Letter Re: Thanks for the Information

Hugh,

I am now a senior citizen of 66 with a 56 year old wife. I’m a former Vietnam era infantry platoon leader, infantry OCS at Fort Benning, and Ranger trained.

I had sworn never to again carry a firearm after I left the service. However, recent events in my upscale suburb of Cleveland, Ohio caused me to rethink my promise. We have had two break-ins in the area from gangbangers out of the city seeking goods to trade for drugs. Recently two girl-cashiers were killed during an armed robbery of a gas station four miles away. Also, very recently, our local pharmacy was robbed by armed men from Detroit. Finally, my wife and others were threatened by a drug gang in nearby Elyria, Ohio when they attempted to persuade witnesses to testify against a gang member who had murdered a distant family member of ours. We are now both concealed carry permit holders, with the complete encouragement of the county sheriff’s office, I might add.

My point is that the economic disruption that you mentioned would lead to increased violence is already beginning, based on the disasterous and, in my opinion, intentional efforts of this President to destroy us. It is already very real to us in what was, until quite recently, a suburb where no one ever locked their doors. I fully expect conditions to become worse as the Affordable Care Act further degrades our economy and the Fed continues to devalue our currency by printing money. The apocalypse may well be evolutionary, creeping up on us gradually while we wait for an apocalyptic event to occur.

As an Ohioan, with my own business rooted to northeast Ohio, it would be very difficult for me to leave the state and bug out early. There is virtually no bug out location 200-300 miles away from a major city. Ideally, I would love to move to Idaho where my friends live on top of a mountain, very defendable, in Orofino. Also, as an Ohioan, the ability to leave by vehicle in advance of a cataclysm is more limited, since I would need to pass through heavily-populated areas.

Any suggestions for Ohio?

Hugh Replies: You are right in seeing that the population density is the major barrier to survivability in Ohio. However, I have several friends who live in the area, and they have similar plans that involve staying in place unless forced to move. Given that moving isn’t a reality, your best bet is to stay “grey” in regards to your preps, but to be involved in the local community and develop relationships with those in your neighborhood. You will not be able to survive as an island on your own. You need defensible space around you, and you need the community. Make sure that you have a plan B so that you don’t end up as a refugee.

Economics and Investing:

The Dollar Cannot Be Devaluated and Suicidal Bankers. When serious problems for the dollar surface, as they surely will, and the U.S. has little or no gold to fall back on, the U.S., with its back to the wall, may become a very dangerous entity in the world. Would it be possible for those running the U.S. to loose their heads and choose a suicidal nuclear war in response to a desperate economic situation? Does the destruction of the whole world matter to men about to take their own lives? Do suicidal bankers worry about the fate of the world? – J.W.

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Items from The Economatrix:

Home Sales Look To Be Slowing Down In Coming Months

Spotlight On The Economy: Consumers Spending Still So-So

U.S. Fourth-Quarter GDP Nudged Up To 2.6%

U.S. Jobless Claims Fall To Four-Month Low

Odds ‘n Sods:

Sounding incredibly familiar to the 1994 fiasco with Olympic Arms (and the OA-93), some manufacture has apparently created a commercially available pistol that fires the 7N6 5.45×39 cartridge, and true to form the ATF has reclassified the steel core ammo as armor piercing. There is no word yet as to who has produced the pistol (or, like in 1994, if any of them have even really been sold yet).

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SurvivalBlog has previously reported on the Jemez Springs Sheriff’s trouble with the TSA (and by association, the DHS) for attending a Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association conference. Now the Sheriff, who received a commendation and a raise, has been fired by the officials in Jemez Springs.

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The absurdity of our justice system knows no bounds. A cancer patient was jailed for late payment on a 5$ dog license renewal in Massachusetts. – H.L.

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For those that can grow it… Bamboo: The Ultimate Homestead Survival Tree – R.F.

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The Government has 30,774,038 employees. What do they do? – B.B.

Notes from HJL:

Apparently, during the conversation this week on SurvivalBlog about the abuses of the Albuquerque Police Department, there has been another incident. The family is insisting that the man was unarmed with only his cellphone in his hand and was trying to surrender. Add another one to the investigation. APD has now been under investigation by the DOJ since November of 2012 over similar incidents.

