The Evolution of Radio Technology, Part 1, by Roger R.

Many preppers and other radio communications enthusiasts want to be well equipped for receiving and transmitting under adverse conditions, but most modern hams, shortwave listeners (SWLs), preppers and observers are not familiar with the evolution of receiver and transmitter designs and how that progression can give us a useful advantage in gearing up for different scenarios. Old tech is, after all, appropriate tech when the going gets rough-the rougher, the older in many instances.

I want to start with receivers because a transmitter without a receiver is useful only for broadcasting, and in our endeavors broadcasting is generally our last goal. One concept I want to make clear is that in the design of radio communications technology, ‘Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny’. The most simple and easiest to implement systems are usually those that in fact evolved early on, and they are often the most resistant to failure. But they also tend to have limitations which were why they were superseded: however, in extreme circumstances knowing how to implement them and having a few key items on hand could mean the difference between success and failure.

The primary steps or changes in the design of radio receiver construction are, the “crystal set” or Passive Tuned-Radio-Frequency (TRF) receiver, the Active TRF, or ‘straight’, receiver, the Regenerative (‘regen’ or ‘howler’)  receiver and the superheterodyne (superhet, or mixing) receiver.  There are other designs such as the ‘superregenerative’, ‘direct conversion’, and ‘homodyne’, but they are not significant for our purposes and are used today, if at all, for specific niche purposes.  The four main categories each may have a use but only one, the last, will generally prove practical for a modern, all purpose radio and constitutes 99% of all commercially manufactured sets. All are worth knowing about and may have some specific application depending on the resources you have and what you are trying to accomplish.

The Crystal Set 

The first radio receiver to be available in any quantity, and the first radio construction project for three generations of schoolboys and hobbyists, was the “crystal radio”. It had no vacuum tubes or other active devices, and consisted of an antenna, an earth ground, a tuned circuit to select a particular ‘wavelength’ or frequency to pick up, a ‘crystal’ detector to turn the modulated signal into an audio voltage, and some type of transducer to enable the listener to hear that small voltage.  There were no batteries or any power source, other than that provided by the signal itself. There were no active devices to power either. The ‘crystal’ was not, as in modern electronics of all types, a small piece of resonant cut quartz used to provide a frequency reference but rather a semiconductor junction made up of a chunk of certain kinds of rock or mineral and a small needle or ‘whisker’ of dissimilar metal. Galena was the preferred detector, usually mounted in a holder with a convenient gizmo to make putting the whisker on a certain part of the little rock where it would work best, but many materials would work and a rusty razor blade and a stick pin or wire often saw service as well. Modern crystal radio builders usually just use a regular diode, preferably salvaged from a junk television, computer or what have you: Most any diode or transistor will work but germanium or Schottky diodes are preferred for best sensitivity.

Almost any old boy’s electrical or science book will have diagrams of crystal radios and some instructions on building various types. There are many different circuits but the keys are always the same: a good antenna, a good ground, a sensitive transducer, and patience.

The transducer, or speaker, bears some comment. A modern loudspeaker will not reproduce anything, usually, with a crystal set. Even modern headphones are useless. The little crystal ear-bud they used to include with the old transistor radios will provide some results, but best is the old, high impedance, “watch case” headphones. They are very sensitive and have many uses for electronic servicing and antique radio use besides crystal sets. They were made up until the 1960s or early 1970s for the military, and can be found at hamfests or online. I have found that piano and organ stores often have a set or two lying around because for some peculiar reason Wurlitzer used them, with a matching transformer, with their home organs, most of which have little value today and will be parted out by organ servicemen.

The upside of the crystal set is that it is eminently suited to do-it-yourself construction, needs no batteries, and will enable users to hear local AM stations during the day and a number of clear channel stations at night. In rural areas, with enough antenna and a really good ground, many AM broadcast band stations and, with the right tuning coils, even an occasional shortwave broadcast station can be heard at night.

There was a good reason it fell into disuse except as a novelty or boys’ project after the mid-1920s: it couldn’t be used to listen to CW (Morse code) or SSB signals, it only got strong stations in the day (and when it did, often more than one at the same time), and you had to listen carefully with headphones. In other words, poor sensitivity, poor selectivity, and low audio output. Also, it was infeasible to build a crystal set useful above roughly 40 meters, unless you were monitoring the transmitter next door.

