Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: And how the tech are you today? I want to
Speaker 1: talk about technology that's designed to enhance our time spent outdoors,
Speaker 1: specifically when you're doing stuff like hiking or camping. And
Speaker 1: before we really get into it, I thought I would
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about my own experiences of camping
Speaker 1: back when I was much much younger. You see, I
Speaker 1: camped fairly frequently. As a teenager. I had joined the
Speaker 1: Society for Creative Anachronism or s c A, which is
Speaker 1: a nonprofit group that, at least in theory, is dedicated
Speaker 1: to learning about culture during the Middle Ages. In practice,
Speaker 1: it can often be more about dressing up in funny clothes,
Speaker 1: eating a lot of food, and hitting each other with
Speaker 1: rattan sticks wrapped and duct tape. Anyway, I would often
Speaker 1: attend s c A events, which usually took place at campgrounds,
Speaker 1: and that meant camping. So I had all the camping basics.
Speaker 1: I had a tent, I had a sleeping bag, and
Speaker 1: um if I remember to pack it, I had a
Speaker 1: beat up egg crate, foam mattress topper to take a
Speaker 1: little bit of the staying of a sleeping on the ground.
Speaker 1: And that was pretty much the extent of my camping gear. Well.
Speaker 1: I loved the sea events, but it didn't care for
Speaker 1: camping too much. It was too uncomfortable and inconvenient. Now, luckily,
Speaker 1: this was way back before we had stuff like smartphones
Speaker 1: or else. I really would have gone nuts if I
Speaker 1: had been cut off from that technology. My point is
Speaker 1: I lacked the right stuff to make camping right for me,
Speaker 1: and as I got older and less resilient, I lost
Speaker 1: interest in camping. I mean, these days, if I were
Speaker 1: to try and sleep on the ground without a prop
Speaker 1: per pad, I would probably be unable to move the
Speaker 1: next day. But here's the thing. I didn't really lose
Speaker 1: interest in camping itself. I lost interest in putting myself
Speaker 1: through discomfort. And also since those days, which you know,
Speaker 1: to some of y'all might seem like to happen just
Speaker 1: after the Middle Ages, things have changed significantly. You know,
Speaker 1: We've got smartphones and other devices that more of us
Speaker 1: lean on year after year. In fact, I think some
Speaker 1: of y'all have probably experienced withdrawal symptoms whenever you're pulled
Speaker 1: away from your smart devices. And that's not a comment
Speaker 1: on your character. Rather, it's a comment on how incredibly
Speaker 1: useful and yes, addictive, these devices have become. Well, something
Speaker 1: that I think is really cool is how various companies
Speaker 1: have responded to this by creating solutions that start to
Speaker 1: remove the things that would otherwise make people say, I
Speaker 1: don't really want to go camping. There are so many
Speaker 1: examples of technologies that ideally encourage more people to go
Speaker 1: out and spend time in nature, and that time is valuable.
Speaker 1: I mean, it can help you shed stress and anxiety.
Speaker 1: It can encourage a sense of accomplishment. You know, everything
Speaker 1: from setting up your tent to lighting a fire or
Speaker 1: a camp stove, or cooking a meal. All of these
Speaker 1: things can really make you feel better while you're exploring
Speaker 1: nature and walking around national parks that you otherwise would
Speaker 1: have just passed on by as you go from one
Speaker 1: city to or another. It's it's a significant thing. So
Speaker 1: today we're going to take a look at some of
Speaker 1: the technology designed to get you out from behind your computer,
Speaker 1: out of your house, and out into the real world.
Speaker 1: And I thought I would start off with a hobby
Speaker 1: that I first became aware of more than a decade ago,
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about geo cashing. So geo cashing is
Speaker 1: an activity that grew out of the fact that in
Speaker 1: two thousand, the then US President Bill Clinton brought an
Speaker 1: end to a practice called selective availability. All right, but
Speaker 1: what the heck is that? Well before two thousand, GPS
Speaker 1: signals were considered to be crucial for national security in
Speaker 1: the United States. As such, there was a requirement that
Speaker 1: any public GPS signals first had to be degraded before
Speaker 1: citizens would be able to access them. So, in other words,
Speaker 1: if you use a civilian GPS device, the information you
Speaker 1: got about your position was only sort of correct, and
Speaker 1: by sort of, I mean your positioning could be off
Speaker 1: by like a hundred meters, which is significant. You would
Speaker 1: not be able to use a GPS device for navigation.