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Today we present another entry for Round 51 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  5. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  6. A $300 Gift Certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  7. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  8. A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com, (currently valued at around $180 postpaid),
  9. Both VPN tunnel and DigitalSafe annual subscriptions from Privacy Abroad (a combined value of $195),
  10. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304,
  11. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit, and
  12. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand,
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589.
  3. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100 foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  4. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P .),
  5. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  6. A full set of all 26 books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  7. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  8. EP Lowers, makers of 80% complete fiber composite polymer lowers for the AR-15 rifles, is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  9. Autrey’s Armory – specialists in AR-15, M4s, parts, and accessories is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  10. Dri-Harvestfoods.com in Bozeman, Montana is providing a prize bundle with Beans, Buttermilk Powder, Montana Hard Red Wheat, Drink Mixes, and White Rice, valued at $333,
  11. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate, and
  12. Organized Prepper is providing a $500 gift certificate.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security,
  5. A MURS Dakota Alert Base Station Kit with a retail value of $240 from JRH Enterprises,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances, and
  7. Ambra Le Roy Medical Products in North Carolina is donating a bundle of their traditional wound care and first aid supplies, with a value of $208.
  8. SurvivalBased.com is donating a $500 gift certificate to their store.

Round 51 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Picking a Primary Residence Location for Preparedness-Minded People, by TOGA

My family and I first became serious about prepping around 2006. It wasn’t one event that pushed us into it but the incremental deterioration of our society, including natural disasters, terrorism, weather, erosion of the Constitution, developing police state, corrupt politics, elimination of liberty. It seems every topic is something to shake our head at. We began to plan, and we began to research. As everyone reading this blog knows, prepping is a life-long quest. Rather than start with the immediate needs, we thought it prudent to plan our long-term goals up front. First, we contemplated how we wanted to raise our children. Then we thought of where to raise our children, put down roots, and start living the life that we’ve not only dreamed of but felt was a necessity to ensure our survival. Quickly, we realized that last question wasn’t one that could be solved overnight. We came up with a system to rank, in order, every consideration we deemed important. Using a tally system of each area, we were able to narrow our search down considerably. So, it may not be a perfect system, but it works for us and hopefully it’ll help out some other family that has struggled with the same decision. Keep in mind, I’m not an expert on any of the listed topics. What I know is from independent research, and my conclusions may be way off from yours.

Our first step was listing a group of states that we would be open to living in the rest of our lives. We chose six states that we know a bit about, either from living there, vacationing there, family ties to the area, or researching further based on other recommendations. The book *****Strategic Relocation, by Joel Skousen, was a big help with this, among other things. Our states that we wanted to focus on (in no order) were Idaho, Montana, Missouri, Wyoming, Washington, and Michigan. Of course, every state has at least some potential, but there were many states that I wouldn’t even begin to consider, for example New Jersey, New York, and California.

With our six candidates listed on the “x” axis at the top of our Excel file, we moved on to listing more specific items. These were rank ordered in three weighted groups on the “y” axis on the left side of our Excel file. Each group, from top to bottom, contained six, five, and six specific items respectively. The top group was named “Extremely Important”. The state winning a category within that group received ten points. For example: If one particular state was rated number one in every category within this group, that top score would be 60 points. Second place would receive nine points in that category, and so on. In group two or “Very Important”, the state winning a category within this group received eight points. In group three or “Other Considerations”, the state winning a category within this group received six points. Once all items were graded (based on personal needs and research), the total score would give us our ideal location. (It is yet to be seen if it’s a valid strategy, since we haven’t made the move yet!)

Group One: “Extremely Important Considerations” (listed randomly)

  1. Population- Basically, the less people overall, the better (as we see it). We especially didn’t want to live an urban or suburban lifestyle. With large populations come problems, especially in dire times. Winner- Wyoming; Last place- Michigan
  2. Availability of Work- We’re not self-employed (yet), so we need to work in our current field or closely-related field. It doesn’t do us much good to move to an otherwise ideal location when we have no way of making money. Winner- Missouri; Last place- Wyoming
  3. Like-minded Folks- It’s generally accepted that the farther away from urban centers you are, the more people are self-sufficient. Religion plays a role along with politics. A healthy dose of veterans in the area is welcoming. Mainly though, living around people that are patriots, love the simple life, and are good, caring people–that’s the kind of people we like to live around. Living in Nancy Pelosi’s jurisdiction would probably be a definite no-go for us. Call me crazy. Winner- Idaho; Last place- Michigan
  4. Cost of Land- This made our top group because if we can’t afford exactly what we need on our budget, we can’t very well live there. By continuously comparing similar pieces of property in different locations in each of these states, gradually we were able to see the norms for property pricing. It was interesting to see that in some areas it’s almost the same price to get a piece of land as it is to get a similar piece of land with a home on it. Obviously the value is in the land in these areas. Winner- Missouri; Last place- Montana
  5. Gun Laws- Firearms were a huge part of my life growing up. It was crucial to my development as a young man. Marine blood runs through these veins, and knowledge and use of firearms was a rite of passage. The Second Amendment is kind of a big deal in my family. With less restrictive gun laws in place, crime is lower. Plus, I want to be able to defend myself, my family, and my neighbors when called upon– not wait on the police. Winner- Wyoming; Last place- Michigan
  6. Defensibility- How much protection does the natural environment provide? Is it in tanker country, or do you need to fast rope from a helo to get to it? Many different parts of each state were considered. Ideally, we’d like to be on a level area, for farming, which is surrounded by forest with mountains surrounding that. However, I’m not Bill Gates, so I may have to settle for less than what I consider ideal. Winner- Idaho; Last place- Michigan