Under ideal conditions, though, it could provide superb fidelity and that’s why crystal sets were manufactured commercially again in the 1950s, as a tuner for high fidelity buffs who wanted good AM reception. When FM became popular, this ended. Another later use for crystal sets was on ships as an emergency receiver, if for some reason all else failed. Since they were light, small, inexpensive and consumed no power, they were usually built into the ship’s radio equipment.

 My recommendation for more information on crystal sets is to obtain, if possible, the first three volumes of Alfred P. Morgan’s Boys Books of Radio and Electronics. These are somewhat scarce, in contrast to his “The Boy Electrician” whose early editions are now public domain and therefore reprinted widely. Modern publications include those sold by Lindsay Publications, such as “The Impoverished Radio Experimenter” and the books put out by The Xtal Set Society . Ed Romney’s ‘How To Fix Up Nice Old Radios’ has useful material on these and later sets as well.

The TRF Receiver

People wanted better selectivity and sensitivity and above all they wanted to be able to listen to the radio at a normal volume, without headphones. Amplifying the signal, tuning it carefully, and feeding it to a loudspeaker solved those problems and an invention called by the British a “Thermionic Valve” made that possible. We on this side of the Atlantic know it more commonly as a vacuum tube.

 The valve, or tube, started out as a light bulb that had been fitted with a metal plate across from the filament. If the light bulb was running and a second voltage was applied from the filament, which became a cathode, the plate became an anode and current would flow in one direction but not the other. Thus it could rectify alternating current and act as a detector for modulation put on a transmitted carrier. It could not amplify a weak signal, though, until it was found that if a “fence” or grid was put between the filament and plate, a third voltage would in effect open or close the gate and cause current to flow, or not to flow. Moreover, it could make the current flow a lot or a little, like the throttle on an engine’s carburetor. (Remember those?) A small change in voltage could cause a large change in current, so in effect it could amplify weak signals. And it could do it at DC or as high as many megacycles, meaning it could amplify both audio and radio signals.

There you have the TRF receiver. It consisted of one or more stages of radio frequency amplifiers, each with a tube, and with separate tuned circuits in between so the desired radio frequency would be received at the exclusion of others: then, a detector that just as with the crystal set changed the modulated RF signal into an audio signal: and then one or more untuned audio amplifier stages that made the signal, louder than before but still no match for a loudspeaker’s needs, big enough to drive a speaker that everyone in a room could hear. Of course you could still use a headset, but only hams and “night hawks” or “DXers” did that. The TRF set meant that radio was now a family affair, and Dad tuned the set so everyone could listen. The TRF set was expensive and delicate enough that in most families, the kids (and even Mom) were not allowed to fool with it. Radio had changed a lot.

Although most houses had electricity, except on farms, most TRF radios ran on batteries, because no simple and cheap method existed to turn AC into smooth and quiet enough DC to run a radio set. Two, and sometimes three different kinds of batteries were needed: a low voltage high current supply, usually 6 volts for the filaments (called the A battery) and a high voltage low current supply made up of a lot of small dry cells in most cases. The A battery was usually borrowed from the family car if they had one. (More did than not, except in New York.) The B battery was bought new and discarded and this made for a considerable expense. So did the tubes, which at first only lasted a few dozen hours if that.

The TRF became obsolete within a few years, around the same time AC powered tubes and usable capacitors made batteries obsolete and tubes began to last longer and cost less. A few were built later on, again occasionally for “hi-fi nuts”, and in Britain especially, they were used for surveillance by MI5 and MI6 and so forth because they had no local oscillator to give their presence and location away. Spies, real or imagined, would listen to what were then “regular” radios and the counterintelligence service would monitor their local oscillator emissions to catch them. American military and intelligence services had a different solution, which didn’t occur to the Brits. Then again, they put the plumbing on the outside of the building so they can get to it easier when it freezes up.

I can’t think of any circumstance where you’d want one today, but the TRF does exist and did work.

The Regenerative Receiver

The regenerative receiver, often called a ‘regen’ or a ‘howler’, is based on another property of the vacuum tube, and amplifiers generally. If you feed some of the output of an amplifier back into the input, in phase, it will start swinging back and forth electrically, or “oscillating”. A radio transmitter, in its most basic form, is an oscillator. Its frequency is controlled by a tuned circuit or by some other kind of filter.

If you set up a vacuum tube as an oscillator, and fed in a radio frequency signal, and adjusted it so it was just barely ready to oscillate, it would make a really sensitive detector. The regen was cheap to build, it had a single tuned circuit, and it was sensitive and it became a really popular homebrew project. Never popular as a broadcast receiver, the regen made listening to short waves possible for anyone who could scrape up a tube, a headset, and enough wire to wind a coil or two plus some batteries. Since there was a Depression on, and since people were (even so) throwing out stuff with wire and tubes you could salvage, building a regen was the stuff of schoolboys and impecunious hobbyists.

