Letter Re: Residential OPSEC With Utility Workers

Hi Mr Rawles, Another tactic used by house burglars is to break in to your car.  They will steal your garage door opener and your registration.  They clip them together for identification.  Then a few days later when your car is gone they drive up, open your garage door, enter, close the door and break in to your home.  Unseen, they can load up and leave.  We found this out when our car was broken into. They dumped the glove box for the paper work, and didn’t take the radio.  Luckily they didn’t find the garage door opener.  When we …


Letter Re: Extending Battery Life

Hi Jim, Just finished reading the post on extending battery life.  The writer hit it on the head when he talked about pulse charging batteries. As a matter of fact there is a company out of Hayden, Idaho (in the American Redoubt) which makes microprocessor-controlled desulphating battery chargers.  John Bedini has been designing these chargers for many years, and has now made them commercially available.  His company is called Energenx. I have three of his heavy duty chargers for use on Trojan batteries. The chargers have a charge cycle and a desulphate cycle where they charge and discharge several times …


Economics and Investing:

Want Precious Metals? Forget Mines, Go to Landfills. (A hat tip to Diana V. for the link.) C.D.V. sent this: As More Cities Go Broke, Is Muni Crisis Finally Here? G.G. sent this: Arizona Police Bust The Biggest Counterfeit Coupon Ring Ever Also from G.G., a piece about Ka-Bar: Inside The Company That’s Made Knives For The Marines Since World War II Items from The Economatrix: Mish’s Global Economic Trend:  Global Collapse in Auto Sales Coming Up Why The LIBOR Scandal Matters:  Destruction of Confidence to the Nth Degree Was Gold Manipulated Like LIBOR Rates?


Odds ‘n Sods:

The Cato Institute investigates: Where Are The Libertarians? Predictably, the American Redoubt States ranked well. (Thanks to Joe W. for the link.)    o o o Cougars Are Making a Comeback in America    o o o We recently got our first set of Jarbox Totes from Pantry Parutus. What a clever invention! These are sturdy and stackable, and even American-made. I’m sure that we’ll be getting a lot of use out them. The only problem is that now I can see that I need to order three or four more sets…    o o o I hope that you …



Notes from JWR:

I will be the keynote speaker via teleconference this coming weekend at Charlotte PrepCon. This is an event for North Carolina and South Carolina preppers. The conference will be held on July 14, 2012 in Ft. Mill, S.C. (near Charlotte, N.C.) Phone: (800) 704-1862 for details. — Today we present another two entries for Round 41 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian …


Extending Battery Life, by D.P.

Many preppers believe that batteries should play a prominent part in their preparations. For a variety of reasons, they are probably correct in that assumption. From what I have read on this blog they also generally believe that their batteries will reach end of life (or at least have a greatly diminished capacity) after 3-5 years. This is understandable but not necessarily correct. Since deep cycle batteries are not cheap its also an expensive assumption. This submission deals with how to extend the useful life of various types of rechargeable batteries. There will be an emphasis on DIY [from very …


Residential OPSEC With Utility Workers, by Gonzo in Virginia

I want to warn and educate my fellow SurvivalBlog readers about a growing trend of people impersonating utility workers and other people in authority to gain entry to people’s homes.  My awareness of this was recently heightened when just such an attempt was made on my home against my wife. I was truly surprised, after all the talks we have had about security, just how unprepared she was for this situation. Several days ago a man came to our door saying he needed to look at our gas meter. This man was driving a white pickup, which he had parked …


Letter Re: A Different Kind of Silencer

James: The Problem Sleep Apnea has been a recent topic in the blog.  My wife and I both use one of “the machines”.  And although it is true many people just simply cannot get use to using them, others like us can no longer get a good nap or full night’s sleep without one. So, what do we do if some yahoo hits the pole in route to his (with your permission Mr. Rawles) “hid-e-hole in Idaho”. Our choices were to stay up all night waiting for the power to come back on or …. Nothing!  Sleeping without “the machine” …


Economics and Investing:

Reader B.D. sent this: Spain Will Have to Cede Most Control of Banks: WSJ Terry in Idaho recommended: The Libor Scandal: History’s Largest Market Fraud? Did someone say $800 trillion? The future of futures is uncertain: PFG Collapses Amid Fraud Allegations B.B. sent this over at Noisy Room: Nations will be Nations: ‘Euro Zone Fragmenting Faster than EU can Act’ 21% sales tax! Spain Deepens Austerity Under European Pressure. (Thanks to K.A.F. for the link.) Also from B.B.: Austerity, American Style: Scranton City Employees’ Wages Reduced to $7.25 per Hour – This Is Your Future America A clash of generations …


Odds ‘n Sods:

“Bear” over at the TMM Forums mentioned: “I just ran into this over at 4x4ham.com. It’s a short tutorial on how to use Google Earth to generate terrain profiles. In the context of ham radio, it can help you determine whether you can hit a repeater from a particular point or not. Also, if you are looking at a gulch property, you can determine where it can be seen from.”    o o o C.D.V. sent this news: Freight train derailment, explosion in Ohio prompts mile-wide evacuation. C.D.V.’s comment: “One good reason to always have Bug Out Bags ready.”    …



Notes from JWR:

We’ve nearly completed setting up our more robust server. Thanks for your patience. Please continue to use (and bookmark) “survivalblog.com” as your primary method to access the blog but make note of our NEW dotted quad address: 70.39.87.131 And, BTW, we are still in need of some mirror server space, both in the United States and offshore. — Today we present another entry for Round 41 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate …


A Little Planning and a Lot of Rehearsing, by Todd S. in Colorado

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”- General George S. Patton. Every general would tell you that planning is necessary, but our perfectly laid plans never end up working the way we think in real life situations with a nearly infinite amount of variables.  As an Army officer, I found Patton’s quote to be very true.  Unless you have all the time in the world, you are not going to be able to create the perfect plan to cover every possible contingency.  But you can certainly prepare for the greatest threats.  In …


Two Letters Re: A Low Cost Source for Powerful Magnets

Hi Jim, Just a quick note about the magnets from microwave ovens letter: Inside the Microwave there is a large capacitor (looks like a metal can with two tabs on the top of the can) – before you poke around inside, make sure that you discharge this by touching a screwdriver (held by the insulating plastic handle) between the 2 tabs – this is like poking in the back of an old television, and the discharge from that cap will knock you for a lulu if it’s holding a residual charge (and it can… for a long time.) If it …