Category: Communications & Receivers

Letter Re: Will Analog AM and FM Radio Soon Be Phased Out?

James, A friend of mine who is in the know with the FCC told me that in a few years all AM/FM commercial radio stations will be changing from analog to digital broadcast. Most or all AM/FM radios will not work after this is implemented is what he said. Have you heard anything about this and he also told me even the OTA car radios would not work and have to be replaced. I asked him if someone was going to come up with a converter like they did for televisions and he said probably not.  This person is not one …


Family Continuity Planning, by John from Virginia

It’s 2:36PM; you and your spouse are at work.  Your son is at day care and your daughter is at school.  The Schumer hits the fan. What is your Family Continuity Plan? The scenario above is very real and indeed plausible.  Many families have and will one day experience something very similar to this.  To prepare you and your family from natural or man-made disasters it is recommended to design, develop, and incorporate a Family Continuity Plan (FCP); it may one day save all of your lives. As any prepper, for a natural disaster or a TEOTWAWKI event (or both), …


Letter Re: Keeping Cell Phones Operational During Disasters

James: The article you linked to on “Nine ways to make your cell phone last the whole storm even if the power goes out” was interesting but missed a couple of key points: If you’re going to charge the phone from your laptop, only leave your laptop on as long as needed to charge the phone to about 80%, then shut it down again. Cell phone charging slows down as the battery gets closer to full, and it’s very inefficient to run the laptop while the phone is only gaining a small amount of charge. Test to see if you …


Letter Re: A Wikipedia Offline Reader

James; Speaking of offline Wikipedia tools, there are a number of offline readers available for your laptop computer. I have found these: Aard Okawix WikiTaxi and BZreader None of these are great, but they are all free. – Regards, – Patrick W. JWR Replies: Thanks for sending those links. The 3.5 Gigabytes required to store LeftistAgendaPedia Wikipedia complete with graphics is a good reason to remember to buy a laptop with a larger hard disk drive, the next time that you need to replace yours.


Letter Re: A Wikipedia Offline Reader

Hi James, I am a big fan of yours way over from Czech Republic. I want to thank you for all the so valuable information you share. You really changed my view, in fact you opened my eyes. Lately I was thinking about the offline Wikipedia and its importance in a prolonged grid-down scenario with no access to the internet. The text Wikipedia dumps are great and I started to think about how to get them in a Kindle-like reader. It seems someone did it already (WikiReader Pocket Wikipedia) and since I haven’t found it mentioned anywhere on your blog, …


Letter Re: Smart Phone Maps

Mr. Rawles, My wife and I don’t have a lot of money and we didn’t want to pay to have a smart phone so we chose to have basic phones.  A friend recently upgraded to a new carrier and gave me his Android X with a 16GB SD card in it for $25.  I was happy cause we could use to entertain the kids on road trips or what have you.  But I recently found out that I can download Offline maps onto the SD card.  I’m sure you’ve seen an SD card for these phones.  Its about the size …


Technology Today, by KCLO4

Let me premise this by saying I am no expert in the material I will provide. I, like most everyone on this site, is an avid hobbyist in these matters. For some background on me though, I am a Mathematics and Computer Science Major in my fourth year of college, a phone and computer enthusiast, I enjoy white hat hacking and build computers for fun. Maybe not the average prepper, but I get by. I am writing this article as I have found almost nothing on modern technology in the several blogs that I visit on a daily basis, even …


L.W.’s Book Review: World Radio TV Handbook

The World Radio TV Handbook (“WRTH”) is a large annual handbook that contains a comprehensive directory of radio and television broadcasting stations worldwide. It also includes articles, technical reviews and commentaries about many aspects of shortwave listening, DX (long distance) chasing, and selection of suitable radio receivers. Revised and published annually, the reader is assured that the information contained therein is fresh and accurate. (I did my review based on the 2011 edition.) Anyone who has listened to a shortwave radio will know that it is often difficult to determine the identity of the station as it is being heard. …