The one tube regen wasn’t a great radio. It would pick up a lot of stations, often more than one at once. The sound quality was poor, because the detector distorted. The antenna was part of the tuned circuit so any wind or movement near it made the frequency wander. And since it was still an oscillator, it would transmit as easily as it received, causing interference and neighborhood fights. (Today it still might, and with guns rather than fists in a real disaster.) And, it would sometimes oscillate at audio frequencies as well as radio ones, causing the listener to be blasted with a sine wave so loud he’d rip the headset off and throw it.That’s why they were called howlers.

Later regens, commercial or homebrew, improved somewhat on these problems. An RF amplifier and tuned stage, as on the TRF set, was added, both for more sensitivity and to keep the regenerative detector’s RF inside the set where they belonged. A stage of audio amplification was also added after the detector, to reduce the load on it, help stop howling, and give more volume. And the set was shielded and a precise tuning and regeneration controls added. Probably the best regen ever built was the National SW-3, which would still be a nice thing to have today, even with its limitations, for a serious prepper. But compared to a modern superhet communications receiver, it has poor selectivity, poor audio quality and good sensitivity only up to about 10 megacycles. (They call them megaHertz, MHz, now.)

But building a regen is good experience and could be a lifesaver in a situation where no other radio is around. You can use transistors instead of tubes, as well, should you have any that still work. (And if you correctly stash away a few dollars’ worth of them at surplus prices now you will have hundreds of them that work). They quit building regens commercially just as soon as the superhet became understood and the patents didn’t stop them, except for hobbyists and a few kits in the late 1950s for kids. The exception: Marine suppliers made and sold regens as late as the 1960s for 500 kHz marine service on ships. Even though the Germans sank ships with them by listening for their characteristic emissions, homing in on them and torpedoing them in WWII.

The Superheterodyne

Major Edwin H. Armstrong invented a new kind of receiver and patented it  in 1918. (He had also invented the regenerative and the superregenerative receiver and would go on to invent frequency modulation later. ) It solved the problems of making a good radio that could be tuned to different frequencies by having a variable local oscillator-in other words, a small generator or transmitter built into the radio itself-that could be tuned easily and that would convert the received signal into a second, intermediate frequency, that could be filtered, amplified and detected.  This meant that with a single knob, a mass produced, inexpensive set could be as sensitive and selective as the most complicated and fussy precision TRF set, and it could detect the signal cleanly, with great fidelity.

Superhet receivers became utterly dominant by 1930 and still are. They could be built with as few as two or as many as 40+ tubes and when transistors came out they could be built cheaper with those. Modern superhet receivers may consist of just one integrated circuit or ‘chip’ with a few, tiny, inexpensive capacitors and coils around them.

One of the most popular early types of superhet radio you should be aware of is the famous “All American 5”. It can run on AC or DC, has no power transformer, and was called that (it’s sometimes referred to as an AA5 in print) because it had five tubes, in a particular layout.  There was a converter tube that acted as an RF amplifier and a local oscillator in one, an IF amplifier, a detector and first audio amplifier tube, a power output tube and a rectifier tube. They were often offered as a kit for hobbyists or for training in vo-tech schools from about 1940 to as late as 1975 or even 1980. (Yes, tubes were obsolete, but government funds weren’t.) They were also sold by the tens-maybe hundreds- of millions in every country with 100-130 volt power.  Most of them were just for the AM broadcast band, and they gave good local station performance, but a few AM and shortwave versions and even a few VHF aeronautical band versions exist.  These radios have one dangerous characteristic: One side of the chassis is hooked to the AC power line, and if it’s the hot side the radio will work just fine, but if you come in contact with any metal parts connected to the chassis you will get a severe shock. The radio must be repaired or junked if the case or knobs break or the chassis is exposed. If it is a metal case radio then it should only be used with an isolation transformer no matter its condition.

All of the communications receivers and transceivers you will use are superhets and with that exception, most have a power transformer and are isolated from the AC line, or in the case of solid state radios they may run from 12 volt DC. Building superhet radios from scratch requires intermediate frequency transformers and other specialized parts, as well as test equipment to align them, and will not be something you’ll do on a field expedient basis. Even experienced hams quit building their own superhets because they could buy them commercially made cheaper than the parts cost and because most were too cheap to buy good test equipment: by 1960, kids had other interests and ham radio was mostly middle aged guys whose ham shacks were a diversion from nagging XYLs and an excuse to buy expensive stuff to impress their ham friends, just as it is now.