Speaker 1: If that were the case. You would get an instruction
Speaker 1: to make a right turn, and it would just turn
Speaker 1: out that that road that you're supposed to turn on
Speaker 1: is fifty behind you, or maybe it's a hundred meters
Speaker 1: ahead of you, or maybe you're not even on the
Speaker 1: road that the GPS device thinks you're on. So before
Speaker 1: two thousand GPS devices at least four civilians were interesting,
Speaker 1: but not practically useful in any way. It was a
Speaker 1: different matter for GPS devices that were used by say
Speaker 1: the military, those signals were not degraded. And if you're
Speaker 1: wondering how did they degrade the signals, it all has
Speaker 1: to do with timing. You see, the signals that get
Speaker 1: to your device are coming from satellites, multiple satellites, and
Speaker 1: each of those satellites has a very precise clock on it.
Speaker 1: When those satellites send out a signal that your device receives,
Speaker 1: it knows when that signal was sent by the satellite,
Speaker 1: and it can measure the amount of time that it
Speaker 1: took for the message to go from the satellite to
Speaker 1: the device, and by coordinating that with multiple satellites, you
Speaker 1: can figure out where on the Earth you are. Well,
Speaker 1: the way selective availability worked, the satellites would fudge the
Speaker 1: time just a little bit, but just a tiny change
Speaker 1: in time was enough to make a significant change in
Speaker 1: the results on the GPS device, making you think you're
Speaker 1: somewhere where you're not, at least by a hundred meters
Speaker 1: or so. Well. Starting on May one, two thousand. All
Speaker 1: that changed. President Clinton ended selective availability, and the constellation
Speaker 1: of GPS satellites would send accurate information instead of masking it,
Speaker 1: giving you a precise location when you used your device. Well,
Speaker 1: that capability encourage some GPS hobbyists to create a new activity. Now.
Speaker 1: The idea was you go to some location, frequently a
Speaker 1: remote location out in nature, somewhere, preferably one that you're
Speaker 1: allowed to be in. Right, You're not supposed to trespass
Speaker 1: or anything like that on private property, So you would
Speaker 1: go someplace where you're allowed to be and you would
Speaker 1: take note of your precise location using a GPS device.
Speaker 1: You would write down the coordinates. Then you would take
Speaker 1: a container of some sort, preferably weather proof and resistant
Speaker 1: to damage, and you would put inside that contain a
Speaker 1: log book for others to sign, some writing implements so
Speaker 1: that people can sign it, maybe a couple of cheap
Speaker 1: little do dads as a type of reward, and you
Speaker 1: would seal all of that away and hide the container.
Speaker 1: Then you would go back home, hop on a database
Speaker 1: frequented by other GPS hobbyists and you would share the coordinates.
Speaker 1: The other hobbyists can then use those coordinates and use
Speaker 1: their own devices to try and navigate to that precise location,
Speaker 1: search for the container, open it up, signed the log book,
Speaker 1: and take a do dad. Now, the practice quickly evolved
Speaker 1: so that the hobbyists who are doing the hunting would
Speaker 1: bring along their own little do dads, and they would
Speaker 1: swap them out so they might have a token of
Speaker 1: their own that kind of was their signature, and they
Speaker 1: would leave that token in the stash and take something
Speaker 1: else from it and then go on their way after
Speaker 1: signing the logbook, and the log books grew longer and longer.
Speaker 1: This hobby is still going on today, and frequently. One
Speaker 1: of the driving fact ars of this hobby is that
Speaker 1: the hobbyists like to find locations that are special in
Speaker 1: some way, and it may be that getting to those
Speaker 1: special places requires some determination and skill. Often that will
Speaker 1: be marked down on a database to how much strenuous
Speaker 1: activity might be required for you to reach the destination.
