Year: 2011

Two Letters Re: CONEX Shipping Containers as Faraday Enclosures?

Mr. Rawles, I was running a detail earlier today when I noticed that we were loading items into an all-steel QUADCON. As we were, I remembered the letter from the other da, asking about the possibility of using a CONEX as a Faraday cage. The dimensions aren’t as big as the 40′ CONEX are, but four of them put together equal the space of a 20′ MILVAN container. The downside to this container is the two openings, one on each end. However, a good solid weld on one side could do the trick. The RF gaskets that you mentioned could …


Economics and Investing:

Over at Dr. Housing Bubble: The California contradiction – Record high unemployment and highest home prices in the nation. Lorimer Wilson: These 100 Analysts Now Say Gold Will Go to $5,000/ oz. – or More! Michael Z. Williamson (SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large) sent this: Should U.S. Become Biggest Landlord? G.G. sent this: Restaurants want a piece of food stamp pie Marleen from Holland recommended this news from Greece: Pensioners turn back to living off the land Items from The Economatrix: Stocks Fall Again as Europe’s Debt Worries Deepen Oil Tumbles on Fears of Economic Slump Service Firms Grew at Slightly …


Odds ‘n Sods:

K.A.F. liked this piece over at Coffee With a Hermit: Woman crashes into police building with carjacking suspect on her hood    o o o File under Bureaucratic Nincompoops: Feds to assume control of Bastrop County fire; volunteer firemen turned away    o o o IDF general: Likelihood of regional war growing. (Thanks to K.A.F. for the link.)    o o o The folks at Camping Survival have announced a Paracord Giveaway. Describe your favorite paracord project, or list some of your favorite uses for paracord and how you execute them, and you can win a 1,000 foot roll of …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“This is the darkest hour before dawn and we should never underestimate monetary authorities’ ability to deal with the adversity.” – Dr. Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. (As quoted in 2008, as he orchestrated massive hyperinflation that inevitably brought the value of the Zimbabwean Dollar to zero.)


Notes from JWR:

Don’t miss out on Safecastle’s 25% sale on Mountain House freeze-dried long term storage foods in cans (and pouches, too). Place your order before the sale ends! — Today we present another entry for Round 36 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy …


Creating Hiding Places Without Handyman Skills, by Tamara W.

Creating hiding places for items can be a challenge without handyman skills, a large budget and the need to hide stores in sight. Fortunately, there are some options that are easy to implement without a lot of cost without looking odd to anyone passing through your home. Many Uses for Chest Freezers Chest freezers have the benefits of being common, heavy, cheap to get used and not a big deal to own. How does this help when you want to store things or hide them? Chest freezers are commonly locked to keep young children from climbing in and becoming trapped. …


Letter Re: Lead: The Other Precious Metal

Dear Sir, First, before I get started, my thanks to you for this blog and your books. I’ve invested in metals: Gold, silver, check; “Real” copper pennies, nickels, check; Lead…what? lead? Yes, lead. To me, as a reloader and bullet caster for more than four decades cheap lead in the form of Linotype and wheel weights was taken for granted. But now, with the new regulatory push from the EPA, lead will soon no longer be used as the balance weights on our wheels. This will dry up the last major source of inexpensive used lead [that is in chunks …


Economics and Investing:

T.E.M. suggested: 10 ways to save money: How the old-fashioned barter system is making a comeback “Benny Flag” liked this piece by Dr. Gary North: Sovereign Debt, Sovereign Bank Runs Reader Grace H. wrote to mention: “In 1999 in preparation for Y2K, I purchased a number of DAK brand canned hams for $1.00 a piece.  These 16 oz. cans were readily available everywhere.  The other day my dimpled darling suggested that we needed some of those “little canned hams” in our prepping supplies.  I obediently went on the search thinking that it would be easy.  Nope!  Few stores around me …


Odds ‘n Sods:

For those that like CraigsList, Matt M. mentioned a tool called Search Tempest that automagically searches all of the Craigslist sites at once, using definable radius of your location. I use it to quickly find unusual items that are within a four hour drive.    o o o England’s descent into national suicidal oblivion begins in its courtrooms: ‘Squatters aren’t criminals and can be GOOD for society’: Judge orders council to publish list of empty homes in its area.    o o o USAPrepares.com is sponsoring a Preparedness Expo this coming this Friday and Saturday (September 9th and 10th) in …



Notes from JWR:

Today is the “Book Bomb” day for the new sci-fi novel Rogue, written by SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large, Michael Z. Williamson. “Rogue”is the sequel to Mike’s novel The Weapon. While it is a sequel, it does stand alone.  Readers do not have to have read “The Weapon” for it to be enjoyed as a complete story by itself. Be forewarned that it has: “Some violence, some harsh language, and very few sexual references.” You can read some advance chapters here. When I last checked, the book was ranked around #8,000 on Amazon, overall (out of their four million titles.) Let’s …


An Early Baby Boomer’s Bug Out Bag, by Jen L.

I’d like to address the requirements for a Early Baby Boomer’s bug out bag.  The word “emergency” has a completely different meaning for those of us who are over 60 and can’t move fast, can’t climb stairs and can’t get up once we get down on the ground!  Needless to say, we can’t pack 100 pounds on our back, nor can we lift 50 pounds from the rear of the car.  But survival is still important.   My three sisters and I were born during the Korean War era, were raised on what I call a post-WWII and Great Depression farm …


Maxine’s Myopic Economic Solution: Buy More Gum Balls!

A recent news headline caught my attention: Representative Maxine Waters Calls For A Trillion-Dollar Jobs Program. After reading that I feel obliged to make a few sarcastic comments. (A privilege that I don’t abuse through over-use, as the editor of SurvivalBlog.com): Well, gosh, Maxine, if your “spending money that we don’t have creating wonderful economic prosperity” concept is so iron-clad, then why not go whole hog by pouring even bigger buckets of slop into the public trough? Why not spend $20 trillion to create zero unemployment? There would be jobs for everyone. We could develop whole new categories of jobs! …


Letter Re: CONEX Shipping Containers as Faraday Enclosures?

Captain Rawles,  As most of your readers would say, we thank you for your ministry.  My question is weather a 40′ Continental Express (CONEX) shipping containers would work as a huge Faraday cage, and thus we would be able to store most of our sensitive electronics, such as communications gear, battery chargers, e cetera.   Thank you again, – R.L.S. JWR Replies: There are a few problems with that concept: 1.) The vast majority of CONEXes have wooden floors. Wood is fairly transparent to radio frequency (RF) waves, including electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A metal Faraday enclosure needs to be an integral box. …


Economics and Investing:

B.B. sent this: Economist Calls Entitlements A Massive Ponzi Scheme And Says US Is Actually $211 Trillion In Debt Dan H. suggested this NPR piece: Switzerland: Too Strong For Its Own Good Euro’s Future—When Will Rioting Start? (Thanks to Ben S. for the link.) European Stocks Fall Sharply as Debt Fears Hit Banks Items from The Economatrix: Government Doubles Layoffs Illusion of Stable Currency Vortex Why Gold is Going to $2,000/oz. By The End of September Self-Employed Struggle as U.S. Recovery Offers Few Opportunities Even Goldman Sachs Secretly Believes that an Economic Collapse is Coming