What you will want to do is to buy the good radios now while you can, learn to use and maintain them, and to be able to select the good ones from the not so good. You will definitely want to buy some tools and test equipment while they are cheap now, because few want them. You will want to stash away those parts you can get cheaply, and acquire at least the skills to know what you don’t know and where to go to change that. (More to follow in Part 2.)

Two Letters Re: Military Surplus G.O.O.D. Vehicles

James:
I just read the SurvivalBlog post “Letter Re: Military Surplus G.O.O.D. Vehicles.”

Here’s a web site for any of your readers in or near West Virginia looking for a Humvee, Deuce and a half or 5 ton trucks: Clark Trucks.

With My Regards, – Aaron K.

 

Sir,
Reference military surplus vehicles, I would like to recommend that for those seriously interested in something other than a “deuce” that there are several places here in the US where former Swiss or Austrian “Pinzguaers” are available.  These are very versatile, high ground clearance, 4×4 or 6×6 trucks.  They have 4-cylinder, air cooled, carbureted, 89 hp, motors and will travel almost anywhere.  Maintenance is easy and common items such as 24 volt light bulbs, spark plugs, and oil filters are readily available at most auto parts stores.
 
Now, the bad news, there are only a handful of sources in the US for major parts and some of them are fairly expensive.  They are also fairly distinctive and draw quite a bit of attention for a truck that is only slightly larger than a Chevrolet Astro van.  Their range is only about 200 to 250 miles on a 20 gallon fill up, so jerry cans would be in order for a long bug out trip.
 
The 4×4, 710M model, will carry a full ton, or is capable of moving 10 persons and gear at speeds up to about 60 mph on paved roads.  The 6×6, 712M, will carry 14 persons and gear or a full ton and a half of cargo.  Both styles have 45 degree approach and departure angles and are rated for a 45 degree side slope.  I will take their word for that simply because I run out of nerve at about 10 to 15 degrees of side slope.
 
Finding a Steyr, Daimler, Puch (the consortium that designed and built these trucks) Pinzgauer is fairly easy by just searching with the term “Pinzgauer.”  There are a few diesel powered Pinzgauers finding their way into the country.  Caution would be advised on these as registration of them for use on streets and highways could be tricky due to EPA regulations.  The truck, in most cases, has to be 30 years old to meet the standards.  In my case the two I have beat the daylights out of the Polaris Ranger as a utility vehicle.  They were both cheaper than the new Ranger models and can be titled, license, insured and driven on the highways, whereas a UTV in most cases has to be trailered.
 
Another potential source for former military vehicles, mostly of American manufacturer, is Idaho Motor Pool.  I know nothing about them other than their internet reputation is pretty good.
 
I love SurvivalBlog and I am very grateful for your books and the information you provide.
 
Regards, – Signcutter

Letter Re: Small Unit Tactics in a Post Collapse Environment

Hi Jim, 
I agree 100% with your addenda to Gunfighter’s article, Small Unit Tactics in a Post Collapse Environment. As a consultant myself, I have had to stress (particularly to the younger crowd of OIF and OEF veterans) that Survivalists have to operate differently than Soldiers, due to the military’s reliance on body armor, advanced medical resources, et cetera.

If anything, I seek out Vietnam Vets as consulting associates, for their experience in individual techniques (usually all from the prone position), from the pre-Kevlar, pre-IBA, pre-MOLLE days. I met many of them when I attended Jungle Warfare school back in 1983.
 
Also, I’ve discovered that in the Pacific Northwest, the older USGI woodland pattern poncho makes a great second to a ghillie suit, particularly in a populated suburban area, where it may not draw as much attention, when emerging from the woods. Cheers, – SGT Snuffy

Economics and Investing:

C.D.V. highlighted this piece by Richard Lehmann, over at Forbes: Ben Bernanke’s Secret Inflation Plan

Destruction of Spain’s Economy Duplicates Greece

Ron in Florida mentioned this at Zero Hedge: The Second Foreclosure Tsunami Is Coming, And Is About To Kill Any Hopes Of A “Housing Bottom”

James K. sent this: Production of presidential dollars reduced

G.G. flagegd this nes item: Government records 40th straight deficit month in March

Items from The Economatrix:

