Category: Contest

Using EMP-Hardened HF Ham Radio to Send/Receive E-Mail During Nationwide Outage- Part 2, by PrepperDoc

Transmit-Receive Frequency Offset This should be zero. Synthesized digital radios have no problem accomplishing this; however, vacuum tube rigs may struggle. Surprisingly, the less expensive HW-series transceivers and the SB’s with the vacuum tube based LMO (VFO), in my experience, have little shift between transmit and receive. Later SB-series transceivers with the solid-state VFO may have an offset. If this offset is > 100 Hz, you’ll notice it during SSB conversations (“leapfrogging” as you chase the fellow you’re talking to), and you’ll want to fix that for digital communications. Happily, the solid state LMO includes a FSK (frequency shift keying) …


Using EMP-Hardened HF Ham Radio to Send/Receive E-Mail During Nationwide Outage- Part 1, by PrepperDoc

There are multiple possible scenarios that may result in a regional an/or national combined loss of Internet connectivity and cell/telephone service, during which you would probably wish to maintain communications to loved ones and others. EMP may destroy routers, cell towers, and power sources; solar coronal mass ejection (CME) may remove power from all communications systems; cyber warfare may have similar outcomes. Travel in some of these circumstances will be difficult, or dangerous to impossible. Ham radio VHF/UHF repeaters may go down, due to power outages or EMP. Direct, point to point simplex VHF Ham radio will still work (even …


Notes from “The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs”, by ShepherdFarmerGeek

Did you know that you can get an estimate of distances and elevations conveniently using nothing more than your eyes and your hands? It’s really quite amazing and useful; hikers, hunters, and preppers really need to learn these skills. Ol’ Remus at the Woodpile Report (www.woodpilereport.com) recently recommended a book by Tristan Gooley entitled The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs: outdoor clues to find your way, predict the weather, locate water, track animals and other forgotten skills. It sounded downright intriguing, so I’ve been reading it on my Kindle and enjoying it quite a bit. The first Appendix had …


Readiness Mindset: Your Most Important Survival Tool- Part 2, by B.G.

Keep yourself from giving up. Always stay positive. Negativity will kill you faster than the lack of nourishment, enemy combatants, or nature. It is an absolute guarantee that you will fail, if you give up. Staying calm and keeping a positive mindset will give you the mental endurance to continue on and make good decisions. Find your mental trigger. This is what you will think about when you are on your last leg, ready to give up, or don’t think you can do what needs to be done. This will be your motivation to push that one more mile, to …


Readiness Mindset: Your Most Important Survival Tool- Part 1, by B.G.

Whether prepping for a EOTWAWKI situation or any potential disaster or emergency in everyday life, the most important and powerful tool at your disposal is your own mind. A person can have all of the fanciest survival gear and equipment, but without the proper mindset and training it is all nothing more than a cool looking, expensive pile of useless junk. Even a person who has studied countless books, guides, and manuals for every survival situation imaginable can be rendered completely inept in the moment of an emergency, when all that knowledge is needed the most. If you wish to …


How to Make and Utilize the Most Excellent Tinder Sticks For Starting Fires, by D.A.

Okay, when the lid comes off civilization and things are fun again, you don’t want to be the numbskull sending up a smoke signal that can be seen from space, just trying to get a fire going. You want to be the guy who kneels down for a bit and brings forth fire, like Prometheus or somebody that gets things done. I am going to teach you to make tinder that will stay lit and accelerate your fire. It will be inexpensive, too. Then you will achieve success in building a fire so you can finally crack open that can …


Maintaining Your Household in the Post-SHTF World- Part 2, by S.T.

Wood Stove Cooking The same recipes that you use in the summer with a wonder oven you can also cook in the winter on a wood stove. The Ice House Keeping Food Cold or Frozen in the Hot Summer I do not have ponds or horses and buggies to move large blocks of ice during the winter, so I must improvise. During summer, when cutting and splitting firewood, this will be done over a tarp so that the sawdust can be collected and saved in buckets. When winter is full force, I have 10 each of the 20-gallon Rubbermade totes …


Maintaining Your Household in the Post-SHTF World- Part 1, by S.T.

