Year: 2026

Preparedness Lessons From Communist Mongolia – Part 2, by G.K.

(Continued from Part 1.  This concludes the article.) During winter, even the U.S. Embassy monitored the grid closely. The possibility of a complete system failure was taken seriously enough that commercial flights were placed on twenty-four-hour standby for potential evacuation of official personnel. We were nongovernmental residents. Those plans did not include us. Our planning had to be personal. Cold changed how time felt. Days stretched and compressed unpredictably. Waiting became a skill. Movement slowed, not from laziness, but from necessity. Mistakes in cold were costly. Dropping something, misjudging exposure, forgetting a step could mean numb fingers, wasted effort, or …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers. Today: A map of State Minimum Wages, in Dollars, as of January 2026. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.       (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.) Economics & Investing Links of Interest For the first time ever, silver touched $100 per Troy ounce in Shanghai on Wednesday (January 14, 2026.) Soon after, the spot price on the Comex briefly touched $93.98 per ounce — another all-time high!  This brought to silver-to-gold ratio down to around 50-to-1. (Not trying …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — January 15, 2026

On January 15, 1907, the first 3-element vacuum tube was patented by American inventor Lee DeForest. — This is the anniversary of the 2009 “Miracle On The Hudson” engines-out emergency water landing. — Today is the birthday of Dr. Edward Teller who co-invented the H-bomb and worked on the Manhattan Project. — Today’s guest article was written by a gentleman who has expressed an interest in advertising in SurvivalBlog, so it will not be part of the writing contest judging. — We need a few more entries for Round 122 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $978,000 worth of …


Preparedness Lessons From Communist Mongolia – Part 1, by G.K.

We lived in Mongolia in the early 1990s, for a few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, during a time when the system had officially ended but its habits had not yet loosened their grip on daily life. I was in my early thirties, married, with two young daughters, trying to build a life far from anything familiar. We were not passing through, and we were not insulated expatriates. We were attempting to function inside the local economy, under local conditions, with consequences that were immediate and personal. At the time, I did not think of what we …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column: mutated bird flu viruses. Bird Flu Mutations Cause Concern Reader B.T. sent us this, from The New York Times: Bird Flu Viruses Raise Mounting Concerns Among Scientists. The article …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — January 14, 2026

On January 14, 1799. American inventor Eli Whitney received a government contract for 10,000 muskets. While his competitors largely produced guns with hand-fitted parts, Whitney became famous as an innovator with his designs that featured interchangeable parts. — And on January 14, 1873: “Celluloid” was registered as a trademark by its inventor John Wesley Hyatt. — I just heard that cartoonist Scott Adams passed away. Rest in Peace. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 122 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy Three-Day Course Certificate. …


The Elenco Two-IC AM Radio Kit – Part 2, by Mike in Alaska

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) In a previous article I had described a possible need for having some form of radio communications receiver in a TEOTWAWKI situation. It is just good policy to have something you can hide, run on very low voltage, and in the case of this radio, a battery that you can recharge using a solar panel to generate a charge into a battery bank. This radio is an AM receiver set only. However, the chip set can work at much higher shortwave (SW) frequencies and I am researching the possibility of using it …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.  Pictured above is an old stereo view of the frosted beards of some Klondike miners. — Mike in Alaska wrote: “In the time since December 20th, 2025 and this morning we have had consistent temperatures at or below -35 degrees; in addition we have had 23” of snowfall, and our snow will not …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — January 13, 2026

On January 13, 1404, The Act of Multipliers was passed by the English Parliament, forbidding alchemists to use their knowledge to create precious metals. (It was feared that if any alchemist should succeed, it would bring ruin upon the state.) — January 13, 1733: British officer James Oglethorpe and 130 English colonists arrived at Charleston, South Carolina — And January 13, 2023, China reported 60,000 COVID-19-related deaths in just over a month, while another report estimates 900 million people have been infected, 64% of the country’s population. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 122 of …


The Elenco Two-IC AM Radio Kit – Part 1, by Mike in Alaska

Introductory Note: I purchased this kit for this article and I do not represent the Elenco Company. They have not paid me or provided any materiel for writing this article. This article is a review on the Elenco Model AM-780K AM radio kit. It was designed for students in an electronics lab class, and when I was working on my associate’s degree in Electronics Engineering the college I was attending issued us both the AM radio kit from this company as well as the AM/FM version of it. The knowledge I want to pass on here is that should you …


SurvivalBlog’s American Redoubt Media of the Week

This weekly column features media from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. Recent Redoubt Links Congrats to gun trainers Clint & Heidi Smith, who are opening a new shooting school at the Cody Shooting complex, near Cody, Wyoming. Video: 15 Wyoming Freedoms That Would Be Illegal Almost Everywhere Else. JWR’s Comment:  Interesting… It appears that they sped up the video by 10% or more, to match the short attention spans of some contemporary viewers. Breakthrough: Idaho Lab Produces World’s First Molten …