Crude Ends Higher Pre-Holiday, Posts Weekly Gain

S&P Posts Worst Week an 2012 as Bulls Waver

March Sales Brighten Retailers’ Profit Prospects

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“If you are using the generator for ‘convenience’ then a failure is only an inconvenience. But if using a generator for ’emergency use’, then a failure is an emergency.” – Clare Snyder

Notes from JWR:

Our SurvivalRealty.com spin-off site now has more than 90 listings. In fact, there have been a lot of new listings added in just the past three weeks that are captivating and unique retreat properties. Please take the time to check them out. Also note that my #1 Son has created an advertising sidebar, with 200 pixel width ads. This quite inexpensive ad space is available immediately. (Meanwhile, the advertising space waiting list at our main SurvivalBlog page is now stretching out well beyond two years.)

—

Today we present two more entries for Round 40 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) 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, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A FloJak F-50 hand well pump (a $349 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) 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, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 40 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Small Unit Tactics in a Post Collapse Environment, by Gunfighter

The time may come when all order and civility have broken down into chaos and unrestrained evil. You were a wise prepper and worked through your list of lists, acquiring all of the necessary knowledge and tools for survival. All of your bases are covered. Your survival retreat is intact and manned by your entire survival group. Each individual is most likely capable of firing a weapon and you probably have a survival retreat defense plan in the event a band of raiders, or some other group of people who wish you harm, decides they want to take what isn’t theirs. One skill may have been overlooked however… What is your plan, if a group of individuals must leave the defensive perimeter of your survival retreat? How do they mitigate risk before departing? How do they act and move? How do they posture themselves for a high rate survivability? What actions do they take in the event of being engaged in a firefight? These are all valid and relevant questions that need solutions in a post collapse environment. Tactical movement skills necessary when moving off of a retreat, on foot and overland, include: bounding, bounding over watch, movement to contact and react to contact. These terms may be foreign but I assure you, you will feel more confident and better equipped with some small unit tactics knowledge after reading this article.

The small unit tactics that I will discuss here in this article can be tailored to any situation or terrain. These tactics are meant to be used within a loose system or framework. It does not have to be “By the book.” There is plenty of room to adjust the tactics to fit the situation. The number of personnel can vary and does not need to be fixed. The best way to master these tactics is to train to the point where you are comfortable adjusting them to fit the need. Everything I discuss here in this article can be found in multiple military manuals (I will reference as I go) all of which are available to the public. Nothing I discuss will be sensitive or secret in nature. These are simply some small unit tactics that have been used for a long time.

First I will discuss the administrative organization of the group of people leaving the immediate area of your survival retreat. For the sake of continuity when I am referencing this group of people, their number will be nine, and they will be called a squad. This squad of nine personnel will want to posture themselves in such a way that improves all of their chances of coming back to the retreat alive. It is also important the squad be broken down into two smaller elements with element leaders and a leader over the entire squad. The smaller element leaders will now be referred to as team leaders. The overall leader of the squad will be referred to as the squad leader. The two teams within the squad are Alpha and Bravo teams. In this article each team will consist of one team leader and three additional riflemen. The squad leader manages the team leaders and the team leaders manage their individual teams. So in review; there is a squad of 9 personnel, that is broken down into two teams, Alpha and Bravo teams, each team consists of four personnel, one team leader who manages three additional rifleman, the squad is managed overall by the squad leader. It is imperative that survival retreat members elect tactically competent people as leaders for extra-retreat excursions before actually going on, what I will now reference as a patrol.

After SHTF “Old World” leaders may not have what it takes. The positions or offices that once protected individuals as leaders, though they were not capable or proficient as leaders, will no longer exist. The law of the jungle will now be in effect. Those individuals who are capable and competent will be easily recognizable, and out of necessity placed into positions of leadership. I realize that is a lot of information so if you need to, go back and read from the top of this section.

Now that the administrative portion is out of the way we can discuss the tactical organization of the teams and squad. Each team, as we discussed before, will be comprised of four personnel. In this article, during movement, each team will be in its own wedge formation with the team leader in front of his team. I would like you to visualize four personnel in an echelon or inverted V formation with the team leader at the front of the direction of movement. One rifleman will be off to one side and staggered behind the team leader with the other two riflemen off to the other side staggered off of one another.  I made a simple illustration below:

                 ^    TL                                                       TL= Team Leader

   ^    RFLM            ^      RFLM                                RFLM= Rifleman

                                           ^     RFLM                       ^ = Person

There is a visual in the Ranger Handbook SH-21-76 under Formations. I highly recommend using a search engine to find images of a fire team wedge before continuing on. Now that the team formation is solidified in your mind, think of Alpha team in a wedge formation followed behind by Bravo team also in a wedge formation. Both fire teams are moving together in the same direction of travel. In between the two teams is where the squad leader is positioned during patrol. This position gives him moderate to high control over the squad. The two fire team wedges combined together with the squad leader is called a squad column fire team wedge. I made a simple illustration below to demonstrate a Squad Column Fire Team Wedge.
             

