Category: Communications & Receivers

Letter Re: Clothes Washing Without Grid Power

Shalom Jim: Recently my wife and I have started looking to replace our old [clothes] washer and dryer machines with something more energy-efficient. Since we plan on converting to solar photovoltaic panels in the future what do you suggest we do now? 1.) Lehman’s sells an AC +/ DC operated washer. Is this (DC) feature conducive to solar technology? 2.) What are you and your family doing for your clothes washing needs? B’Shem Yahshua HaMoshiach (In the Name of Yahsua the Messiah) – Dr. Sidney Zweibel   JWR Replies: 1.) With a PV power system, using a DC motor clothes …


Product Review of the MURS Alert Motion Detector/Alarm from Dakota Alert

Mr. Rawles, I saw a mention on your site of the Dakota Alert system, and since I’ve been using one for about a year, I thought I’d sent you a few comments. First, I had tried a previous Dakota Alert system, several years ago, and found it unreliable, then tried several others and also found them either too short ranged or unreliable. I have a 1500′ driveway, about one half of which is blocked by a hill and trees. I ran across the MURS system sold by a company in Canada, and didn’t even know until I got it that …


Two Letters Re: Product Review of the MURS Alert Motion Detector/Alarm From Dakota Alert

Mr. Rawles: My friends and I have been using the MURS band for some time. It generally has better range than FRS/GMRS and is much less crowded. There is an interesting product available that works with these radios as a sort of “perimeter alarm” system. The MURS Alert from Dakota Alert is a small, weatherproof box that combines a PIR motion detector with a 1-watt MURS transmitter and a voice module. It uses six size AA batteries and has an advertised six month battery life. The unit is placed near a road, driveway, trail, etc and set up. When a …


Letter Re: MURS Radios and Microphone Connections

James, Your MURS supplier [MURS Radios] has an excellent product. Regarding inconspicuous microphones and earpieces: We’ve been using this gentleman’s products for the last 5 or 6 years and been very well pleased. About halfway down the page is the Stealth 3-Wire Surveillance Kit, which is what I use. About the only thing I’ve found that I like better is the combination earpiece mike where you talk thru your ear but it definitely has problems in high noise environment and we had trouble with them in helicopters. Every time you open your mouth, the rotor/engine/wind noise overrides your voice. Darned …


Letter Re: A Useful Reference on Amateur Radio Band Designations

Jim, Here is a useful link for a free, downloadable, “.pdf ” format, frequency allocation chart. It is located on the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) web site. It delineates the U.S. amateur bands and their assigned usages from 1.8 MHz to 1.3 GHz. Regards, – Joe from Tennessee JWR Replies: Thanks for sending that link. The radio band designations can be confusing to folks who are newcomers to the short wave listening and amateur radio worlds. I highly recommend that all SurvivalBlog readers at the very minimum buy themselves a short wave radio and a multi-band police scanner, and …


Two Letter Re: MURS Radios and Microphone Connections

Jim, I am considering buying a set of the MURS radios from your advertiser [MURS Radio] but I have a question for you and the readers. I want to use a microphone setup like this but the plugs seem to be incompatible. The radio is a Kenwood K1 plug and the microphone is listed as Motorola Pro Series 2 pin. Are there adapters to connect the two or are there similar or better throat microphone setups that will work with the K1 plug? Thanks, – W. in Wyoming [I forwarded W.’s e-mail to Rob at MURS Radio, and he sent …


Letter Re: Source for AAA to D Cell Battery Upsizers/Adapters

Jim, I trust all is well with you and yours. I recently found a source for a battery adapter. There are a lot of products that will take one AA cell and make a D cell battery. I found somebody makes an adapter that uses two size AA cells to make a D cell battery. (Twice as much battery life.) I’ve even seen a reference to some adapters that use three AA batteries. (That would be neat.) I recently received and tested C cell and D cell upsizers. The C cell is the common type, one AA battery makes one …