In this “Extremely Important Considerations” group, the overall winner was Idaho; Michigan came in last place.

Group Two: “Very Important Considerations” (listed randomly)

  1. Growing Season- We plan on, like many preppers, growing most of our food. While a long growing season tends to be more southern and short seasons to the north, generally, we’re looking for a good middle ground. I’d rather not shell out, in dollars or sweat, to put up greenhouses if they aren’t needed. Consideration was also given to likely diseases and infestations in specific zones. Also considered were microclimates in areas of the state we were likely to live. The winner didn’t necessarily have the longest growing season, but a combination of qualities we were looking for. Winner- Washington; Last place- Wyoming
  2. Climate- How much precipitation does a state receive? This number could be skewed, based on different climates in different parts of the state. For example there is considerable difference between Seattle and Spokane, so we adjusted based on where in the state we were likely to live. We also looked at the average amount of snow fall. Our thinking led us to consider average snow fall in regards to pasturing livestock, roof snow-load requirements, accessibility in the winter, and a general gauge of how hard a winter is. We chose the state on our list with the least amount of snow fall but still enough. Also considered were types and likelihood of natural disasters. Winner- Missouri; Last place- Michigan
  3. Major Cities Within 200 Miles- As we would prefer to be farther rather than closer to major metro areas, this made the “very important” group. Following a massive implosion of society, many people will want to leave the cities. I for one would like to avoid people who have little to lose, a family to feed at all costs, or people who would see this event as an opportunity to quench their more sinister desires. Figuring that all vehicles combined average around 20mpg and the average fuel tank is around 15 gallons, we concluded that an average total travel distance of 300 miles was possible with a full tank of fuel. Now, we figured that at any one time, the average fuel tank is about half full, giving them an average of 150 miles until their vehicle is empty. We threw on an extra 50 miles for slop. That’s not exactly scientific, but we think it’s sufficient for our requirements. Our goal is to stay outside of 200 miles of these cities. The top score went to the state with the lowest number of major cities within 200 miles. Winner- Montana; Last place- Michigan
  4. Income Tax- Plainly and simply said, we’d really like to keep the money we make. So, looking for a state with no or low income taxes is beneficial to us. Since we’re a military family, a state that won’t tax my meager (and shrinking) pension is a big plus. There are a few states that have an income tax but DON’T tax military pensions–good for them. Now, that’s not to say we don’t consider the states’ overall tax burden. (They all get their money somehow.) Winner- Both Washington and Wyoming (tied); Last place- Idaho
  5. Overall Soil Quality- Soil quality is important since we’ll be growing much of our own produce. We were not looking for a solid slab of granite to plow nor were we looking for a nutrient-deprived and chemically-saturated ground. Obviously, some parts of states are better than others, but we took that into consideration. Winner- Idaho; Last place- Wyoming

In this “Very Important Considerations” group, the overall winner was Washington; Wyoming came in last place.

