Sir,
The recent Force Multipliers article was a good read, as was OSOM’s follow-up letter. Your comment about the Magic Cube flash cubes is a good one. I’m ashamed I didn’t think of that one myself.
One of my concerns is the amount of electronic gear that seems to go into play in some of our TEOTWAWKI preparations. If you look at the logistics tail of the US Military you will find that a soldier uses his weight in batteries very quickly in the field. A big problem (as I understand it from my reading) is keeping our guys supplied with batteries in the sand boxes of the world. While I have nothing against the modern multipliers and by all means, use them if you have them, you must be prepared for no electronics or very limited electronic aids. The emergency flare pens from places like this and this, and this.
Are mechanically launched flare devices, (about a .38 caliber) that can be set up as a trip signal without any electrical interface. Items like model rocket engines and electric engine igniters require electricity but are available from many hobby shops, leave no significant paper trail for those searching for “Paramilitary wing nuts” and are very effective as stand alone flash-bang devices or igniters of wood or other fuel in an emergency and are reasonably inexpensive. The exhaust of these model rocket engines is hot so don’t try to hold one (and they have a small explosive charge to ignite the next stage or deploy a parachute so keep away from both ends!) They are not waterproof but that can be remedied easily. Just be careful when handling – these are real, live rocket motors so treat them that way.
Communications is always key and radios are useful if available. Again, land line telephones and telegraphs have been used for years and although require electricity, the old telegraph systems used very basic batteries that are easily home made. Here is a link to hobbyist who are interested in land line telegraphy. There are computer programs to help with the club but your own buried land lines to your ops would be secure and require only very basic electricity. The basic field telephone is still in use in the military and is a very good, secure communications source. Night vision is great but as mentioned, the parachute flare is a much lower tech option. Just remember, flares often indicate their launch point so using one may give away your position.
The basic “tin can filled with rocks” noise maker is an excellent motion detector that functions without reset. A pressure plate or trip wire that releases a flare needs to be reset to work a second time.
One of the basic tenets of positional defense is to channel the attack. Clear fields of fire are important but if you can make sure your opponents are coming down a path of your choosing, then setting up that kill zone becomes easier. This is a two edged sword. The French army lost Quebec because the British found a way around the ‘only’ approach to the city. The back door was guarded but not well enough. If done right, however, it makes the defenders job much easier. At this point, a laser range finder can be extremely useful. Use it to build a range card to all landmarks within your view. It is easier to use than a tape and attracts less attention. Then once the rangefinder is no longer available, you have known distances. Modern snipers do the same now when setting up a site as it avoids having to impinge a laser on the target before the shot. If his shadow falls on that boulder then he is 473 yards away kind of reasoning. Thorn trees, ditches, canals (think moat), swamps massive sharp trash (broken glass, sharp metal objects), caltrops (easily made from nails and Styrofoam). Also consider vertical drops, but be careful here: a cliff was the protection for Quebec, and General Wolf outsmarted General Montcalm by having his men climb this ‘un-scalable’ cliff in the dark. Anything that makes it difficult and noisy to come that way instead of the easier path that you want them on works.
Booby traps are illegal in most states so don’t use them. If a booby trap causes injury or death then you may well be facing an assault or murder charge. Some of the low tech weapons of choice here like punji sticks or explosive devices such as mines or IEDs are not in our arsenal unless it is truly TEOTWAWKI. Any less serious scenario and you are likely facing charges.
My point is that it is great to have the high tech stuff but in a long duration situation, you most likely don’t have enough batteries to depend on your devices. Use them while you have them, especially to survive the first waves of the Golden Horde, but be prepared to go low tech when the need arises. – Captain Bart
Sir:
I believe that an even greater force multiplier than secure radios is having the knowledge and the capability of countering anyone using radio communications against you. Triangulation can be done with a single antenna, this is documented in amateur radio literature and you can participate in direction finding competitions. Triangulation is much more difficult when frequency hopping radios are used (like military grade radios and digital cell phones). All you really need to get started with triangulation is a directional antenna, such as a yagi. A wide-band receiver and 2-meter yagi would be a good bet.
If you want to monitor many radio frequencies at once, there is a community of programmers working on the GNU radio project. GNU radio software, combined with a software-defined radio such as the Ettus Research Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP), gives you the radio eyes and ears at a working-man’s budget. To get a visual of a software-defined radio’s capabilities, try visiting some of the online-receivers here. The USRP is capable of monitoring 50 Mhz of bandwidth at once, so with one device you could detect any aircraft, marine, 2-meter ham or civil service transmissions on any of these frequency at once. One software radio transceiver + amplifier and a laptop is more useful than an entire room full of ham radio equipment. You won’t be limited to voice communications, the software radio will plug in to almost any digital transceiver out there including 802.11x, it will allow you to transmit and receive HDTV signals, operate as a GSM cellular network, receive satellite broadcasts, GPS and everything else. These are increasingly important in the modern world. Ham radios are relegated to emergency communications and will not provide you with a modicum of security when you most need it.
The USRP, an amplifier, antenna, and a stack of unlocked Motorola Motofone F3 GSM phones is my pick for truly secure post-SHTF communications on a budget. This would provide coverage out to a mile or so with a medium size (concealable) base antenna, and everyone would have a week of battery life. A large-scale field test has happened at the Burning Man festival since 2008. The drawbacks are that it’s not legal to use these GSM frequencies without FCC authorization (guaranteed no-go in populated areas), and the setup isn’t as mobile as a secure personal communication system. An alternative is 802.11x VOIP phones and an Asterisk server, shorter range but uses unlicensed radio frequencies.
The US government has has export-banned most radio security technology. Encryption software is still classified as a “munition” and hence [high level] commercial encryption products are under export controls. The use of encryption on all virtually all civilian radio frequencies is illegal. All truly secure (frequency hopping) radio products I find online are not available to consumers, like the Harris Secure Personal Radio.
I’m not sure if you or your readers know of a frequency hopping personal communication system, I’ve been interested in such a product for a long time but I’m guessing were I to find anything out there it would be too expensive for my budget, given the unique nature of it. – Jeff M.
JWR Replies: As previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog, both Motorola and Trisquare make frequency hopping radios that operate on the 900 MHz band, with no license required. Their hopping algorithms are rudimentary, so they would be vulnerable to intercept by government agencies (by design), but they’d be relatively secure from interception and even detection by most private citizens. (When a frequency hopper is keyed up, typically the only noticeable change seen on a spectrum analyzer is that the “noise floor” jumps up.)