Letter Re: Eastern Thunderstorms and Power Outages

Good Morning Mr. Rawles, You probably already know about this, but there are several good quotes in this article about the massive scope of the damage from nothing more than a few lines of strong thunderstorms over two days rumbling through my neck of the woods. Folks were stranded in trains, stuck in traffic, crushed in their homes, and millions will be without grid power this coming week during a heat wave. Even central valleys in interior states can suffer damage similar to a large tropical cyclone, so folks shouldn’t get cocky and fail to prepare.  As an aside, I …


25 Things to Always Have With You, by R. in New York

Yes, we all know that an end of world event could happen at any time.  However I look at things statistically and realistically.  I think I have a greater chance of getting into a car accident than getting hit with an asteroid or meteor.  So I first focus on my little corner of the world.  Even if there is a catastrophic event you still need to get to your “go” bag and/or vehicle with your G.O.O.D. bag and perhaps onward to your home or retreat depending on each situation.  So what do you need for day to day survival?  Because …


Letter Re: Linking Up With Local Ham Radio Operators

James, I’m in the process of gearing up my ham radio capabilities, as well as trying to coordinate with my neighbors.  I was listening to today’s podcast from survivalpodcast.com and they mentioned a web site called radioreference.com as a method of identifying what radio frequencies your local government entities operate on.  While I was on that site, I was excited to find an amateur radio search link where you can do a search of ham licensees, by ZIP code. I looked up my zip code and was amazed at the number of ham operators listed there.  By registering on the …


Making Ham Radio Simple for the Survivalist, by Alan M.

Why Ham Radio? The first question is why ham radio? What is the allure for the survivalist? When you pick up your home phone, there is a lot of equipment between your home and the person you are talking to: miles of wires, computers, power from the grid, etc. You have no control over this equipment. Cell phones are also very dependent upon expensive, complex equipment. The internet is even more vulnerable and interdependent on numerous systems. Will these be around in a worst case scenario? How will you communicate or receive information over  long distances? Will traveling to gather …


L.K.O.’s Product Review: PocketPanel 6 Watt Portable Solar USB Phone Charger and Cinch Power CP505S Power Pack

In early January 2012, I began thoroughly testing the Pocket Panel: 6 Watt Portable Solar USB Phone Charger and the Cinch Power: CP505S Power Pack (USB Battery). These two products team up to make a compact, lightweight, portable power solution for USB powered devices such as cell phones, GPSes, digital cameras, bluetooth headsets, games, PDAs, MP3/MP4 players or small LED lamps. After a review of the individual components, I’ll summarize some quick system tests. Pocket Panel: 6 Watt Portable Solar USB Phone Charger The PocketPanel photovoltaic solar charger is rated at 6 Watts and 1.2 Amps. Reviews on the company’s …


10 Lessons Learned from the DoS Attack on SurvivalBlog, by The Orange Jeep Dad

On May 26, 2012 the SurvivalBlog.com server was attacked and knocked offline.  The method of attack used is commonly referred to as a Denial of Service or DoS attack. I won’t delve into who might have sprung the attack nor how it was done. Both topics have been covered.(1)  What will be discussed are the 10 lessons learned from the attack as it pertains to preparedness and survival. Lesson #1: We don’t know what we don’t know. We can’t all be experts in everything. Regardless of where you are in the preparedness journey, we’ve all realized at some point that …


Beyond The Four Pillars, by Adam H.

Obviously it’s fun talking about boom sticks and charging in to save the day. But here are some other items for your consideration for the other 23 hours in the day when the castle is not under siege: FOOD & WATER – Your body can last 30 days without food, and only 3 days without water. What are you doing to secure a minimum of a gallon/day for each member of your family. Remember, in a grid down scenario, it will NOT take long for industrious groups to recognize that water will be more valuable than gold. Plan on making …