Bushwalk Australia

Anyone have some ideas or experiences on a simple, reliable and lightweight alarm for alpine starts? I don't want to use a GPS or phone as prefer to save their batteries.

Thanks in advance.

I guess you mean a wake up alarm? if so the solar powered Casio Protrek Watches have a nice built in alarm.

G shock watch or an extra hot chocolate at night. Can't stay in bed with the last one

Any digital watch?

neilmny wrote:Any digital watch?

I've killed a few watches out Bush. Broken straps, glass, not all waterproof watches are waterproof .... finally got one that is tough as which I can rely on. Also has set a new pb for longevity

walkon wrote:

neilmny wrote:Any digital watch?

I've killed a few watches out Bush. Broken straps, glass, not all waterproof watches are waterproof .... finally got one that is tough as.

I can see that would happen, mines actually the watch of a Polar HRM so waterproof and very tough. The face has the scratches to prove it.

Check this watch out:

http://www.smithbradleyltd.com/collections/the-ambush

Have had one for nearly 12 months now and it is indestructible. Has great features including the alarm you are after as well as a compass and the best back lighting for reading the time in the dark.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I find dawn to be effective. Soon as it starts getting the tiniest bit lighter, I wake up. And if the weather isn't too bad, that means it's time for breakfast, dressing, packing and heading out.
But then, I have a pretty lasseiz faire attitude about walking. Schedules suck.

Thanks all. Looks like the go is a digital watch. Having just had my analogue watch fully rebuilt I think I'll look at a cheapish version that I can take in the backpack.

I also have a habit of losing watches in the bush - my current one has a strong band with a double latch that hasn't failed me yet.

north-north-west wrote:I find dawn to be effective. Soon as it starts getting the tiniest bit lighter, I wake up. And if the weather isn't too bad, that means it's time for breakfast, dressing, packing and heading out.
But then, I have a pretty lasseiz faire attitude about walking. Schedules suck.

Yeah same, same here - hence why I am only asking now after 20 + yrs of going bush

I use a timex expedition with a nato g10 strap. a little heavy, so I'll probably get a cheap casio. the G10 strap is great since both pins have to break to drop the watch.

corvus wrote:I guess you mean a wake up alarm? if so the solar powered Casio Protrek Watches have a nice built in alarm.

I use my Casio Protrek PRG270, but I've slept through the alarm before - once in a hut last year. Apparently annoyed a few people in the hut though.

I also have had a few Suunto Cores, and the alarms I found not as loud as the Casio. There are a few cheapie Timex watches that also have a vibration alarm feature.

The larger the watch the louder, usually, since they can fit a bigger piezo element inside. But larger is also a little heavier, if that sort of thing matters to you.

Even the loudest watches I sometimes sleep through, especially if I've got a hat on or the sleeping bag pulled up around my head. The alarm on my current watch will go off again after a few minutes if I don't hit a button, but I've still slept through it. On a few occasions when I've really needed to get up early I've put the watch inside my hat. Once I even taped it to my head.


I used to have an inexpensive digital watch that had an adjust button that was a little too easy to depress. Sometimes it would get bumped and auto-adjust. I was late for an appointment once because of that watch; it had reset the time off by a couple of hours. On one mountaineering trip I set the watch for a pre-dawn wakeup and went to bed. The next morning the alarm went off, we fired up the stove and started getting ready. But as we sat there eating our oatmeal we noticed something a little odd: There was no dawn light appearing to the east. Eventually my partner got out her watch. It was 2am.

If you don't have a watch, I love my f-91w.

21g~ alarm, stopwatch, date, time, hourly beep, water resistant (I wear mine in the shower a lot)

At $22 delivered and a 7 year battery life. Can't really beat it unless you want more features you'll never use.

-dz- wrote:If you don't have a watch, I love my f-91w.

That should be Casio f-91w?

The alarm is pretty quiet, and easy to sleep through. A good trick is to put the watch on top of a billy - on top of the lid which is on the billy. When the alarm goes off - then the billy acts as a resonator - and the louder sound will wake you.

Dave

My solution is to hang it from the hammock ridgeline so it goes off right above my face. Of course the groundlings might have more trouble.

DaveNoble wrote:That should be Casio f-91w?

Thanks DZ.

I was looking at exactly these on ebay the other night. Something like this looks the go based on what others have already recommended.

My mate would be able to sleep a full night in a tent pitched on an international airport runway but I wake reasonably easy. For $20 I might get one of these and test out how it works for me.

Gadgetgeek wrote:My solution is to hang it from the hammock ridgeline so it goes off right above my face. Of course the groundlings might have more trouble.

I'm always a groundling in Tassie. I'll have a play with some placements and see what works for me.

DaveNoble wrote:

-dz- wrote:If you don't have a watch, I love my f-91w.

That should be Casio f-91w?

The alarm is pretty quiet, and easy to sleep through. A good trick is to put the watch on top of a billy - on top of the lid which is on the billy. When the alarm goes off - then the billy acts as a resonator - and the louder sound will wake you.

Dave

Thanks for the tip. I usually don't sleep through alarms unless my body really needs to. Will have to try this sometime!

why dont you just use two phones? buy a very cheap one for alarm purposes

MarizXW wrote:why dont you just use two phones? buy a very cheap one for alarm purposes

Weight is the main reason. I'll carry one phone but want to preserve the battery. Same with using the alarm on the GPS.

Just returned from my first trip with the cheap Casio, not sure how I ever walked without it (looking at the sky probably.)

Found just the stopwatch ridiculously handy just for tracking random things: estimated walk time, fuel usage, water aqua tabs, how long does it take to set up the tent, pack in the morning.

Not really a game changer or needed by any means but certainly helpful for planning ahead in small amounts, something I take relatively seriously.

Chris-a wrote:Check this watch out:

http://www.smithbradleyltd.com/collections/the-ambush

Have had one for nearly 12 months now and it is indestructible. Has great features including the alarm you are after as well as a compass and the best back lighting for reading the time in the dark.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Mine was broke within a month.

icefest wrote:

Chris-a wrote:Check this watch out:
http://www.smithbradleyltd.com/collections/the-ambush
Have had one for nearly 12 months now and it is indestructible. Has great features including the alarm you are after as well as a compass and the best back lighting for reading the time in the dark.

Mine was broke within a month.

Yeah, I'm that hard on my gear, too.

icefest wrote:http://www.smithbradleyltd.com/collections/the-ambush
Mine was broke within a month.

Ouch! Expensive. What broke?

The hands fell off.

You have to be kidding me for a $660+ watch! That's really poor QA, but that's also a common weak link in low volume productions.

In the meantime, I've been thinking of this Aliexpress cheapie as a break-and-won't-hurt-me time piece.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/INFANTRY ... 81411.html

Slightly off topic, but iv been using an old Android phone in a water resistant, drop proof case for all the use cases people are talking about here, except its loaded with high resolution maps, record notes, set-up multiple alarms, do large math, backup torch, music, audiobooks; anything a normal phone would do.
On Airplane mode iv used it for almost a full week on one charge. While recording high resolution GPS traces, i get about 3 days worth. When it runs low, i can charge it at least twice over with an externally battery pack. If you needed more than 10 days of trace recording, there are good light trekking solar panels.

Only issue is weight, 280g for phone, 250g for battery... but hey, u could can write it off as a piece of safety gear

EDIT: Iv flashed the most light, power preserving, stable ROM i could find.

Only 300 grams:

I think a watch is also the best idea, however some of my older phones could be switched off and they would boot up to set off the alarm, not sure if current phones do this.......?