Group Three: “Other Considerations” (listed randomly)

  1. Property Taxes- After income taxes, to my family this is the next most important type of tax. Assuming we choose a state with no income tax, we’d also like to find which one has the lowest property taxes. This was the hardest to research, since there are many variables. We had to break it down by county many times to get a real feel. It still amazes me that folks have to pay a tax on something they already own free and clear. Winner- Wyoming; Last place- Michigan (by a fairly wide margin)
  2. Access to Water Sources- Precipitation greatly influences this, but we also went into average well depths, abundance of surface water, and quality of water. A nice mountain artesian well would be wonderful. Some areas may have good access to water, but the ground which it is in is heavily contaminated with pesticides and other chemicals. Winner- Michigan; Last place- Wyoming
  3. Encroachment- I saw what happened to a small farming community in the southwest when the housing boom took off. In a matter of just ten years, corn fields had transformed into subdivisions and Walmart stores. That stuck in my mind; you can believe that. Either you get WAY out in the boonies, or you heavily research local planning to see if/where/when any further development may occur. I don’t plan to be on the outskirts of a developed area at all, but I’ll still pay attention no matter where we look. I’d hate to buy a good place then have Tesla build its battery plant in my backyard. Winner- Wyoming; Last place- Montana (Californiacation is prevalent primarily west of the Rockies)
  4. Sales Tax- When it comes to taxes, less is better. Again, I like to keep the money I earn. The only state in my group that doesn’t have a sales tax is Montana. However, if taxes are “extremely important” to you, perhaps you can work in Washington (where there is no income tax), live in Idaho (with low property tax), and make large purchases in Oregon or Montana (where both have no sales tax). Winner- Montana; Last place- Washington
  5. Cost of Living- Keeping expenses low keeps more purchasing power in my pocket. Some places are more costly than others, based on distance from suppliers or high demand and low supply of a particular product or service. Winner- Wyoming; Last place- Idaho (NOTE: All candidate states were well below the national average.)
  6. Demographics- This can potentially be a touchy subject with people. There’s always someone that wants to throw “racism” at you, but facts are facts. All of the research that I’ve seen tells me that areas with high populations of minorities tend to have higher crime rates. While this isn’t the case in all situations and locations, it is a trend. I’ve also seen it with my own eyes for many years. Also considered were religious and political affiliations. Winner- Wyoming; Last place- Michigan

OVERALL RANKINGS

  • 1st Place- Missouri (106 points)
  • 2nd Place- Wyoming (102 points)
  • 3rd Place- Idaho (101 points)
  • 4th Place- Washington (95 points)
  • 5th Place- Montana (92 points)
  • 6th Place- Michigan (76 points)

So it seems that Missouri is my overall winner. I’ll now be focusing most of my attention on my top three states. Each of these states are, in some way, very important to me, and I really wouldn’t mind living in any of them under the right situation. My rankings could easily change if I assigned a specific point scale for each and every item discussed, but that would mean organizing each subject by priority. That can be done, and I may end up doing that, but it is very difficult to determine which subject is more important than the other for some categories. I’m sure that each person that decides to run this test will have different results. I also think that doing it for yourself will give you a clearer picture on what areas to focus on as a primary residence or retreat location. Even if this exercise doesn’t give you the wanted results, I can guarantee that you’ll learn many things regarding retreat locales that you didn’t know before. Hopefully, you’ll be able to narrow down your search in minimal time and locate your ideal site. Thanks to JWR, HJL, and all the other contributors at SurvivalBlog!

Three Letters Re: Dealing With Asthma When The SHTF

Hugh,

A.C. wrote a very good article on asthma, but left one important care plan out– immunotherapy. Immunotherapy, also known as allergy shots, helps a person’s body become tolerant of the things they are allergic to. After allergy testing, the allergist can prescribe allergy injections for what a person is specifically allergic to. A person can receive weekly allergy injections starting at a small concentration and dose of these allergens and working up, to build up a tolerance for their allergies and possible asthma triggers. This can take three to five years, so I’m not sure if there is time before the SHTF or not. This doesn’t work for all asthma, as not all asthma is triggered by allergies, but it is another way to help control your asthma that you may want to consider. – C.D.

o o o

Sir,

Just wanted to add this tip. The asthmanefrin medicine can be used in an ordinary nebulizer. You don’t have to use the atomizer that comes with it. Also, albuterol can be used in an atomizer, which can be useful because it is more portable than most nebulizers. It also operates on batteries, which is important if the grid goes down temporarily or you are away from home. I recommend getting an atomizer kit to carry in your vehicle. I also recommend getting several refills to use in your nebulizer, in case you run out of albuterol and can’t get emergency medical help for some reason. – R.G.

