The WildeBeat

Tue, Aug 21, 2007

More on the SPOT

Posted at 13:10

/blog/gear [link ]

In this week's edition number 99, Andy Mytys of BackpackGearTest.org described the SPOT Satellite Messenger as a potentially cost-effective alternative to the Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) that Doug Ritter of the Equipped to Survive Foundation recommended in our edition numbers 78 & 79, titled Counting Up Essentials.

The SPOT Satellite Messenger, as well as a conventional PLB, are devices that are designed to summon search and rescue services in life-threatening situations. They're proven to be more reliable in remote locations where more conventional communication techniques might be ineffective.

Andy's preliminary impressions of the product, before actually having one to test, is that it promises to provide more user-friendly features than a PLB, for less than a quarter of the price. While it's too soon to tell whether this claim is true, or too good to be true, Doug Ritter has published a more thorough analysis of this product.

If you want to know more, you can read Doug Ritter's article, First Look, SPOT Satellite Messenger.

Mon, Aug 06, 2007

Welcome New Radio Listeners

Posted at 16:55

/blog/recognition [link ]

We'd like to welcome our new listeners from these public radio stations:

• KTIM: 101.9FM in St. George, Utah.
  Heard twice a day on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.
• KVMR: 89.5FM in Nevada City and 105.1FM in Truckee, California.
  Heard on Tuesday afternoons between 1:30 and 2:00 p.m.

If you'd like to hear the Wildebeat on your local public, community, or college station, please let them know, and then let us know.

Fri, Jun 08, 2007

Tom Mangan's Hiking Column

Posted at 11:55

/blog/wild_places [link ]

Tom Mangan is another San Jose local who's given us a lot of recognition and behind-the-scenes moral support. Tom created and writes the Two Heel Drive blog about all things hiking.

We want to offer our belated congratulations to Tom for his new job as a hiking columnist for the San Jose Mercury News. You can see the archive of his hiking columns here: www.mercurynews.com/tommangan.

Best of luck on this endeavor, Tom, and happy trails!

Sun, Apr 29, 2007

Our New Nonprofit Status

Posted at 12:00

/blog/news [link ]

The WildeBeat Adopted as a Project of Earth Island Institute

• Read about it in this press release.

Earth Island Institute (a nonprofit incubator of environmental organizations) has adopted the WildeBeat as one of its projects, providing us the opportunity to support our efforts through tax-deductible donations and corporate underwriting, as well as foundation and government grants. This new relationship gives us a nonprofit structure that allows us to keep doing what we have been, and more.

We're excited about the future under this new organization. We hope to expand out efforts to produce more shows and make them available to a wider audience.

On our new support page, you'll find a link to a membership form where you can make a tax-deductible donation to support production of future programs. We'll be looking for ways to make that membership even more valuable to you. You might also notice that the Google Ads have been removed from the web site — they're not compatible with our nonprofit status.

Thank you for listening and participating, and for your continued interest.

— Steve Sergeant

Tue, Mar 20, 2007

The Best Wilderness At Night

Posted at 15:25

/blog/wild_places [link ]

In our editions 13 & 14, titled The Wilderness at Night, we talked about the value of dark skies, and the detrimental effects that artificial night lighting can have on natural ecosystems. We interviewed Chad Moore, a physical scientist with the National Park Service, and Program Manager of their Night Sky Research Program. In that interview, Chad Moore said that the darkest skies in the National Park System are at Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah.

According to our friend Jeremy Sullivan, editor of the Park Remark site:

Natural Bridges National Monument, in the southeast corner of Utah, has been named the world's first ever International Dark-Sky Park, as designated by the International Dark-Sky Association.

You can read the rest of Natural Bridges is World's First Dark-Sky Park at Park Remark.

We'd like to congratulate Chad Moore and the rest of the NPS Night Sky Research Team for this well deserved recognition of their work.