Speaker 1: Maybe the destination will have a spectacular view, like it
Speaker 1: might overlook a waterfall or something. The hobby became part
Speaker 1: treasure hunt, part tech geek activity, and part exploration. As
Speaker 1: more folks joined in, more would go out and about
Speaker 1: finding great locations where they could hide the next dash.
Speaker 1: There are urban versions of this too, where people will
Speaker 1: hide them in like neighborhoods and such, but more frequently
Speaker 1: you hear about ones that are in parks and things
Speaker 1: of that nature. Now, let's be clear, folks could have
Speaker 1: done this kind of activity without the tech. In fact,
Speaker 1: there is a very similar hobby called letter boxing, in
Speaker 1: which instead of leaving coordinates, the people who hide a
Speaker 1: stash will share clues and riddles that will lead people
Speaker 1: to wear a stash is hidden. It is in many
Speaker 1: ways similar to geo cashing, but doesn't require the coordinates bit,
Speaker 1: which frankly can make it even more challenging depending on
Speaker 1: how well the clues are formed and how clever you
Speaker 1: are and figuring them out. But the tech in geo
Speaker 1: cashing really facilitated things. It's served as a reason to
Speaker 1: get outside and go exploring. It provided inspiration, and that's
Speaker 1: what I love about these kinds of technologies. The problem
Speaker 1: they are solving is not about necessarily making camping or
Speaker 1: hiking or even exploring a snap. It's removing the barriers
Speaker 1: that we put up for ourselves that stop us from
Speaker 1: getting out there in the first place. I think. Another
Speaker 1: technology that has inspired folks to get out more are
Speaker 1: quad copters or drones. Many years ago, according to a
Speaker 1: quick search online, I remember seeing a quad copter drone
Speaker 1: for the first time. It was at c e S
Speaker 1: or the Consumer Electronics Show, and it was a device
Speaker 1: that's no longer on the market, so there's no point
Speaker 1: in even naming it. But the idea was you could
Speaker 1: have this squad copter and pair your phone to the drone,
Speaker 1: and you would run a special app and your phone
Speaker 1: would become a remote control for the device, and you
Speaker 1: could even use the camera that was on the drone
Speaker 1: to feed a video straight to your phone. Well, at
Speaker 1: the time, I had no way of knowing that what
Speaker 1: I was seeing was going to become an entirely new
Speaker 1: consumer product line. Today, there are dozens of companies that
Speaker 1: are into it. You can find lots of different brands
Speaker 1: of drones. There are plenty of drones that can shoot
Speaker 1: images and video at four K resolution or even higher.
Speaker 1: A lot of them have tons of cool features like
Speaker 1: obstacle detection and avoidance that make them easy year to pilot,
Speaker 1: and they can get absolutely breathtaking shots that you would
Speaker 1: otherwise need a helicopter to manage. I've seen phenomenal footage
Speaker 1: from drone pilots and looked at pristine locations that are
Speaker 1: just so gorgeous that I can't help but feel I
Speaker 1: need to go visit those myself. Now. I'm sure for
Speaker 1: some of the folks who are using drones, they were
Speaker 1: already outdoorsy, right. A lot of them might even have
Speaker 1: been into hobbies, or maybe they even had a career
Speaker 1: in nature photography. But there's a slice of drone users
Speaker 1: who before they got their quad coptor, they weren't the
Speaker 1: type to do much outdoor exploration. Now they have a
Speaker 1: device that pretty much requires that they do that, and
Speaker 1: I think that's cool too. It gives people a reason
Speaker 1: to get out there. Along the way, they might find
Speaker 1: that they really liked the lifestyle, and they progressively get
Speaker 1: more into it. We're gonna take a quick break. When
Speaker 1: we come back, i'll talk about some more technology that's
Speaker 1: meant to get you out and about in the great outdoors.
Speaker 1: You know, one technology that has really evolved incredibly rapidly
Speaker 1: over the last decade, maybe two decades, would be the
Speaker 1: camping trailer. So in the old days, a camping trailer
Speaker 1: was really just this terrible living space that you could
Speaker 1: use to sleep in while you were out on the road.