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HJL,

As a reminder to people out there, Albuterol is available in TABLET form and works only slightly slower than inhalers (minutes at most), but the shelf life, if stored properly, can be many years. The 4 mg immediate-release tablet is equivalent to two puffs of an inhaler. Talk to your doctor about the possibility of trying some tablets, and then you could possibly have a more stable shelf supply in an emergency that was long term. – Dr. Bob

Hugh Adds: Dont for get to add our very own Doc Cindy to the list of helpful tips: Seven Ways to Stretch Your Medicine Safely – and – A New Twist on a Live-Saving Medicine.

Economics and Investing:

The Real Reason the U.S. Dollar Has Value.

Odds ‘n Sods:

7% of the California State Senate members have faced felony charges so far this year. This august body is starting to sound a lot like Mike Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) cabal.

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An interesting tale of horse apples, chocolate, and politicians.

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You might want to stock up now… quickly. 25 drug companies to phase out animal antibiotics. – R.L. Thats over 99% of the supply.

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On Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden said he believes all of the country’s illegal immigrants are “already American citizens.” – P.M.

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The EPA, FBI Raid USA Brass. Employees tested positive for higher-than-normal levels of lead. USA Brass only deals in brass and the accusation is that they didn’t provide employees with adequate protective gear. – B.B.

Notes from HJL:

Today we present another entry for Round 51 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  5. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  6. A $300 Gift Certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  7. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  8. A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com, (currently valued at around $180 postpaid),
  9. Both VPN tunnel and DigitalSafe annual subscriptions from Privacy Abroad (a combined value of $195),
  10. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304,
  11. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit, and
  12. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand,
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589.
  3. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100 foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  4. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P .),
  5. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  6. A full set of all 26 books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  7. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  8. EP Lowers, makers of 80% complete fiber composite polymer lowers for the AR-15 rifles, is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  9. Autrey’s Armory – specialists in AR-15, M4s, parts, and accessories is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  10. Dri-Harvestfoods.com in Bozeman, Montana is providing a prize bundle with Beans, Buttermilk Powder, Montana Hard Red Wheat, Drink Mixes, and White Rice, valued at $333,
  11. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate, and
  12. Organized Prepper is providing a $500 gift certificate.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security,
  5. A MURS Dakota Alert Base Station Kit with a retail value of $240 from JRH Enterprises,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances, and
  7. Ambra Le Roy Medical Products in North Carolina is donating a bundle of their traditional wound care and first aid supplies, with a value of $208.
  8. SurvivalBased.com is donating a $500 gift certificate to their store.

Round 51 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Building a Security Camera System, by S.S.

I have been working for several years on building a security camera system. I have finally found a camera that I really like. Previously, I had tried a number of things that did not work very well:

  • Old-fashioned NTSC cameras with coax to a PCI video card resulted in terrible video quality, no matter how much money was spent.
  • Webcams of various types offered pretty good video quality but were limited by the length of the USB cable.
  • The Toshiba IK-WB02A IP network camera were too much money for not very good quality imaging. I bought several of these at about $100 to $150 and liked them at first, but in the end, the 640×480 resolution was just not good enough.
  • The Panasonic WV-SP305 1.3MP IP network camera had decent video quality, but the price was around $400. The camera I have was purchased by my office as an evaluation item and then turned over to me when the decision was made to go with similar resolution Axis M1113 cameras at about $450 each. The price for both of these is more than I could really afford in setting up something at my house.

So, while I am not in the security system business, I have spent a considerable amount of time and money studying the subject. What had really puzzled me was the differential between the ordinary consumer photo cameras, which had low prices and good quality, versus the security world, where low quality and high prices were the rule. I reasoned that since these were much the same inside, eventually someone would repackage the parts into what I wanted. So I kept looking on eBay for an inexpensive camera with good quality.

AOTE Camera from China

Six months ago, I found a seller on eBay who was offering 5MP cameras for around $150. There was no information about this AOTE brand anywhere on the Internet, but still the package was tempting and I ordered one. It arrived in about 15 days from China and was well packaged.

Below is the eBay link to one of the cameras. There are lots of different models. These mostly differ in the housing and how many LED lights are attached. The cameras inside are comprised of a small stack of 1.5 inch square circuit boards that actually take up very little room in the housing. By adding another layer to the board stack, you can get additional features, such as Power over Ethernet (POE) option. Alternatively, you can get different CCD sensor options on the front board layer. There are also various lens that can be selected.

The following link is for one version with the camera options that I liked: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=121146751693

The box contained the camera, a CD Rom disk, a power supply, and a sheet of paper with some brief instructions. I do not normally use the Windows operating system. Instead, all of the computers around my house run various flavors of Linux. I used the Linux Wine program to install the supplied software. It ran somewhat but not too well. I dumped the .EXE file using the Strings program and was able to locate some URLs in the code. With this information, I was able to stream video from the camera using the VLC program as the client.

