Category: Land Navigation & GPS

Letter Re: A Useful Free USGS Online Maps Web Site

Dear Jim, I have found an invaluable free tool for your pre- and post-SHTF operations that allows you detailed and accurate mapping for your location(s) within the U.S.  Here is a link to the U.S. Geological Survey Map Store where you can download at, no cost, detailed topographic, contour, road maps, etc. even including satellite images. These newer maps usually are around 20 megabytes, so if you have a slow Internet connection, be aware of that.    First navigate to the USGS Map Locator and Downloader Web Page   Now Double-Click to Zoom-In and Click-and Drag to Re-center the interactive …


Three Letters Re: Durable Paper For Printing Maps and Crucial Documents

JWR- Never mind the high tech paper that is bound to help increase a corporations quarterly profit margin and deplete your limited prepping budget…. Here is my input.   Tyvek used to make  various sized mailing envelopes and has replaced the old tan manila envelopes in many cases will work as a waterproof paper.  Granted you might need to use a sharpie or other permanent ink pen, but you can get these Tyvek’s  free of charge or close to it in many cases…If the outside of the envelope contains printing of some kind, turn it inside out and cut the paper …


Letter Re: Durable Paper For Printing Maps and Crucial Documents

Jim, Some time ago, I sent you an e-mail about durable printer paper. Since then, the HP LaserJet Tough Paper that I then recommended has been discontinued. I found this out when I tried to order some more, and this forced me to do some research. I found a replacement for the Tough Paper (in fact, I suspect Graytex may be the original supplier of Tough Paper as well as iGage Weatherproof Paper), and a few more options. So here’s a summary of what I found: There are some good “paper” products for printing documents that need to survive exposure …


Tactical Map Usage and Scouting, by Robert B. in North Carolina

Know your environment – getting the maps ready now In a world full of google, yahoo and portable navigators, the art of using maps kind of gets lost. In a SHTF situation, you will probably not have much of a technological tool kit for navigation, or planning. Knowing how to use maps from a tactical perspective then becomes critical skillet. Sand tables are not the most portable item to help identify and understand a terrain, but using plastic layers over a map can be very portable, and useful for viewing an environment. The layers I talk about below are a …



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 …


Letter Re: Offline Satellite Maps

Mr. Rawles, While trying to automate my Google Earth into an offline cache, I found this blog.   As it turns out, this man has described ways to load several types of maps offline, including topo maps and Google Earth.   To download Google Earth offline, you will need software from a companion site (free to use, $20 to donation) called Dr. Regener   I am now in the process of creating high resolution offline Google Earth caches that can be placed onto an external thumb drive and viewed as needed without access to the Internet. – Dan in Florida


Orientation and Situational Awareness For Your Kids, by B.P.G.

I am a victim. I am a spectator. I am luck incarnate. You would think based on my chosen career for over twenty years as a US Navy SEAL that I would be the poster boy of preparedness. You would think that now retired from the military and currently a security professional that I would have stockpiled food, weapons and supplies in preparation for the next Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 or other mass casualty causing disaster. Instead, like so many others I have assumed luck is on my side. I have assumed that because I have lived a life on the …


Letter Re: Maps, Legends, and Ground Truth

Hello James,  Our contribution to being prepared was a Sunday drive. Here is what we did:   An essential piece of equipment for anyone contemplating any kind of emergency relocation are good maps. If your relocation is a “bug out” due to deterioration of local conditions you need to have a plan. In consideration that my current well placed rural residence might be a point of contention for those who want to ‘borrow my belongings and harbor unnatural urges about the occupants I have taken to making exploratory trips about my county. Even though we are sheltering in place an …


Letter Re: Renewing Your Google Street View Opt-Out

Jim: Regarding the post of the guy in California that Google can take a photo from the public street, and see his electric meter and objects in his open windows: the problem is not so much Google as his choice to live so close to a public road that anyone could do this.  I used Street View to “sorta” see my gate, and that is all you can see–just a gate. Google Map’s satellite photos show far more detail about the layout of my “spread”, though the detail is fairly fuzzy. – Andy G.


Letter Re: Renewing Your Google Street View Opt-Out

Dear Editor: A few years ago I blocked out the views of my house from Google Street View.  However, I recently discovered that the Street View vehicle had taken updated pictures of my street, and my house was again visible, and in much greater detail!  I was actually able to read my electrical meter from Street View and view objects inside of my house by zooming in on windows that were open.  It also appears that the Street View cameras are much higher than the previous vehicle; based on the height of a pedestrian on my street, the cameras look …


Preppers Afloat, by Captain Cathar

Thank you for creating your wonderful SurvivalBlog site; it is a much-needed voice of sanity in a world of foolishness and denial. We value your site for the shared experiences of your contributors and the working knowledge that many have volunteered. I hope we can also contribute in some small way, but maybe from a different perspective. My wife and I have been full time live aboard boaters in the northeast for the last 20 years or so. The core tenants of prepping have always been near and dear to us – not just because we have a special interest …


Letter Re: Cabela’s Recon Hunt Software

James Wesley: I would like to let everyone know about an application called Cabela’s Recon Hunt. It has a very low cost, gives access to every map that is offered to the public. Lots of maps can be stored off line (depending on the memory capacity of your device) and one of the best features is that you can make notes that say where you saw game at certain GPS coordinates. (Or perhaps where there is a cache of supplies stashed. Though I wouldn’t label it as such.) But on a hand-held device enclosed in a Faraday cage this could …


Letter Re: Some Useful Mapping Web Sites

James, I’m sending you a link to some detailed maps of the world based on detailed data: several basic variables such as average precipitation, temperature variables, population, earth lights (and change in earth lights over time), biomass maps (vegetation) and more. Some linked pages contain data that can be used in virtual globes such as NASA World Wind. If you explore the various links, you can find a wealth of high quality data that could be used in a long term grid down/other scenario where this basic world information could be very useful for travel, and more. This can also …


The Care and Processing of Small Livestock on the Gulf Coast, by Jessica S.

The following are my observations based upon my experience with the care and processing of small livestock, living in a hot and humid climate on the Gulf of Mexico Poultry: Chicks of all species need warmth for their first few weeks, but on the Gulf Coast, and anywhere else with a hot climate, it’s easy to overheat them. If you’re keeping the birds outside, and it’s anything over 80F or so, they probably do not need additional heat from a heat lamp or other source. Generally, I would take away a heat lamp and use a regular incandescent bulb if …