Speaker 1: It might feature some pretty cool technology in it. You
Speaker 1: might have climate control options, maybe a fridge, perhaps a
Speaker 1: cooking surface of some sort. But these days there are
Speaker 1: camping trailers that have more smart devices in them than
Speaker 1: my house does. I had a conversation with the CEO
Speaker 1: of a particularly famous company known for its camping trailers,
Speaker 1: and I learned about how, as the head of a
Speaker 1: company that manufactures these things, trailers meant to appeal to
Speaker 1: people who like to go on outdoor adventures, that he
Speaker 1: sees technology as being pivotal to the business model. He
Speaker 1: pointed out that people want certain conveniences, for instance, connectivity.
Speaker 1: You know, some people feel such a sense of anxiety
Speaker 1: when they have no cell phone service that they can
Speaker 1: enjoy themselves. They're too busy fretting over what they might
Speaker 1: be missing. Those people are far more likely to turn
Speaker 1: down the opportunity to spend time in nature, which is understandable.
Speaker 1: None of us want to invite more anxiety in our lives.
Speaker 1: For that reason, he said, his company made sure to
Speaker 1: boost connectivity features in their products, so new models of
Speaker 1: camping trailers would include things like amplified antenna to pick
Speaker 1: up cells service and signal boosters which could take a
Speaker 1: week signal and make it strong enough for campers to
Speaker 1: make it useful. And he also talked about how more
Speaker 1: and more features in the company's campers are smart technologies,
Speaker 1: controllable from an app even if you aren't there, so
Speaker 1: you can do things like check on levels of the
Speaker 1: battery in the camper, or how much water is in
Speaker 1: the camper, things that you would need to know before
Speaker 1: you would actually go out on a trip. You could
Speaker 1: just check it from your phone. Now, obviously his goal
Speaker 1: is to sell as many camping trailers as he possibly can.
Speaker 1: That's the business. But his point was unless you listen
Speaker 1: to what customers want and you remove those things that
Speaker 1: would otherwise convince people not to go camping, you're going
Speaker 1: to fail as a business. So for folks who want
Speaker 1: the camper experience, there are all sorts of new gadgets
Speaker 1: and gizmos a plenty incorporated into those designs. Today, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of camper companies out there now. I
Speaker 1: don't want to single out one at the expense of
Speaker 1: all the rest, because lots of companies are doing innovative
Speaker 1: things with their camper technology. So I'm just gonna talk
Speaker 1: in general about some of the tech that we're starting
Speaker 1: to see in prototypes and in at least some cases
Speaker 1: campers you can actually go out and purchase. We're seeing
Speaker 1: a lot of work with very lightweight materials and three
Speaker 1: D printed components which are meant to maximize efficient use
Speaker 1: of space while also reducing weight. Reducing that weight makes
Speaker 1: it easier to tow the camper behind your vehicle. Uh.
Speaker 1: In fact, there's a prototype camper that has its own
Speaker 1: drive train that ends up using its own power supply
Speaker 1: to help propel the camper behind the towing vehicle so
Speaker 1: that it's less of a load for the towing vehicle.
Speaker 1: That's pretty incredible. Uh. One prototype system even has an
Speaker 1: option where you detach the camper when you get to
Speaker 1: your campsite and you use a connected smartphone as a
Speaker 1: remote control. You can actually maneuver the camper into the
Speaker 1: position you want at your campsite using your phone. You
Speaker 1: don't have it connected to your vehicle anymore at all.
Speaker 1: That's cool as heck, and it takes the worry out
Speaker 1: of how to back a camper into the right spot.