Encouraged, I ordered another and then later another, as money allowed. I now own three of these cameras.

Camera ONVIF API

I was able to puzzle out the Open Network Video Interface Forum (ONVIF) specifications and use this application programming interface (API). The ONVIF protocol was developed by a number of the leading security camera companies. As more and more Internet Protocol (IP) cameras were developed, the various models would have divergent features and interfaces. This was troubling to systems integrators who had to combine the various devices into a functioning security system.

So the purpose of the ONVIF specification was to define an interface that could be used to query the camera and have the camera respond with its specifications. ONVIF uses the Extensible Markup Language (XML) syntax in Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) format. This can seem on the surface to be a little intimidating, but in the end I was able to invoke the API from the command line using the CURL program. So, for example, here is the command to get the device profiles by sending the contents of a pre-written file with the SOAP XML as the contents.

$ cat getProfiles.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:trt="http://www.onvif.org/ver10/media/wsdl"> <soap:Body> <trt:GetProfiles/> </soap:Body> </soap:Envelope> $ curl http://192.168.1.124/onvif/device_service --data @getProfiles.xml |xmllint --pretty 1 - ... Lots of XML output ...

It looks a little complicated, but it’s not too bad as compared to some things, like say gardening or animal husbandry, for instance.

In the end, what I discovered is that to access the camera, you had to first invoke this GetProfiles function. This returned a profile name.

Then using the profile name, it was possible to use the GetStreamURI and GetSnapshotURI functions to obtain the URLs at which the camera would respond with either a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) video stream or a JPEG image snapshot. These are as follows:

rtsp://192.168.1.124:554/mpeg4 rtsp://192.168.1.124:554/mpeg4cif http://192.168.1.124:80/cgi-bin/snapshot.cgi?stream=0

The other key piece of information was the size of the image. This was found in the profile information and was as follows:

<tt:Bounds height="1920" width="2592" y="0" x="0"/>

This is a BIG image.

Image Quality

As far a image quality goes, it is pretty good. There is a little jitter and noise when streaming h.264 video, but this may just be inherent in the compression process. Due to the large amount of data being sent around for video, it may overwhelm some networks. Ethernet switches and routers will drop packets if overloaded.

The way h264 video works is that it will send a full video frame called the I-Frame. Then, for a period of time, there will only be sent incremental changes. If you drop an I-Frame, this is bad and causes a blank screen for a while until the next I-Frame. Is this the fault of the camera? Not really. It is just the way h264 video works. You just need to be aware of this possibility and make sure that your network design is sufficient for the amount of data. There is also a noticeable lag due to the time requirement associated with video compression.

The JPEG still-frame images are excellent. The quality is about what you would get in a typical photo camera, and it turns out that the recording and motion detection software I use only needs single JPEG frames.

The night vision capability is also quite good. As you transition from day to night, the camera will automatically adjust. Be aware that while the image will be in color during the day, at night there is not enough light. The camera will compensate and only produce a black-and-white image. The built-in LED light sources help. They do produce some heat, and I have noticed little heat vortex distortions when streaming. These give the appearance of little bugs flying around the camera. If night vision is a prime consideration, then it might be good to purchase independent light sources and mount them away from the camera to isolate the heat.

By doing illumination, you are not being stealthy. The cameras themselves have a noticeable, visible to the naked eye, dull red glow from the LEDs. The generated light would certainly be visible to someone with the proper equipment, such as a night vision scope. Since I am in a city/suburban environment, the location of my house is no secret. I just count this effect towards deterrence.

By the way, during this several month educational exercise, I did have to run the manufacturer-supplied Windows program in a Windows 7 environment. It was the only way I could figure out, at the time, to get network settings right and to configure the camera for 5MP. For the longest time, the camera was at the default resolution of 1080p, and I thought it looked great and then noticed that I was an idiot and needed to bump up the resolution to the maximum. It looks even better now.

One reason I still use Windows for configuring the cameras is that after running WireShark and examining the message traffic, I discovered that a separate, undocumented protocol was being used to port 8091 for camera configuration. These messages are XML, and I was able to see what was being done, but by the time I had done this, the cameras were configured, and I went on to the problem of how to do recording. Just do not waste any time in the ONVIF specs studying the ONVIF commands related to configuration. It appears that in this case, these commands are not used. The Windows program issues no ONVIF messages.