 

                   ^    ATL                                                     ATL= Alpha Team Lea

    ^    RFLM              ^      RFLM                              BTL= Bravo Team Leader

                                             ^     RFLM                      SL= Squad Leader

                    ^    SL                                                       RFLM =Rifleman
                

 

                       ^   BTL

            ^   RFLM            ^   RFLM

^   RFLM                            
                            
Once again use a search engine to look at a picture of a squad column fire team wedge before continuing on (supplement rifleman in the grenadier and squad automatic weapon positions, unless your squad is fortunate enough to be equipped with such weapon systems). The distance between each man and each team can vary terrain dependent and movement technique desired. For example on open ground with few obstructions you can space out 35 or even 50 meters between personnel and the same distance between teams. The opposite terrain would be woods or a forest where visibility is restricted, and distances between personnel and teams can be as close as 10 to 15 meters. The distance and staggering of the personnel in the squad column fire team wedge is meant to increase survivability so a single burst of fire cannot take out more than one individual. As I explained before, the concepts of these tactics are loose and can be adjusted as necessary. Now that the squad column concept is understood we have the basis for the rest of the article. From now on when I say squad, refer to the squad column fire team wedge visual. Remember you can always go back and review the previous concepts before continuing on.

You should have a warm and fuzzy at this point in regard to the squad column fire team wedge. It is important for each member of the squad to know and understand the 5 Principles of Patrolling before heading out from your retreat. The 5 principles can be found in the Ranger Handbook SH-21-76 Chapter 5 Patrols. Even though no one in your survival group may have military experience, these principles still apply and are relevant to any group of people moving through a possibly hostile area after a total collapse scenario. The 5 principles as they appear in the Ranger Handbook are:

  • Planning. Quickly make a simple plan and effectively communicate it to the lowest level. A great plan that takes forever to complete and is poorly disseminated isn’t a great plan. Plan and prepare to a realistic standard and rehearse everything.
  • Reconnaissance. Your responsibility as a Ranger Leader is to confirm what you think you know, and to learn that which you do not already know.
  • Security. Preserve your force as a whole. Every Ranger and every rifle counts; anyone could be the difference between victory and defeat.
  • Control. Clear understanding of the concept of the operation and commander’s intent, coupled with disciplined communications, to bring every man and weapon available to overwhelm the enemy at the decisive point.
  • Common Sense. Use all available information and good judgment to make sound timely decisions.

Your squad is assembled and spaced out, ready to initiate movement into whatever area that you intend to go outside of your survival retreat.  You begin movement at “Patrol speed.” Essentially it can be as slow or as fast as you want, situation dependent and movement technique desired. You want to move at a speed that is conducive for each individual to scan with their eyes the area the squad is moving into, as well scanning the flanks and rear. You also have to decide the current threat level to your squad and how likely it is there are people who wish you harm where you are going.  I will skip the Traveling technique because contact with potentially hostile groups must always be assumed in a post collapse scenario but please research this technique on your own if you wish. The squad leader should direct the squad to assume Traveling Overwatch, in which contact with hostiles is likely. In this movement technique, terrain dependent, there are 20 meters of dispersion between personnel and 50 meters of dispersion between fire teams. The lead team should be far enough in front of the trail team to detect and engage any threat to the squad, as to allow for the trail team to not become decisively engaged with an enemy. This allows the trail team to be in reserve and maneuvered by the squad leader to support the team in contact and destroy the hostile force. \

The second movement technique that I will discuss is Bounding Overwatch. This movement technique is used when contact with hostiles is imminent. The distances between personnel and teams remains the same as Traveling Overwatch, but as always can be adjusted situation dependent. During Bounding Overwatch, the forward team will occupy an overwatch position while the trail team bounds to a position alongside or forward of the overwatch team. The overwatch team is static and occupies any cover (object or position that can stop bullets) and or concealment (object or position that hides personnel) it can find, to cover the bounding team’s route, with fire if necessary. The bounds can be successive (the bounding team moves up alongside or online with the overwatch team) or alternating (the bounding team moves up and passes the overwatch team). Once the bounding team completes it’s bound and sets in, it then becomes the overwatch team and the previous overwatch team becomes the bounding team and initiates its bound. These movement techniques can be found in the Ranger Handbook SH-21-76 in Chapter 4 Movement. Search Traveling Overwatch and Bounding Overwatch on an internet search engine to find more information of these movement techniques.