Wed, Feb 21, 2007

Steve Interviewed by Bob Cartright

Posted at 21:55

/blog/recognition [link ]

Steve was interviewed a couple of weeks ago by Bob Cartright of BackpackingLight.CO.UK. Bob produces a podcast about backpacking in the U.K. and Europe. Bob did this as part of a series of shows interviewing other podcasters who focus on outdoor recreation topics.

Here's a link to the Backpackinglight.CO.Uk podcasts. Here's a link directly to the audio:

• Interview with the man behind Wildebeat [MP3 format; length 40:06; 19,993,258 bytes]

Thu, Jan 04, 2007

Two Week Break

Posted at 11:40

/blog/news [link ]

Happy New Year! And thanks to all our listeners for your interest and support in 2006.

In case you missed the announcement in our edition #71, we're taking a two week break from production of The WildeBeat. Our next show will be published on January 18th.

Until then, if you're relatively new to the show, we encourage you to look back through our archives. In a year and a half and 71 shows, there are hours of our programs and bonus content you might not have heard.

Before we return, we'll have an announcement about the future of The WildeBeat, and our plans to keep bringing you more and more informative programs.

Tue, Dec 26, 2006

Bonus material for Park Pass Pique

Posted at 15:45

/blog/wild_places [link ]

Scott Silver of Wild Wilderness has done considerable research on the origins of usage fees on federal recreation lands. In particular, he has evidence which supports a theory that the new America The Beautiful National Parks and Federal Lands Interagency Recreation Pass (ATB pass) has been the goal of some political groups for more than 20 years. We discussed this pass in our most recent edition, #70, titled Park Pass Pique.

Below is a bonus segment of our interview with Scott, which gives his view on the history of the ATB pass, fees for public recreation lands in general, and his vision of how these lands should be managed. Scott argues that the intent behind the ATB pass may not be to improve our wilderness experiences.

• Bonus Interview Segment, Scott Silver of Wild Wilderness [MP3 format; length 12:16; 1,472,389 bytes]

Tue, Dec 19, 2006

Digg the WildeBeat?

Posted at 15:45

/blog/recognition [link ]

No, this isn't a rhetorical question in Hippie or Beatnick speak. The technology-oriented social networking and bookmarking site, DIGG.com, now has a podcast directory. If you digg The WildeBeat, and are a registered member of their site, you can help others discover us by clicking on the "Digg it!" link on our Digg page.

Mon, Dec 11, 2006

National Park Pass Price Increase

Posted at 13:30

/blog/wild_places [link ]

If you expect to visit a national park more than twice in the coming year, you may want to buy a National Park Pass before the end of this month. The cost of an annual pass, which has been $50 for the past few years, will go up to $80 with the introduction of a new kind recreation pass called the America The Beautiful pass. The new pass will also be available for free if you're willing to volunteer 500 hours of labor valued at $0.16 per hour.

We'd love to hear your comments on this new pass. Please call our toll-free comment line: 866-590-7373.

Thanks to Kurt at National Parks Traveler, and Scott at Wild Wilderness for tipping us off about this.

Sat, Nov 25, 2006

Apologies to Mark Eller

Posted at 11:30

/blog/letters [link ]

In our original posting of the article and script for edition #66, Wilderness Deals for Wheels, we misspelled the name of IMBA communications director Mark Eller as Mark Ehler. We corrected this in our published transcript and in the article.

Unfortunately, we were unable to correct the pronunciation in our program from AY-LER to EL-ER. Sorry about that, Mark!

Thu, Nov 16, 2006

Steve Appears on the One Minute Howto

Posted at 20:00

/blog/recognition [link ]

George Smyth produces a podcast called One Minute Howto. Twice each week, he challenges someone to explain how to do something within one minute.

Steve appears in show number 77, How to Bear Bag.

Steve Interviewed on Podcast Alley

Posted at 19:45

/blog/recognition [link ]

Podcast Alley is a large and popular directory site which lists tens of thousands of podcasts.

About two months ago, Steve was interviewed for a future cover story on Podcast Alley. That interview was just posted last night.

Read it HERE.

