Category: Contest

Survival Blades – Part 2, by R.H.

Glass-breaking is a function about which I keep hearing but don’t fully understand outside a military situation. I assume it refers to evacuating a car after an accident or other emergency. My problem with this is that almost nobody wears their survival knife on the way to and from work. If the knife is in the trunk with your BOB, how is it going to help? In a military scenario, I can see rescuing aircrew from a downed chopper; however, that situation is very different from what we’re likely to face. In the military, you have your gear on your …


Survival Blades – Part 1, by R.H.

I have noticed quite a bit of confusion and hype surrounding the subject of survival blades lately. I have also noted people new to survival and prepping often cannot get simple questions answered due to lack of accurate information from sales clerks and others. I have written this so that newcomers can get some balanced information. Let’s define our terms before we begin. While many readers are preparing for an end of the world scenario, survival situations as I will consider them here happen every day. As I am writing this, most of the nation has been brutalized by a …


A Commercial Diver’s Guide to Emergency Preparedness, by A. Diver

Right now you might be thinking, “Why did he use the phrase ’emergency preparedness’ instead of ‘prepping’?” The answer is really simple; “prepping” has a negative connotation in this world. While the rest of the world has been in survival mode for a long time, Americans have been living in the lap of luxury. This world of convenience that we have made for ourselves has made us fat, naive, and lazy. This “lap of luxury” lifestyle has also made us complacent. We take things as they are and expect everything will be alright. If you are reading this, you have …


“Internet” Without Infrastructure – Part 5, by R.H.

The Postmaster network Postmasters, of course, will be able to communicate through this network between themselves and share information. In this way, they will know the health of the network in various areas. They will be the first ones with the most knowledgeable about encryption and programs that are available. At first, many Postmasters may not know much about encryption or how to use the tools, but they can learn about it and even share copies of the software through the network. As soon as most Postmasters have mastered it, they can start providing encryption as a service across the …


“Internet” Without Infrastructure – Part 4, by R.H.

Protocol Refinements There are many refinements that can be used to improve efficiency and reduce the number of files to be processed, when dealing with local communication. However, these must always remain discretionary, so that they can be dropped at any time if situations change, or they are found to be unworkable. For example, directories (or folders) can be used to separate messages into different destination areas, organized by State. This reduces anonymity somewhat, but it can help organize messages and keep traffic down within local areas. If you know for certain that the recipient is in California, create a …


“Internet” Without Infrastructure – Part 3, by R.H.

Basic Techniques and Definition of Terms (continued) Sending a message. Sending a message consists of creating a text file containing the message, naming the file as described above, and getting it into a Postmaster’s pouch or multiple Postmasters’ pouches. If you don’t have a way to create a file yourself, a Postmaster can help you. The smaller your message is the better chance it has of getting through. You don’t need to go crazy with this. A message that is only 20 characters in length is not really any better than a 1K file (1024 characters). When writing out large …


“Internet” Without Infrastructure – Part 2, by R.H.

How the Network Works Basically, as soon as people start transferring files between computers, a network of sorts exists. A complex system can then be developed to get information to the right place as quickly as possible and keep everything running smoothly and efficiently. This is what the Internet does now, using millions of powerful computers and extremely complex software. There is a much simpler way of building a network that requires only the basic technology items listed above and the adoption of a few very simple standards and rules. All we need, basically, is to get a given “file” …


“Internet” Without Infrastructure – Part 1, by R.H.

Communication, outgoing and incoming, is obviously vitally important, but we tend to take for granted the various channels available to us at this time. The telephone, email, and even television and radio media rely on a huge amount of civil infrastructure– the same infrastructure that we rely on for water, sewage service, food, electrical power, transportation, shipping and basic mail, and both fire suppression and law enforcement services. The Internet has become a vital part of that infrastructure. Without a functional power grid and cable or telephone service, the Internet does not exist. It could be argued that, even in …


The Reluctant Prepper, by M.R.

Most of us, “preppers”, know that all our time, money, and hard work will only pay off if we are able to keep, use, and protect what we have. My prepping beginnings came in a somewhat odd way. It began with a small kit to keep in my SUV after following a major news story here in the Pacific northwest about a family from California who got lost in the backwoods while trying to drive from California to Oregon using back roads in the dead of winter. Slowly as the pieces were put together it was learned that the family– …


The Power of Steam – Part 4, by A.Y.

For problems on the engine itself, visual inspections are again the best way to look for problems. Loose bolts, loose or worn bearings, signs of overheating, and clanking and knocking sounds can attest to problems. Signs of overheated metal on the engine can include scarring, discoloration, scraping sounds, and emitting lots of heat from a bearing while in operation. Overheating on the engine itself can usually be attributed to not enough lubrication, so it must be determined why oil and grease are not getting to the affected part. Some engines have mechanical and hydrostatic lubricators that drive oil to moving …


The Power of Steam – Part 3, by A.Y.

Heating the Water While water management is one of the most important aspects of boiler operation, the other is being able to heat the water. Since the age of the steam engine, wood, coal, and oil have been the three main fuels used to boil the water. Each has their advantages and disadvantages, and this must be considered thoroughly for use at a retreat. In this discussion, oil will not be considered as a fuel; the reason for this is, like gasoline, it can be expensive to constantly replenish, needs large volumes of storage space, and takes refineries to process. …


The Power of Steam – Part 2, by A.Y.

Monitoring and Maintaining the Water Level Remembering the most important thing, which is Do NOT EVER let the water drop below the top of the crown sheet, there are sight glasses mounted on the backhead (rear) of the boiler to monitor the amount of water, and these must be watched constantly. Most boilers have two sight glasses; both are connected to the boiler at the top and bottom and have notches in the glass to help observe how much water is in the boiler. They also have drains on the bottom for cleaning out trash in the sight glass. These …


The Power of Steam – Part 1, by A.Y.

You have bullets, beans, band-aids, bibles, bullion, and everything else you can imagine for when the cataclysmic end of society as we know it arrives. You bug out to your retreat and have everything ready to weather the storm of looters, power hungry officials, and no infrastructure, but have you considered an alternative way to pump water? What about an alternative way to power electric generators? An alternative way to power machinery? An alternative way to move heavy equipment place to place? A way to help rebuild your community, using some clean water and anything that will burn? I am …


The 100-Year Geomagnetic Storm and The Electric Grid – Part 2, by Tango Delta

Defense Strategies If you’re not ready for TEOTWAWKI, you’re probably asking, “Can’t we do something to keep the grid from going down?” The answer is “yes”. There are two approaches– early warning and hardening of equipment. In theory, early warning relies on the ACE and DSCOVR satellites, located one million miles from the earth, to measure the intensity and polarity of a storm and then issue warnings, which utilities would use to take steps to protect their equipment. In reality, large storms are too fast, allowing maybe 15 minutes of warning. Nuclear plants are supposed to be in “cold shutdown” …


The 100-Year Geomagnetic Storm and The Electric Grid – Part 1, by Tango Delta

An average of once every one hundred years the sun takes aim at earth and launches a ginormous coronal mass ejection(CME). Less than a day later, it arrives as a cloud of charged particles and hits the earth’s magnetic field. It has a southern polarity and, therefore, “couples” with the earth’s magnetosphere, creating swirling “electrojets” of charged particles 100km above the earth. These produce geomagnetically-induced currents (GIC) in the earth itself. These currents flow into the grounding mechanisms of large Extra High Voltage (EHV) transmission towers. The current then flows through the transmission lines and into the EHV transformers in …