Letter Re: My Experience with TA-1042 Field Telephones

I noticed that one of your advertisers is currently selling surplus AN/TA-1042 Digital Non-secure Voice Terminal (DNVT) field telephones. Earlier this year I bought two pair of them and even though I don’t have the hard-to-find circuit switch, (AN/TTC-39D) for terminal to terminal dialing, when a pair is interconnected these phones offer super communications. The full duplex audio is clear and crisp over several hundred feet of wire (easily), has a ringer and audio volume control and a ring indicator LED ( flashing for ringing, steady on signifies in-use) for silent mode operation. I run mine in a local battery …


Note From JWR:

Today we welcome our newest advertiser, MURS Radio. They sell bargain-priced surplus VHF portable two-way radios that operate in the Multi Use Radio Service (MURS) allocated frequencies. These radios come complete and ready to use with antenna, battery, belt clip and drop-in charger for only $49 each. Yes, they have a few scratches and they’ll have a sticker that covers the original emergency service department engravings, but for just $49 for a 2 Watt transceiver, they are a great deal. MURS frequencies and do not require a license in the U.S. These are pre-programmed with five MURS frequencies and three …


Letter Re: Expedient Faraday Cage EMP Protection

Mr Rawles, First…this is an excellent site and, on equal footing, so is your book “Patriots”. In my opinion so much so that in the course of habitually re-reading it I am wearing the book out. In regards to EMP protection: an old refrigerator, chest freezer, unused oven, or for that matter, a metal utility cabinet etc. will work. These appliances will allow the storage of more than a few “delicate” and sensitive electronic devices. Having a redundant radio collection is advisable. These devices will function well as long as all six sides are metal, are electrically connected (a few …


Letter Re: Inexpensive CBs for a Car Emergency Kit?

Jim: You might perhaps solicit some information from other readers relating to inexpensive CB rigs that could be carried in a car emergency kit? Kind Regards, – James C. JWR Replies: My general advice is that I’d rather spend $100 on a used (but guaranteed) SSB rig than I would a brand new-in-the-box rig that doesn’t have SSB capability. Your thoughts, folks?


Letter Re: Recommendations on Solar Battery Chargers?

Jim, Could you maybe put the word out as to where to find a good reasonably priced solar panel for charging Ni-MH batteries? Thanks. – Gung Ho JWR Replies: I recommend Ready Made Resources for solar battery chargers, although there are several other Internet vendors that sell comparable products. But I can vouch for RMR’s reliability and customer service. If you are on a budget RMR’s compact Universal Solar Charger at under $28 is the way to go. But this model charges just two batteries at a time. If you have a bigger budget, any of the Global Solar brand …


Letter Re: U.S. Military Surplus Backpack VHF Transceivers

Jim and Memsahib: I talked with a fellow on 6 meters FM yesterday. He is a military radio collector. I wish that you could have heard this conversation. He collects everything, and has about every military radio. He said that he stopped buying more a few years ago because the prices got too high. After 9-11 prices skyrocketed. He also said the AN/PRC-77 is one of the radios to stay away from. The blow out their finals too easily. The older AN/PRC-25 is much better. Also that the new AN/PRC-168 are superior [in reliability to the AN/PRC-77.] Also, he said …


Letter Re: Rechargeable Batteries for FRS and GMRS Radios

Jim, Just a note on the popular two-way handheld radios sold in many big box and sporting goods stores in the US. I have been trying to standardize my rechargeable batteries for these little handhelds to the ubiquitous AAs since my scanners and many of our other small lights and some gear run on them. I have four older Motorolas from 3-to-5 years ago for our use around the farm and when traveling with more than one vehicle for any distance. First, I noticed that there has been a gradual switch for these FRS/GMRS radios that once took AAs you …


Letter Re: Surplus Wireless and Hard Wire Seismic Intrusion Detection

Hi Jim, I like your site! (And enjoyed “Patriots” quite a bit, too!) It was referred to your site by a customer in Louisiana. My customer mentioned that I could probably mention my remaining TRS-2 PEWS seismic intrusion detectors on your site. We have about 30 detector/transmitters (DT-577 V(6) /TRS-2) left. @ $60/ea. (these run on a 9VDC ‘transistor radio’ battery for about two weeks, and are on 150.6 MHz) Also have about a dozen of the R-1808 V(6) /TRS-2 Receivers (same frequency) @ $500 each. (These run on two each 9VDC batteries for a couple of days.) All of …