Tue, Nov 14, 2006

NEW: Listen to The WildeBeat by Phone

Posted at 11:00

/blog/news [link ]

In case you can't, or would rather not listen to audio on your computer, and you don't have an MP3 player to download The WildeBeat into, there's now another option: You can now listen to the latest edition of The WildeBeat by phone.

Call: (818) 688-2747 (in the U.S.)

This free service (except for the cost of a phone call to the Los Angeles area) is provided by podlinez.net.

Sat, Nov 04, 2006

A Few Blogs to Check Out

Posted at 20:00

/blog/recognition [link ]

We want to thank several bloggers who regularly recognize our work.

Two Heel Drive, A hiking blog
Tom Mangan says he, scans the reams of hiking discussion boards, review sites, blogs and other places online, and posts links to the stuff he thinks other people might find interesting.

National Parks Traveler
Kurt Repanshek tracks news and political issues about the National Parks. He occasionally talks about his own outings and gear choices as well.

The Adventure Blog
Kraig collects comments and news about some of the more extreme and adventurous activities going on in the outdoors.

Wed, Oct 18, 2006

Article about Marijuana Raids

Posted at 22:45

/blog/outings [link ]

In our edition #19, Restoring a Park Gone to Pot, we spent a weekend at a former marijuana plantation in California's Big Basin State Park. We reported on the volunteer effort to restore the park after the law enforcement agency had removed the growers and their crops.

A local paper, the Silicon Valley Metro, published a detailed story about what went into the law enforcement raids, titled Dark Green.

Thu, Oct 12, 2006

Taking a break this week.

Posted at 17:00

/blog/news [link ]

We realized that we forgot to include the statement in edition number 60 that we're taking a break this week. We'll post our next edition of The WildeBeat on Thursday, October 19th.

Thanks to a couple of you who asked, "where's this week's show?"

Mon, Aug 28, 2006

Review by a Podcast Fanatic

Posted at 23:15

/blog/recognition [link ]

Bernadette, from Adelaide, Australia is fanatic about podcasts. That means she listens to a lot of them. She also writes thoughtful reviews, and posts them to her web site, PodcastFanatic.com.

Last Sunday, Bernadette reviewed The WildeBeat. At the end of her review she concluded:

...As an example of niche or specialist podcasting this is the show others should be measured against. Steve's enthusiasm for his subject is palpable, his knowledge and experience evident and his overall approach is so positive and practical that even a half-fit, nearly-40 urban dweller like myself feels inspired to head off to the wilderness sometime soon.

Thanks, Bernadette!

Wilderness Dishwashing Science

Posted at 07:20

/blog/skills [link ]

Keeping your cooking and eating gear clean in the backcountry is a bit more difficult. The main limitation is that in the backcountry you don't have the liberally-flowing clean water you would have in civilization

An article in Science News Magazine reviews some recent science that sheds some light on this issue. In How to Wash Up in the Wilderness, microbiologist Joanna Hargreaves says that two and three bowl methods are ideal. The first bowl has grease-cutting detergent, the second bowl has water containing a strong disinfectant like chlorine bleach, and the third has clean, purified water. She says if water is scarce, you can skip that third bowl.

Sun, Aug 13, 2006

Heavily into Stoves at Backpacking Light

Posted at 13:00

/blog/gear [link ]

We noticed that the people at Backpacking Light magazine have started to post audio stories along with their usual text articles. We congratulate Ryan Jordan and his Backpacking Light company for adding audio to their publishing offerings.

Their first audio piece (that we know of) is a 23 minute, in-depth exploration of canister-style stoves, and about the manufacturers working on the leading-edge to make them more efficient. They include recordings of trade show marketing presentations and informal on-site interviews.

To hear the BackpackingLight audio piece about stoves, see Integrated Canister Stove Systems.

As we mentioned in out edition #17 titled, Lighten Your Backpack!, BackpackingLight.COM is a great source of information for the experienced backpacker seeking skills and gear for more ambitious adventures.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. (Details)