So far, no offensive tactical operations have been discussed. A tactical operation called Movement to Contact is used as an offensive operation to gain or regain contact with an enemy unit. This would be used in the event that you have a general idea where hostiles may be. I do not advise the use of this tactical offensive operation using an element as small as a squad, especially in a post collapse scenario when you have no reserve force. In fact, Movement to Contact is reserved for a platoon size element in support of a larger force. With that disclaimer aside Movement to Contact if modified, can be an effective tool for your squad in a post collapse scenario, if the right conditions are met. An example of the circumstance when I would use Movement to Contact would be; if it became apparent that a small number of hostile individuals were in vicinity of my survival retreat and could be approaching. To avoid a firefight at the survival retreat and mitigate the risk of other survival retreat members becoming casualties I would muster the squad and conduct a movement to contact in the direction of the last know location of the hostile individuals. This is still not a perfect solution. Other considerations must be taken into account such as leaving a defendable position and who will remain behind for retreat security. It is just an example of when this offensive operation could be used.

Now let’s look at how to conduct Movement to Contact with your squad. There are two types of Movement to Contact: Search and Attack and Approach March.  Search and Attack is used on an enemy that is most likely dispersed and is not expecting attack or is expected to withdraw. The overall intent is to deny the enemy movement by saturating the area with platoon, squad, and team sized elements that find, fix, and destroy the enemy. This could prove difficult for a squad to do but against a small number of hostile individuals it is possible. The second type of Movement to Contact is the Approach March. The concept for this technique is to make contact with the enemy using the smallest possible friendly element. Once contact is made using the smallest element and the enemy has committed to the fight, all of the remaining friendly units maneuver on the enemy and overwhelm him. Once again this technique is intended for multiple platoons, squads, and fire teams in support of a larger force. This offensive tactical operation can be altered for use by one squad, given the right conditions.

For a the practical application of Movement to Contact for use by one squad it will be necessary to combine the two techniques, as you will recall are Search and Attack and Approach March.  It will take some creative thinking to maneuver a squad in order to saturate an area, make contact with only a fire team, and finally maneuvering the remaining team to crush the hostiles. The best solution would be to give clear and concise guidance to your team leaders to get both teams online, Alpha on the left and Bravo on the right. The teams should be in a shallow wedge. The distance between personnel and teams will need to be exaggerated, covering a larger area than normal. This is so that if one team makes contact with the hostiles, the other team will not be decisively engaged. This tactic may entice the hostiles to fully commit before they are aware of the other team. Once the hostiles are committed in a firefight with the first team the remaining team can move into position to bring the full force of the squad’s firepower on and overwhelm the hostiles. Remember that nothing is ever certain and this plan is not fool proof. There are many other ways to address the issue of possible attackers moving in on your survival retreat, Movement to Contact is just one tool in your bag. Consider your options, and then act. For more information on Movement to Contact reference FM 3-90 Tactics, Chapter 4 Movement to Contact or SH 21-76 Ranger Handbook Chapter 5 Patrols. You can also do a search of Movement to Contact in an Internet search engine.

Up until now we have discussed how to assemble your squad, move your squad, and find the enemy. Finally we come to how to destroy any would be attackers. The scenario is you’re squad has left the survival retreat, as it has before. Every member has their head on a swivel looking for signs of danger, rifles at the ready. You’re not looking for a fight, but are ready if one comes your way. You’re focused on the task at hand, whether it is gathering supplies or going to a town meeting your squad is ready to do what it needs to.  Multiple individuals a few hundred feet in the direction your squad is traveling expose themselves from behind cover and begin to fire their weapons at your squad. You’re squad’s training kicks in, you begin React to Contact.

