Hi Jim, I am looking to gauge interest from your readers for the Dakota Alert MURS Base and Handheld radios. If there is enough interest in a special group purchase, I can offer the M538-BS MURS base station for $69 (plus shipping) and the M538-HT MURS hand held for $74 (plus shipping). Interested readers can e-mail me if they would like to be part of this group buy. (see the MURS Radio web site.) Thanks! – Rob at Affordable Shortwaves
Jim, Regarding the recent blog article “Constructing an Improvised CB Radio Antenna”, here is a site that has good construction info and a few graphical images of custom built CB antennas This site by Signal Engineering adds some antenna theory for those inclined to learn more about CB antennas. If you are into experimenting with antennas, I recommend getting an antenna analyzer from MFJ. They are fairly inexpensive (as far as test equipment go) yet will yield very helpful tuning and optimization information. You can purchase one for use in nearly any radio service (ham, CB, VHF/UHF. etc).- Rob at …
I have put a great deal of the info I have gleaned from SurvivalBlog to good use in my own preps. To reciprocate, the following is one of hopefully many bits of survival information that I plan to pass along to all the readers, in the hope that it will help someone else. A short time back I read a few posts on some survival communications issues, and found them to be very helpful. They also got me to thinking about something that I did back around the start of the eighties, that I believe would be a great piece …
Recent comments in SurvivalBlog provided excellent advice on using the public library. You can gain lots of knowledge with no expense, then purchase only those books you want to keep on hand for personal reference. Also, many colleges and universities loan to local residents, so you can use them too, even if you aren’t a student. If your local libraries participate, a great resource is Worldcat. It lets you search for books from home, then go check them out, or get them through interlibrary loan. What will happen to the Internet when the SHTF? There’s no guarantee it will survive. …
Hi, Jim: As a licensed Ham and (ever since the 1970s) a licensed CBer (those were the days when CB licenses mattered.) I had to go quickly back and check the Communications in Times of Crisis posting one more time, and sure enough I did find a couple of small errors/omissions which need mention. First, the 12 watts output mentioned by the author for CB radios only applies when operating in SSB mode. If in AM mode, you are still limited to 4 watts out. Yes, I know some folks run “foot warmers” (illegal [linear] amplifiers); but, remember that those …
James When you were working at Defense Electronics I’ll bet you came across a few old articles and references to the pre-communication satellite days and how the military especially the navy handled this in a nuclear war scenario. While EMP can be handled by hardening and charge dumping circuits there is still the whole problem with a totally disrupted natural ionospheric layers. Under those conditions, it is predicted that long range HF radio just wont work on most bands most of the time. What started out as a way to listen to Soviet radio and radar transmissions was utilized by …
Jim: Great article. You say you have a stock of spices you bought in the 1980s, and this saves you money. As someone who gets a lot of pleasure from good food, I would caution that most spices lose much of their flavor in a short time, certainly within a few years, especially for typical herbs and powdered spices stored in jars as bought in supermarkets. Yours may be specially packed or stored, or selected long-life types. But for most people, as advised in the “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, buying in moderate bulk makes more sense. A mail-order …
Hi Jim, In response to letter “Re: Communications in Times of Crisis”, I am a communications specialist and an electronic engineer with nearly 30 years in communications. Here are a few corrections to a very good post – some minor, some not: Typical UHF connectors will have approximately 0.5 dB loss, not 1.5dB (get rid of them if they do!). Many times it is preferable to buy your coax cable with installed connectors. There are a number of ham radio suppliers that will professionally install (and waterproof with sealant and heat shrink) good quality connectors to custom length cables. The …
James, Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer! Nor am I a communications specialist. Nor am I an electrical engineer. All of the values cited in the following letter are estimates, and anyone is invited to refute or embellish, or add corrected information to these meanderings. I am by no means an expert on the subject, but, I do have some background in amateur radio and have been involved in communications since I built my first “comm” system at the age of 14 for myself and my buddies, and throughout the years, including time spent in the US Army Signal Corps …
Hi Jim, I’m very impressed with the response to the ad I placed on your blog site [for Centerfire Antenna]. The SurvivalBlog customers have been some of the most polite folks we’ve ever dealt with. Looking through my web traffic statistics, most of those that have been referred through your blog have bookmarked our site. I’m giving SurvivalBlog readers a $5 per antenna discount during the month of December. They can use the PayPal buttons and $5 will be refunded to their PayPal account when their order is processed. Or they can choose to have the refund donated to SurvivalBlog. …
Hello Jim, I am very new reader of your blog and am just now starting to go through the archives. Based on what I’ve read so far, I commend you on putting together a useful, fact-intensive blog on “survivalism” (whatever that means), that isn’t geared towards loony, off-the-reservation, tinfoil hat-type readers, who believe that 9/11 was a plot masterminded by Halliburton. That said, one problem I suspect I will have with your blog is that you consistently seem to be preparing for an extreme, and more-or-less permanent, breakdown of society—or TEOTWAWKI, if you will. In one of your blog posts, …
Technology has so advanced that we are now on the threshold of a new era in security. Off-the-shelf wireless burglar alarms are getting so sophisticated that you no longer need the services of a security company. If your retreat is in an area that has cell phone service, you can get a system that requires no hard line. Look for a GSM [Global System for Mobile Communications] Wireless Security System. GSM is the newer cell phone that uses a card. You don’t have to sign up for service at your retreat location and pay a monthly charge. Simply buy a …
If you’re like me, there are times when you have to leave almost all your preparedness stuff behind as you journey by air to strange, far-off places on behalf of your employer. No access to your well-stocked SUV. You are alone, and home is hundreds if not thousands of miles away. But disaster will not be consulting your personal travel itinerary before it strikes. How best should you prepare? Let’s first discuss the objective, as it determines the approach. For most of us, we leave family, friends, and a (more-or-less) well-stocked homestead behind. This means Your primary objective is to …
Mr. Rawles, Given the recent discussion about canning, it seems like sealed tin cans would make an effective Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) barrier. Why not can some inexpensive FRS radios, small transistor radios, and other electronic items in a standard soup-size can? Can some lithium batteries, and you’ll be all set. By the way, it would probably be a good idea to make sure that the lid and can have good electrical contact. Some cans might be lacquered/coated, so it might be wise to check the lid/can continuity with an Ohm meter. Regards, – JN-EMT JWR Replies: That is a great …
James, Since there seems to be big interest in the nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effect, SurvivalBlog readers might want to see some footage about the Starfish Prime test, [a part of Operation Dominic, a series of tests intended to test nuclear weapons effects in space], which knocked out some power substations on Oahu, Hawaii, around 800 miles away back in 1962. Video clip 1. Video clip 2. – David in Israel