Notes from JWR:

Thanks for all the many positive comments about the New York Times article (Sunday, April 6, 2008), titled “Duck and Cover: It’s the New Survivalism”, where I was quoted. The article has helped generate lots of extra first-time visits to SurvivalBlog. (An amazing 12,003 unique visits on Sunday, which is usually our slowest day of the week!) To all you newbies that want a quick start: Read the “About” page, and then read my first few weeks of posts from 2005, starting at the bottom of the page and working your way up.

The high bid in the current SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction lot is now at $230. This auction is for four items: a MURS Alert Base station, a MURS Alert Hand-held transceiver, an earbud, and a Kaito KA-1102 AM/FM/Shortwave. These radios were kindly donated by the owner of Affordable Shortwaves and MURS Radios. If you aren’t familiar with the Dakota Alert infrared perimeter security system, take a few minute to look at the Dakota Alert web site. These alarms are very reliable and versatile. I often recommend them to my consulting clients–especially those that plan to have lightly-manned retreats. You can easily set up multiple detector/transmitter sensors to provide 360 degree perimeter security for a large area. Instead of just a generic alarm, they will let you know which sensor was tripped, via a computer-generated voice message to a radio that you can carry on your belt. (Such as “Alert, Zone Two.”) The same radio can be used for point-to-point voice communications, on the little-used MURS band. The three radios have a retail value of $210, plus shipping. The auction ends on April 15th. Please e-mail us your bids, in $10 increments.