My latest LED toy is the Gerber Tempo. http://images.rei.com/media/p/1132557.jpg
For only ten dollars at REI, you get a nice little light. Cavers will find a lot of practical uses for a light like this. You could wear it around camp on a necklace. You could hang it over your cooking area with a string. You could hang it in your tent. You could use it in the port-o-potty. The ideal use, in my opinion, is to store it in your caving first-aid kit. It is not water-resistant. You will need to keep it dry in your cave pack, but it would make an excellent light for a worst-case-scenario. It provides enough light for 4 hours, that you could use it to get out of the cave, especially if you had a extra triple-A battery. This light might even work good as a primary caving light in certain parts of Airman's or Maple Run Cave. I bet you could do all of Airman's with just this light and a couple of spare batteries. The Tempo is advertised as a keychain light, but I wouldn't use it for that. It is slightly too big for that, and the key-ring hole is too tiny to put a key ring. In summary, it is a great emergency light, if you don't plan to be in a wet cave. On a related note, Do you remember a couple of years ago, they came out with a LED light that you clip onto the bill of a hat. Then it was upgraded to 2 LED's. Then 3, and then 4. Well, now there is the "Orion 5." It is inexpensive and readily available at several major department stores. http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/81/36/28/07/0081362807464_500X500.jpg It looks like you could saw off the plastic clips and then duct tape a couple of these to your helmet, giving you 15 to 20 LED's. And Inova just made an upgrade to their X1 model light. This is their model that uses a single AA battery. They replaced the LED with a more powerful 2 watt and modified the reflector. Price remains the same at just under $ 20. In my opinion, this new version is the best light to mount on the side of your helmet. Make sure the package has the words "2 watt" in red letters. Most of the stores are still overstocked with the old model. I saw it today at one of the new Academy superstores. ( Unfortunately, you can't dim the beam and it doesn't have a lens diffuser or collator. ) P.S. The Academy store above is about twice the size of most Academy stores and sells some Petzl headlamps and more items from the Coleman Exponent line, such as lanterns and tents. I have only seen one of these stores which is in Webster. But other than that, it appears to be the same old junk, but just in larger inventory. David Locklear --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