Recording Video and Detecting Motion Events

For doing recording and motion detection, I like the Linux package entitled Motion.

I had started out using the ZoneMinder package but found that it did not reliably detect motion events. Lots of people like ZoneMinder. I could never get the settings adjusted right.

With Motion, the initial configuration looks a little more complicated, but, for me, the results were better in the end. Motion just grabs JPEG frames, and you end up with a directory with files. Very simple.

When motion is detected, Motion will create a movie from the video frames. You can choose the movie format. I like mpeg4 (avi).

Here is the Motion config file for one of the cameras with all the junk stripped out.

netcam_url http://192.168.1.124:80/cgi-bin/snapshot.cgi?stream=0 width 2048 height 1536 text_left Backdoor target_dir /ramdisk/motion/garage webcam_port 0 on_picture_save /usr/local/motion-extras/camparse2.pl on_movie_end /usr/local/motion-extras/mpegparse2.pl

Wiring and POE

Anyway, I have Motion running, and I am now working on stringing Ethernet cables through the attic and crawl spaces. The cameras I ordered have the POE feature. This means that you do not have to run two sets of cables for both signal and power. This in my mind is a great convenience. I luckily had a POE switch that would supply the required power.

It is also possible to use power injectors that go in-line on the Ethernet cable. You need to be a little careful using power injectors to not connect power to devices that do not expect it. Smoke may result.

You do know that all electronics run on smoke? If you let the smoke out, they stop working. (Engineer joke. ha ha)

The nice thing about the POE switches is that they implement the full POE protocol, which will ask the device first if it wants power and only turn on the power if the device responds.

So far, no smoke for me.

Network Security

A word or two about network security. It is, in general, a bad idea to have little computers on the inside of your network when you can not be sure of the functioning of these devices.

Cameras are in fact, little computers.

In the process of examining these devices, I noticed that by default, they would send a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) handshake every second or so to an IP address in China.

Whether this was some setting that I did not turn off correctly (there are a lot of features in the configuration) or if perhaps this might be something more sinister, it must be considered that computers with unrestricted access to the outside world are a security risk.

One answer might be to subnet and to isolate the IP cameras with a firewall. The firewall could then block the traffic.

However, in my case, I was able to think of something simpler. My server has two Ethernet ports.

What I am doing is to put the cameras on the second port and then make sure that port forwarding in the server is turned off. In this way, the server can access the cameras and also receive their responses, but the cameras have no path to the outside or even to the other computers on my network.

If the bandwidth of the Ethernet were to become a problem, I could install a multi-port Ethernet card and isolate the cameras, so that there would only be one camera per cable.

Motivations and Benefits

Hopefully, the hints supplied above are enough to get you started. These represent the conclusions I have reached, after making a number of false starts and mistakes. Of course, as I play with these things, I will probably learn additional things. Still, it seemed important to communicate a little of this information right now.

Affordable cameras like this are something new and are kind of a game-changing technology. I have read some recent posts talking about how to stay warm on cold nights in a perimeter listening post. Imagine instead that you install a bunch of cameras and watch the perimeter from the sofa inside the warm house and have a loud alarm go off to wake you up if motion is detected. Ha ha.

Others are worried about the trend in America for more police. The justification for more police is tied to a reaction to fear. Fear comes from a lack of knowledge. Cameras provide a record of past events and, thus, increase knowledge. More knowledge means less fear and less need for police.

If something goes missing, see who took it and solve the problem immediately. In just about all of the cases where I have lost stuff over the years, it has been some drug-using member of the family, extended family, or one of their friends. The problem has always been that you could not exactly say who took the stuff. A camera recording would solve this uncertainty problem.

Another thing that would make sense is for neighbors to pool their cameras. By interconnecting the cameras, you would have a much greater coverage area with more angles of vision.

More importantly, the recording function would be distributed and there would be no single point that an attacker could hit to destroy the evidence.

It would be very hard to collect all of the copies of a recording, and the attacker could never be sure that they had gotten all of them. That little detail would be a powerful deterrence factor.

The idea of a security system is an easy one for people to grasp. It should be relatively easy to sell this idea to friends and neighbors and perhaps get them working together on the common security.

Conclusion

To conclude, here is a funny story about security. Last week, this guy and his girlfriend show up asking to buy an old trailer that was sitting in my yard. He is the derelict uncle of one of my grandsons. He had lost his job and had no where to stay.