Speaker 1: Several of these campers incorporate solar panels to provide electricity
Speaker 1: to charge on board batteries, which in turn can power
Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff like a water pump, a heater
Speaker 1: which gives you a sink with hot and cold water,
Speaker 1: or powering a cooking surface, or an entertainment system, refrigerator,
Speaker 1: air conditioner, lights, even ultra high definition televisions, and some
Speaker 1: of these models, it's kind of like having a hotel
Speaker 1: room that's portable. Now, a big trade off you have
Speaker 1: with campers is that they can run to be really
Speaker 1: really expensive. Plus some outdoorsy folks might feel like it's
Speaker 1: kind of like cheating. I mean, sure, no one wants
Speaker 1: to be miserably uncomfortable when they're out and about, but
Speaker 1: you might want to at least feel like you're roughing it.
Speaker 1: And sleeping in a luxurious camper surrounded by four K
Speaker 1: television screens probably doesn't at that bill. However, we're seeing
Speaker 1: a lot of technology that's aimed at outdoor enthusiasts that
Speaker 1: doesn't quite go to the extremes of top of the
Speaker 1: line campers. For instance, there are self inflating sleeping pads
Speaker 1: that will get you up off the ground, which is
Speaker 1: something that's absolutely critical when you're in colder months or
Speaker 1: when the weather turns nasty. Now, this technology actually dates
Speaker 1: back to the nineteen seventies and it's pretty interesting stuff.
Speaker 1: So the pads have foam in them. The foam, if
Speaker 1: you were to look really closely at it, you would
Speaker 1: see are made up of what are called open cells.
Speaker 1: The cells that create the foam are have open walls
Speaker 1: in them, which allows air to flow into that space. Now,
Speaker 1: if you pack that stuff into fabric that does not
Speaker 1: allow air to pass through it, and then you include
Speaker 1: a valve that will allow air to pass but only
Speaker 1: in one direction depending on how the valve is set,
Speaker 1: you have yourself an ideal structure for camping. You turn
Speaker 1: the valve so that air can pass into the pad
Speaker 1: but not out, and air will rush in and the
Speaker 1: pad will expand. That expansion is the foam stretching out,
Speaker 1: and as it does, it starts to create a vacuum
Speaker 1: and air moves into fill it. Because we all know
Speaker 1: that nature abhorrors a vacuum right well, when it's trying
Speaker 1: to pack up. Turning the valves that the air can
Speaker 1: only move out means you can start to compress the
Speaker 1: pad and squeeze the air from it. The valve prevents
Speaker 1: air from coming back in, so you get the pad
Speaker 1: as compressed as you can so that you can pack
Speaker 1: it back up again, which is pretty genius. Now there
Speaker 1: are also inflatable air sleeping pads out there, meaning these
Speaker 1: are pads that you have to pump air into or
Speaker 1: maybe blow it up yourself, which to me sounds like
Speaker 1: a terrible activity after you've just hiked your camping spot.
Speaker 1: And of course there are various pumps out there too,
Speaker 1: from hand pumps and foot pumps to battery powered electric pumps.
Speaker 1: The point is there are a lot of solutions for
Speaker 1: campers when it comes to finding the right surface to
Speaker 1: sleep on, and as someone who can tell you from experience,
Speaker 1: you definitely want to make that at least a little
Speaker 1: comfortable so that you can move around the next day.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you do want to shop for
Speaker 1: that kind of gear, you should pay attention to the
Speaker 1: temperature ratings on the products. This also will go for
Speaker 1: sleeping bags, but the rating systems are different and they
Speaker 1: can get very confusing. The air mattress style pads will
Speaker 1: keep you more comfortable as you know as far as
Speaker 1: it being softer than the self inflating foam pads do,
Speaker 1: but the air mattress style pads don't have good insulation
Speaker 1: against the cold. Many sleep pad manufacturers will indicate what
Speaker 1: their pads are rated for, which is designated with a
Speaker 1: value that has an R in front of it, and
Speaker 1: the higher that value is, the better insulated that pad is.