Today I washed clothes the easy way: I placed the clothes in the washing machine, added homemade laundry soap, and turned it on. When the washer was done, I transferred the clothes to the dryer and turned it on. When the dryer was done, I removed the clothes from the dryer and folded everything. While my automatic washing machine and automatic dryer are working, I am sitting here typing this. I do this three times every week– once for my family, once for my father who can not navigate his basement stairs, and once for my aunt who also can …


Surviving the 2015 Fire of Lake County California- Part 2, by B.G.

Looters- Lessons Learned You don’t need to be an expert killer to deter an attacker. The people who loot an evacuated area are generally cowardly. You need only appear more of a threat than the average person. Buy a gun, learn to use it, but don’t obsess. The survivalist fantasy of defending your home against squads of organized killers is just that– fantasy. What is more realistic is that you will stumble into the opportunist that thinks “mandatory evacuation” means “no one is at home”. Encounters can happen any time. If you are staying, start carrying a gun shortly after …


Surviving the 2015 Fire of Lake County California- Part 1, by B.G.

This is a true story of a thirty-something survivalist/engineer and his family as well as some lessons learned in the second most destructive fire in California history. I had seen other large fires in Lake County over the years, and they would arrive in apocalyptic fashion, as the up swelling of a mushroom cloud. This one started no differently on a windy afternoon as I was pulling pork chops off of the grill. At about one o’clock in the afternoon, the wall of black smoke that erupted to our south immediately flattened out due to the wind. It formed an …


A Holistic Approach to Packing a 72-Hour Bug Out Bag- Part 2, by C.T.

Water. Though you may die after three days without water, that is most likely in ideal conditions with low exertion. If you have ever gone hiking before, you know that after an hour or so you are pretty parched already, and by the end of a single day you will be pretty much functionally depleted of water and in desperate need of rehydration. Especially if your bug out happens to be in the summer or a very hot time of year, water is going to be the most important element you need to keep going effectively. This is where knowing …


A Holistic Approach to Packing a 72-Hour Bug Out Bag- Part 1, by C.T.

A 72-hour Bug Out Bag (a.k.a. Get Out Of Dodge bag) is a pack filled with the necessary items to sustain you while you walk from an unsafe location to a safe location. Usually the scenario is that “home” is no longer safe and you need to go to some predetermined “bug out” spot. This could be either a friend’s or relative’s house, a family cabin, or a government shelter. Basically, you are going on a hiking trip with an expected start and end point on a pre-planned route during what will most likely be a time of great personal …


The Disgruntled Man Epidemic and More Destructive Effects of Feminism, by J

“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”1 (C.S. Lewis) Postmodernism willingly allowed for and encouraged the feminist hate we witness spewed nearly everywhere today. There is no censuring the hate, only censuring of objective truth. There is no censuring immorality, only the censuring of natural law. Building on the topic of my previous submissions (Seven Survival Tips for the Modern Feminist and Seven Survival Tips For the Modern Feminist- Take II), I would like …


An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure- Part 2, by L.W.

Clean Clothes The first line of defense in protecting the skin is your clothing. Protect the hands by always using gloves appropriate to the task at hand—medical gloves for caring for the sick and injured; heavy duty rubber gloves for washing dishes and a completely different set for bathroom cleaning; garden gloves; and leather work gloves. Beyond the gloves, we also need to use clothing to protect the rest of the body. The better covered the body, the better the defense. Understand that sunscreen will eventually run out or lose its efficacy, so protecting the skin from sunburn (and the …


An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure- Part 1, by L.W.

In 2007 the British Medical Journal polled doctors about what they considered to be the most important medical advance in modern history. While not necessarily a medical advance, clean water and sanitation—the number one answer in the survey—have undoubtedly prevented more early deaths than any other single advancement. The question for us is: What do we do to ensure we have clean water and to promote sanitation when TEOTWAWKI hits? The black plague killed over 75 million Europeans. Why? Rats and their fleas were the major source of spreading Yersinia Pestis– the cause of the black plague. Why were rats …