Letter Re: Is Radio Direction Finding a Potential Threat for Survivalists?

Mr. Rawles: Hey, I was just wondering what everyone with radios is planning in order to conceal the location of their transmissions from people who could potentially use the signal as a beacon to guide them right to your antenna. It might be fairly difficult to build a tracker, but I suspect there are pre-made devices to direction-find a fairly strong signal (e.g. ham radio). Thanks, – James D. JWR Replies: The only people that have effective radio direction finding (“DF“) equipment and the requisite expertise to operate it are A.) The NSA and a few other government agencies such …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Dr. Geri Guidetti of The Ark Institute mentioned that she still has a good inventory of her book "Surviving A Bioterrorist Attack: Prevention, Treatment and Management." I highly recommend that you get a copy. It could be a life-saving resource!    o o o Denver digs out from an early winter storm. Governor Bill Owens is advising motorists to stay off of the state highways. Meanwhile, Christmas travelers are stranded at the Denver airport.    o o o Reader B.H. sent this one: Report Reveals 2.2 Million Borrowers Face Foreclosure on Subprime Home Loans. It looks like and ugly end …



Notes From JWR:

To borrow the modern parlance: “Woo Hoo!” We just topped 900,000 unique visits and 42.1 million page hits! Many thanks, folks. Our readership is still growing steadily. Please continue to spread the word about SurvivalBlog. I would greatly appreciate it if you’d consider adding a SurvivalBlog link to your web page and/or to the bottom of your mail “sig” block. Thanks! Today we present another article for Round 8 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize …


Pre-Crisis Survival Skills, by D.A.L.

Pre-crisis survival skills: The only tool more valuable than knowledge is an attitude of self sufficiency. The mere willingness to provide for your own needs can pay off everyday, even absent any “end of the world as we know it” event. In fact, simply being willing to provide for your own needs can pave the way for not only learning valuable skills, but saving money to boot! By way of example let me tell you about a recent experience with the steam heating system at my lady friend’s house. It is a Victorian house and the main boiler furnace was …


Odds ‘n Sods:

S.H. Suggested this site: Mattracks–Rubber Track Conversion Systems For 4X4 Vehicles    o o o I recently had a great phone conversation with Dr. Geri Guidetti of The Ark Institute. She mentioned that there are lots of people that prepared for Y2K who are now in possession of 8 , 9, or even 10-year-old stocks of gardening seed that by now have pitiful germination potential. These folks might mistakenly believe that they are still prepared to plant a sustenance garden. It is high time to replace that seed, preferably with heirloom (non-hybrid) varieties, such as those sold by The Ark …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another article for Round 8 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. If there are a lot of great entries this round of the contest, I will again be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win the contest, start writing …


City Versus Country Mindsets and Expectations, by Inyokern

As we all know, City people and Country people have a very different outlook on life. Some of that is opportunity, some is envy, some is ignorance. For the last 120+ years, the US economy (and much of the world economy) has been one of capitalism and materialism. Making stuff and selling it, making the economy grow until the physical limits are reached. Well, they’ve been reached. Peak Oil has led to the beginning of what is probably a pretty long collapse, but I can only judge based on the Roman Empire and the 1929 crash, history, rather than compare …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Hardly an unexpected news flash: Iran has announced it would replace the dollar with the euro in foreign transactions and state-held foreign assets, in an apparent response to mounting US pressure on its banking system.    o o o Aaron Krowne of AutoDogmatic.com notes: “If base metal values continue to increase by 5% per year on average, and the dollar continues to depreciate by about the same, then in about 26-1?2 years, a nickel will be worth a dollar in inherent value. If the rates are 10% per year, then in a bit over 13 years, this milestone will be …




Letter Re: First Hand Observations on the Recent Pacific Northwest Wind Storm

Background: I am an 11 year veteran peace officer and survivalist, or in more politically correct terminology, a POP – Preparedness Oriented Person. I work in a moderate sized city in the Seattle area. On 14-15 December, the Tacoma-Seattle-Everett metropolitan area suffered one of the most deadly and damaging windstorms in recorded history. The storm easily eclipsed the last major deadly blow on Inaugural Day, 1993. That storm had been identified as a “once in a century” type storm. At the peak, over 1 million people did not have power. This storm was modeled and forecasted with accuracy five days …


Letter Re Maglite Flashlight LED Conversions

I just purchased a Maglite Brand LED conversion for a two D-cell Maglite.[These replace the original filament light bulb holding “head” of the flashlight.] It was $20 at a Lowe’s [hardware store] in Oregon, with no sales tax. These take only three minutes to install. The focus feature still works great, but the best feature is that it is very bright, almost blue/white. Much better battery life and outstanding bulb life, not affected by dropping. All in all, a very good conversion for one of the best lights made. They also have them for 3 D-cell , and 4 D-cell …


Odds ‘n Sods:

From Tom at www.CometGold.com: Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez is directing a growing share of the country’s oil profits into euros as the dollar and crude prices fall.    o o o I noticed that recent short-term strengthening of the U.S. Dollar has pounded down the spot price of silver from around $14 per ounce to about $12.50. Buy on these dips!    o o o Hawaiian K. forwarded a link to some gloomy predictions from The Market Oracle: Three-Pronged Collapse … Stocks, Bonds and Real Estate