Speaker 1: For those who plan on camping in late fall, maybe
Speaker 1: even into winter, and our value of three point five
Speaker 1: or greater is a good idea. Of anything below that,
Speaker 1: you are probably going to be too cold at night
Speaker 1: and you might just want to call it quits rather
Speaker 1: than enjoy your experience again. Picking the right stuff so
Speaker 1: that the experience is fun and something that you eagerly
Speaker 1: seek to do again. That's the goal. We're not looking
Speaker 1: at making a technology nervana out in the wilderness, but
Speaker 1: rather an experience that enhances our time outside so that
Speaker 1: we seek it out again and again. As for sleeping bags,
Speaker 1: they come in a variety of shapes and materials and
Speaker 1: temperature ratings. Those ratings are usually designated I s OH
Speaker 1: that stands for International Standards Organization, So a bag that
Speaker 1: has an I s O rating on it is one
Speaker 1: that the manufacturers submitted to the I s O to
Speaker 1: test the bag out. This actually costs money to the manufacturers,
Speaker 1: which means that not every sleeping bag is going to
Speaker 1: have an I s O rating on it. When we
Speaker 1: come back, I want to talk about the testing process
Speaker 1: the I s O uses because it's actually pretty nifty
Speaker 1: and uses some interesting technology. But first another break. So
Speaker 1: the I s OH, in order to test the sleeping bag,
Speaker 1: gets a test dummy and they cover it in heat sensors.
Speaker 1: They also put the dummy in a base layer of
Speaker 1: clothing you can think of like light pajamas, So there
Speaker 1: are bottoms, there's a top, there's a hat, and socks.
Speaker 1: The dummy is then shoved into the sleeping bag that's
Speaker 1: being tested. Actually, more likely it's folded into it and
Speaker 1: zipped up, because that makes more sense. But I just
Speaker 1: like the visual of someone having to shove the test
Speaker 1: dummy into a sleeping bag. And on top of that,
Speaker 1: the bag with the dummy in it is placed on
Speaker 1: top of a winter rated sleeping pad. Now, if you remember,
Speaker 1: before the break, I talked about how sleeping pads have
Speaker 1: an R number associated with them to tell you how
Speaker 1: well insulated they are against, say the cold In the
Speaker 1: case of this test, it's a sleeping pad with a
Speaker 1: rating of R five. That is a significant insulated pad.
Speaker 1: So that's that's one really meant for cold cold weather. Now,
Speaker 1: the pad plus the base level of clothing is standardized,
Speaker 1: so they use it on all the different sleeping bags
Speaker 1: out there. Obviously, it would not be fair to switch
Speaker 1: out any of that stuff between tests because that could
Speaker 1: lead to incorrect conclusions about the correct temperature rating of
Speaker 1: the bagging question. Now, the test takes place in a
Speaker 1: room that can be cooled down to around zero degrees fahrenheit.
Speaker 1: The I s SO lowers the temperature and then monitors
Speaker 1: the sensors that are on the dummy to determine the
Speaker 1: lowest temperature at which a human would still likely to
Speaker 1: be comfortable while sleeping in the bag. The I s
Speaker 1: O actually produces two ratings per sleeping bag. The first,
Speaker 1: which is the higher temperature of the two, is for
Speaker 1: people who sleep quote unquote cold, and for those people
Speaker 1: they would probably be comfortable at that temperature, but no lower.
Speaker 1: So these are people who prefer a warmer sleeping environment.
Speaker 1: If it is cooler than that, then they feel chilly.
Speaker 1: The second number, which is a lower temperature that's sometimes
Speaker 1: referred to as a transition number, is the temperature where
Speaker 1: people who sleep warmer will feel comfortable. So this would
Speaker 1: be the lowest temperature for those who like it a
Speaker 1: little chilly in when they're sleeping, Like I like a
Speaker 1: nice cave temperature when I'm going to sleep, so I
Speaker 1: sleep warmer. Frequently you will hear folks refer to the
Speaker 1: first number, the higher temperature, as the women's temperature, and
Speaker 1: the second as the men's temperature, because there's a tendency
Speaker 1: for men to prefer colder temperatures than women. I stress
Speaker 1: it's a tendency, it's not a universal rule. And there
Speaker 1: are sleeping bags that are marketed just to men and
Speaker 1: some that are marketed just to women. And due to
Speaker 1: that tendency to sleep warmer cold, you can have two
Speaker 1: sleeping bags, one for a man and one for a woman,
Speaker 1: each rated for a comfort level of let's say ten
Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheit, meaning that if it's ten degrees fahrenheit or warmer,
Speaker 1: you should be fine. Well, the men's bag is probably
Speaker 1: gonna be lighter, and that's because of that tendency. It
Speaker 1: takes less insulation to keep your typical man comfortable when
Speaker 1: the environmental temperature is ten degrees than it would to
Speaker 1: keep a typical woman comfortable. So again, like the temperature
Speaker 1: is just about the environment, it's not about the bag itself,
Speaker 1: and that's how you factor in which bag is going
Speaker 1: to be right for you. It also depends on what
Speaker 1: time of year you plan on going camping. Now, if
Speaker 1: you want to have something that's better for more extreme weather,
Speaker 1: you have to look beyond I s O ratings. The
Speaker 1: I s O only rate bags that are meant to
Speaker 1: be used in temperatures that are zero fahrenheit or warmer.
