It burns twigs very efficiently down to almost no ash, but it requires constant attention. I.e., you need to keep feeding it fuel, so you should have a good stack prepped beforehand. It also gives your pot a good, thick coat of soot.

I want to try the Emberlit out with charcoal briquets. I think it would burn them very efficiently and would probably require less constant attention.

In my opinion, it would be good as a backpacking stove if you're going into an area where there will be a lot of fuel that you can scrounge, or as a backup. For truck camping, a butane/propane canister stove like my Kovea Spider is a lot more convenient. For example, on Monday, I set my percolator on the Kovea and was free to do other breakfast prep while it was bringing the coffee to a boil. Likewise, when we needed hot water for washing dishes I was able to get it ready with the Kovea while I worked on other task. I really like the Kovea Spider.

Another stove we got to use was a butane powered, single burner unit like this one. He bought it from a local restaurant supply store for use during power outages, because it's so simple to use and the butane cartridges are inexpensive. (Many local Asian restaurants use them for on-table fondue-type meals.) The low, flat, wide design is very stable, important with a bunch of kids around.

It worked well for sautéing vegetables and frying bacon, but requires you to provide a windscreen, since it's really designed for inside use. The downside with these butane cartridges is that they'd be useless in cold weather.

There is a huge variety of camp stoves available. Evaluate your needs as to fuel and convenience, and choose accordingly.

ParaCord Spool Tool

This past weekend I was out in the woods and had the chance to use a recent addition to my camping gear, a ParaCord Spool Tool.



(Picture borrowed from Amazon.)

It's a flat piece of plastic designed to allow you to neatly keep up to 100 feet of parachute cord and has a built-in cutter. The fingers in the bottom center of the picture holds a mini-Bic lighter for melting the ends of pieces that you cut, and the slots on the left allow you to draw the molten ends through to make them neat, instead of blobs.

It is a clever and very convenient piece of gear. I needed to cut some paracord this weekend and this made it easy to do without having to fish out a knife and lighter.