Letter Re: Bosun’s Whistle for Communications

While portable radios are great for communications, I’ve had times in noisy environments where I couldn’t understand the message. Other weaknesses include the fact that they require batteries, their size, that as electronics they are susceptible to EMP, falls, and weather. Finally, they do not allow for directional finding of the other party. As such, I suggest also equipping every member of your team with a small Bosun’s whistle. These small multi-note whistles create a high pitch which can be heard above the din of a crowd. Being multi-note in capability, information can be sent (e.g. high-low for where are …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Bush Targets Iran in Speech, Implies Military Action    o o o I’ve just been notified by Survival Enterprises that the big blow-out ‘truckload sale” that I had mentioned previously is now definitely a “go.” They bought a container load of nitrogen packed long term storage foods from a U.S. cannery that is going out of business. Survival Enterprises has well over 11,000 cans of storage food coming, (a full to the gunnels 40 foot shipping container load) and it’ll be arriving sometime next week. These will be everything from beef, ham, chicken, and bacon TVP to green beans to …




Notes From JWR:

We got a rare wildlife viewing treat today, as we were driving back to the Rawles Ranch from town. Just a quarter mile from our south property line, there was a herd of at least 18 Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep standing in the county road. We counted three rams among them. They were so intent with licking salt off of the road that we had to slowly drive within 20 feet before the last of of the ewes moved off of the road. This is the closest that our kids had ever been to Bighorns. The following is another article …


Ten Things That Will Get You Killed While Bugging In, by Paul C.

“Bugging in” is the term used for staying at home while waiting for an event to pass you by. [As opposed to “bugging out”–fleeing to a lightly populated region.] Even the largest civil events of the last one hundred years haven’t set society off here in the United States of its normal course for more than two weeks. Double that for a month and you’ll survive, or out survive, any event likely to hit. After whatever event that has set society on its end has struck the 99 out of one hundred people that haven’t prepared for survival are going …


Odds ‘n Sods:

From Thomas Horn, writing in WorldNetDaily: The good news about imminent disaster    o o o Four different SurvivalBlog readers sent us the link to this news story: Proposal to send drones over Idaho raises hackles    o o o The Daily Mail reports: Dead birds rain down on towns half a world apart


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“So what’s the difference between republican and democratic forms of government? John Adams captured the essence of the difference when he said, ‘You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.’ Nothing in our Constitution suggests that government is a grantor of rights. Instead, government is a protector of rights.” – Dr. Walter Williams


Note From JWR:

The high bid is still at $260 in the current SurvivalBlog benefit auction, This one is for a big batch of 16 survival/preparedness reference books, courtesy of the fine folks at Ready Made Resources. (They are one of our first and most loyal advertisers. Be sure to visit their site and check out their huge inventory of preparedness-related products. BTW, they have additional copies of each of the titles listed below, as well as more than a hundred other titles.) The auction ends on January 15th, so get your bid in soon.


Letter Re: Tritium Night Sights for Rifles

Mr Rawles: Given that it is illegal anywhere that I know to hunt at night, and extremely inadvisable to hunt in low-light conditions – what in the heck are they making night sights for that fit hunting guns? It does seem okay to make them to fit on a rail – as backup, but for a typical battle-outfitted rifle with an ACOG or EOTech you can’t use those sights, they would be obstructed by the base. And if you’re going to put backup iron/night sights on a hunting rifle – would the money be better spent on a scope with …


Letter Re: Advice on Retreat Locales–Former Microwave Sites?

Jim: I finally got a gallery for pictures to the microwave relay bunker that I mentioned near Whitehall, Montana. . Most of them are self-explanatory but there may be some captioning later. Note that even the outhouse was galvanized and grounded. Mil-Spec! I culled through the photos and left mostly the ones that I thought showed the most interesting features – the high ceilings, thick walls, armored shutters,grounding wires, blueprints, commanding view, and of course the tower itself. I also checked my notes and saw that the internal area was approximately 1600’…or about 40’x40′. For those wondering how such a …


Two Letters Re: Sno-Seal for Boots and Gaiters

Mr. Rawles, In response to the recent article on Sno-Seal. I have owned several pair of the upper end work boots ( Nicks mostly now, used to wear Whites and even Danners ). I tend to use them a lot through a normal work week and go through a pair about every year and a half (not due to poor workmanship..just rugged work conditions ). Therefore I treat my boots with a lot of love since they cost $350+. I had a gentlemen at a boot store recommend to never use sno-seal, as he claimed it clogs the pores in …


Letter Re: Pirate Radio Stations as a Post-TEOTWAWKI News Source?

Jim, Alternative news during a crisis could potentially come from unusual sources. There is thriving shortwave “pirate radio” activity in the 6.925-6.955 MHz range even during “normal” times. During weekends and especially on holidays, you can hear many pirate radio broadcasts during the late afternoons and evening. Alternative and sometime simply odd programming abound here. If a crisis occurs, this may be a good source of information as there are quite a few pirate broadcasters located all across the US. (In the UK, the pirates tend to broadcast around 6.200-6.400 MHz.) Some pirates broadcast in upper side band (USB) mode, …



Note From JWR:

Even though there are more than 12,000 people that read SurvivalBlog every week, just handful of you chime in with your letters or suggested Odds n’ Sods tidbits, via e-mail. I suspect that most of you choose to “lurk” because contacting a fairly controversial blog directly would be a security risk. That isn’t “tin foil hat” paranoia. Rather, that is just a prudent precaution in our modern age. One great way to contact us is through an Anonymous Remailer. We’d love to hear from some of you Secret Squirrels. Drop us a line–anonymously.