Speaker 1: Extreme bags, which can go below zero degrees fahrenheit frequently,
Speaker 1: will have three temperature ratings on them. The first represents
Speaker 1: the temperature a person could expect to sleep in relative comfort.
Speaker 1: The second number, which is often called the limit number,
Speaker 1: is the lowest temperature someone could be expected to sleep
Speaker 1: in the bag at all, and the third number the
Speaker 1: lowest of the three. The extreme level is a temperature
Speaker 1: where it would probably be way too cold for you
Speaker 1: to get any sleep, but the bag would likely keep
Speaker 1: you warm enough so that you could survive the night. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously that third scenario is something that represents an emergency situation,
Speaker 1: then we've got tents. You might think tents end up
Speaker 1: being pretty basic, low tech things, but there are exceptions,
Speaker 1: and of course tents come in a variety of sizes, shapes,
Speaker 1: and materials. Some tents are essentially just a thin barrier
Speaker 1: between you and everything outside the tent. That can be
Speaker 1: really useful if you needed to be super lightweight and
Speaker 1: you're going to be hiking to your campsite. Others are
Speaker 1: more rain resistant. Some are rainproof, although you can probably
Speaker 1: put rainproof in air quotes because it's very possible even
Speaker 1: for the most resilient rainproof tense to become flooded if
Speaker 1: you set up the tent poorly in the wrong location,
Speaker 1: like you start, you have the entry of the tent
Speaker 1: facing uphill and it starts pouring down rain. That's not
Speaker 1: going to be great. But tents can go well beyond this. Uh.
Speaker 1: There are tents that have led light straps sewn into
Speaker 1: the seams and you just plug a couple of double
Speaker 1: A batteries in and you got yourself indoor lighting woven
Speaker 1: directly into the tent, which is really convenient and because
Speaker 1: L E D s are so power efficient, those battery
Speaker 1: should last a good long time. There are tents that
Speaker 1: use inflatable elements so that you don't have to struggle
Speaker 1: with poles and ropes to get the tent set up,
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. I've seen some of these, I've
Speaker 1: never slept in one. I've always been curious about them,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that's that really appeals to me, because, um,
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people who becomes like Goofy in
Speaker 1: the Disney cartoons when I try and set up a tent.
Speaker 1: I'm more likely to end up tying myself to a
Speaker 1: tree accidentally. Now and then we see some interesting tent
Speaker 1: concepts that incorporate things like solar panels and other elements
Speaker 1: in them that, to be honest, a lot of those
Speaker 1: seem to remain concepts and never quite migrate over into
Speaker 1: consumer products. As for other camping gear, with the tech side,
Speaker 1: you've got stuff like led lanterns that have solar panels
Speaker 1: so that you can recharge them during the daytime, which
Speaker 1: is pretty useful when you're out in the middle of
Speaker 1: nowhere and there's no way be a light. There are
Speaker 1: portable showers, which essentially consists of a bag that you
Speaker 1: fill up with water and you leave it in the
Speaker 1: sun to heat up. You hang it from a height,
Speaker 1: and some of them are very simple, just gravity fed systems,
Speaker 1: so you open up a little valve and the water
Speaker 1: comes out due to gravity. Others incorporate foot pedals that
Speaker 1: uh connect an air hose from the foot pedal to
Speaker 1: the bag, so you can actually pump some air into
Speaker 1: the bag, increasing the internal pressure of the bag. So
Speaker 1: when you open up that valve, that pressure starts to
Speaker 1: push the water out with more force and you get
Speaker 1: a better shower going. I've seen camp stoves that not
Speaker 1: only provide a way for you to get warmth and
Speaker 1: cook food, but also charge your portable devices. The stoves
Speaker 1: connect to electronics that harvest thermal energy and convert it
Speaker 1: into electricity, at least that's what they say they do.