Fine. I’m happy to help. Take the trailer, just tell me where you want it moved. A few days go by and I hear nothing from him. Weird.

Then one morning, one of my daughters, who was keeping some stuff in the trailer went out to get something and heard a noise. She screamed, and two heads popped up from under a blanket. It was this guy and his girlfriend camping out in the trailer in my yard.

What? We all know the end is coming, and the homeless will be advancing upon us. I was just surprised to see it start in my yard…last week.

Needless to say, I, the video guy, got some kidding from my family about how great my wonderful electronics were. I got busy and made some improvements. Things are working much better now, but no security system works if you don’t look at it.

Three Letters Re: Tumbling Live Rounds

In reply to HJL: Which begs the question: “Why are commercially-produced rounds going Ka-Boom then?”

Hi,

It’s sabotage, just like what has been going on in Syria. An awful lot of mortars seem to detonate in the tube over there. If only one in a few thousand or million rounds are altered, it would be very difficult to figure out since the effected round is destroyed and most of the rounds in the same batch or many batches in series are just standard production.

Probably it is all just some sort of defect in the manufacturing process that has yet to be isolated. Nothing to worry about. Just like in the mid or late eighties when the U.S. couldn’t get a rocket to orbit due to malfunctions at launch, it all worked its way out.

Regards, – J.R.

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Hugh,

It might be that some of the faulty ammo is from China. I have heard of this happening. – Sid

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I have been tumbling live rounds for 50 years without one kaboom, and I have even used ketchup as a brass cleaner for some old 40s production german 7mm. (This was when I was a teen who did not have tumbling media or cartridge cleaner at hand and was using my father’s a rock tumbler for my efforts.) I could not believe they still fired after the tomato treatment, but it did do a respectable job in cleaning the cartridges. We all have our real life understanding and need to filter always by the old adage “Don’t believe anything you read, and only half of what you see”, but in this case, SB (who submitted the article) has hit the bulls-eye; his common sense article made my day. – J.M.

Economics and Investing:

The IRS just issued tax guidance for bitcoin and other virtual currencies. They classify bitcoins as property, instead of a currency, where tax rules of stocks and barter will apply. – H.L.

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Video: Ann Barnhardt – Your savings are being robbed from you. – B.B.

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Items from The Economatrix:

Dollar Value Could Suffer Instant Change-David Morgan

Low Fed Rates Worsen U.S. Retirement Crisis

Stocks Edge Higher After Manufactured Goods Report

Subprime Mortgages Are Slowly Making A Comeback

Odds ‘n Sods:

JWR Notes: The recent arrest of Democrat California State Senator Leland Yee on corruption and gun-running charges is beyond ironic. He’s just the latest in a long string of leftist gun-grabbing politicians, who have double standards on guns. They want to disarm the masses, while at the same time they are protected by pistol-toting bodyguards, and carve out special privileges for their cronies. Perhaps the worst of this can be seen in New York City, where for decades a key political favor has been bestowing a pistol permit to “special people.” This, one can safely assume, must require some surreptitious palm greasing. (Note: New York has two levels of pistol permits. Most only allow keeping a pistol in a house or apartment, but if you buy in at a higher level of “contributions”, you can get a permit to carry out on the street. They don’t hand these out to people who work for a living.)

It turns out that State Senator Yee was involved in a plot to traffic guns to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Must be some of the bad guys from the novel Expatriates.)

Of course, the whiny liberal apologists will claim that it wasn’t a REAL conspiracy, just one created by the FBI sting, so State Senator Yee and Shrimp Boy (the “former” Chinese gangster) must be innocent.

See Also: Another Anti-Gunner gets caught

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Supreme Court: No Guns For Any Domestic Violence Offenders – B.B.

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The second largest small arms propellant manufacturer in the world remains evacuated as a French hazardous materials company slowly continues to wet down and clear the site, hoping to avoid triggering a secondary blast or fire. An exclusion area extending 350 meters from the perimeter of the factory, affecting 31 homes, has been mandated until Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 PM, and may be extended. A local news site says it is impossible to know when the clean-up will be finished, as each step of the clean-up has to be verified before they can advance. One hopeful estimate suggests that the company’s rifle propellant line will be out of commission for just 90 days, though few industry sources seem to believe that this is a realistic figure. – KTO

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If you thought the next generation of youth would come to their senses… College Students Fail to Name a Single U.S. Senator. What makes it even more humiliating is that it is from American University, inside the beltway. – H.L.