Speaker 1: You also can charge them typically like you can use
Speaker 1: it as its own portable battery pack, and I think
Speaker 1: that's probably the most efficient way to charge the battery
Speaker 1: on those camp stoves. But still a really interesting concept
Speaker 1: to me, and there's so much more we can chat about.
Speaker 1: There are special filtration systems. They are designed to filter
Speaker 1: water from streams so it's safe to drink. A lot
Speaker 1: of these fit right into a water bottle so that
Speaker 1: you can fill the bottle up, attached the filter to
Speaker 1: the top of the bottle and drink from the other
Speaker 1: side of the filter. Others are gravity fed, so you
Speaker 1: attached two bottles together and the filter is between the two.
Speaker 1: So you fill one bottle up with say water from
Speaker 1: a river, you attached the filter to it. You attached
Speaker 1: an empty bottle on the other side, and you use
Speaker 1: it almost like an hour glass. The water filters through
Speaker 1: and then it's safe to drink. There are lots of
Speaker 1: different variations of this. There are even ones that are
Speaker 1: shaped like a straw and you can just drink straight
Speaker 1: from a stream if you wanted to. They are really
Speaker 1: cool and innovative, and most important, they make it safe
Speaker 1: for you to drink water. For more heavy duty water
Speaker 1: filtration systems, you can get a hand pump model that
Speaker 1: lets you filter a lot of water all at once.
Speaker 1: It's pretty useful if you're camping with a big group
Speaker 1: of people. Honestly, you could spend hours looking at camping technology,
Speaker 1: and I know because I have. I've even had an
Speaker 1: idea for a special series of podcast episodes about the
Speaker 1: subject we'll have to see if that ever goes beyond
Speaker 1: the prototype phase. Personally, I go back to that philosophy
Speaker 1: that says the best camping tech is the type that
Speaker 1: gets you out in nature in the first place. There's
Speaker 1: stuff that is gimmicky and flashy, sure, but the pieces
Speaker 1: that are important to me are the ones that inspire
Speaker 1: you to get up and leave your house and head
Speaker 1: off to the campground or the park and go exploring
Speaker 1: the flash ear stuff. Often I think of that as
Speaker 1: being more trouble than what it's worth sometimes because you
Speaker 1: have to remember, especially if you're not just going to
Speaker 1: be camping close to wherever you park your car, you've
Speaker 1: got to carry the stuff too. So it's always good
Speaker 1: to use a little bit of judgment before you go
Speaker 1: hog wild and buy every single tech out there for
Speaker 1: your camping experience and then discover your are incapable of
Speaker 1: moving once you've loaded it all into your backpack. And
Speaker 1: I hope some of y'all out there will take this
Speaker 1: as inspiration to have your own outdoor adventures, whether it's
Speaker 1: jumping into the geo cashing hobby or spending a weekend
Speaker 1: out of the campground enjoying nature and good company, and
Speaker 1: maybe a little tech along the way. That's it for
Speaker 1: this episode of tech Stuff. If you would like to
Speaker 1: comment on this episode or send any suggestions my way,
Speaker 1: feel free to use the talk back feature on the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app. A few people have been doing
Speaker 1: that and I love it. Thank you so much. We're
Speaker 1: gonna have some episodes coming up based upon your suggestions,
Speaker 1: so keep an ear out for that, or if you prefer,
Speaker 1: you can reach out via Twitter. The handle for the
Speaker 1: show is text Stuff H s W and I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.