React to Contact is a battle drill. A battle drill is defined as an action rapidly executed without applying a deliberate decision making process. Basically it means it is an instinctual reaction that has been engrained into your mind and body. You know what you need to do and you act immediately. Like the scenario I described above, your squad, specifically Alpha team, has been engaged by several hostile individuals to your front or 12 O’clock position. Multiple things occur all in the same instant, upon receiving hostile fire. They are: return fire, seek cover (preferably in the prone) and alert the rest of the squad to the hostile’s location by use of the 3 D’s (shout out: clock direction, distance, and description of the hostiles. This sounds like: “Twelve O’clock, 100 meters, 3 enemies behind a berm). Since Alpha team is in front of Bravo team and the hostiles are to the 12 O’clock position, only Alpha team returns fire. Bravo team will hold their fire so they do not shoot their fellow squad members in the back. Bravo team’s job is to seek cover, echo the 3 D’s, pull security to the flanks and rear, then await further instructions. Alpha team upon contact, will rapidly fire at known, likely, and suspected locations of hostiles simultaneously seeking cover and giving up the 3 D’s. When Alpha team is behind cover, generally online with one another, and engaging hostile targets, the squad leader will move up to their position. The squad leader will get eyes on the hostiles and receive a report from the Alpha team leader.  At this time Alpha team will be attempting to gain fire superiority over the hostiles.

Observing three hostiles the Alpha team leader informs the squad leader he can’t take them without Bravo team. The squad leader acknowledges and instructs the Alpha team leader to continue to suppress the enemy. The squad leader will also tell the Alpha team leader where he intends to maneuver Bravo team.  This scenario, in a moderately wooded area, has three hostile individuals about one hundred meters to the 12 O’clock position. They are lying prone and firing from behind a low berm, obscured by brush. To the squads left flank the woods become less dense and the ground slopes downward. To the squad’s right flank the ground slopes slightly upward with several large rock formations on the high ground. The squad leader likes the high ground and the possibility of using the rock formations as cover so he will be flanking to the right with Bravo team. The squad leader moves back to the rear where Bravo team is pulling security and informs them of his plan (the elapsed time from contact to now should be very short, approximately 30-40 seconds. The longer Alpha team spends slugging it out with the hostiles, the higher chances of a friendly casualty and more ammunition being expended than necessary). Bravo team gets up and follows the squad leader. He rapidly retrogrades with Bravo team back the way they came, preferably out of sight of the hostiles but remaining within hearing distance. Once he believes he has gone far enough he and Bravo team move up to the high ground far enough to turn back toward the contact and moves above the rock formations perpendicular to the hostile’s position. Alpha and Bravo teams will essentially be forming an L shape and be able to overwhelm the hostiles with fire from two directions. I have included a simple illustration for an example:

                                                                              <

                                                                   <       
                    
Hostiles                  # # #               <             Bravo Team

                                                               <

                                                                    <

Alpha Team   ^        ^        ^        ^

Once Bravo team is online perpendicular to the hostiles and are not compromised, they will begin to creep forward undetected to the last covered and concealed position in between them and the hostiles. In this case it will be the rock formations. Under the guidance of the squad leader Bravo team will open fire on the hostiles with a rapid rate of fire. After a few good seconds of a hammering the enemy position, Bravo team with begin bounding to the hostile’s fighting position. Bounding with a total of 5 personnel will consist of individual bounds. One at a time, while the other team members cover their movement with fire, each individual will bound up to the next cover. They will each stay in an imaginary “Lane” as to not stray into other team members’ covering fire. Each bound should be 3-5 seconds.  At the end of each bound the individual drops down into the prone behind cover then begins to fire on the hostiles while covering the next individual’s bound. This should be done very rapidly in succession and in specific order. Back at Alpha teams position the Alpha team leader will be watching for a shift fire signal from the squad leader who is bounding with Bravo team. The shift fire signal is a predetermined audio and or visual signal given by the bounding team, to the support by fire element, to shift their fires away from the advancing team. So in this case Bravo team is bounding from right to left as seen by Alpha team, Alpha team will be shifting their fires to the left approximately 15 degrees ( 30 degrees if using a belt fed weapon on bipod) in front of Bravo teams advance, but continue to fire. The Alpha team leader has complete control over his element and can shift the team’s fire on his own if he feels Bravo team is at 15 degrees and no shift fire signal has been given.

Once Bravo team has one bound remaining before assaulting through the objective, the squad leader will give the lift fire signal.  Alpha team will pour on an increased amount of fire onto the hostile’s position for a battlefield handover to Bravo team. After a few seconds of cyclic rate of fire Alpha team will stop firing completely. Bravo team will pick up their rate of fire once Alpha team has lifted fire in order to compensate for the reduced volume of fire on the hostile’s position. Bravo team will make the last bound and then collectively get up approximately 35 meters before the hostiles and assault through the objective. Remaining generally online and staying in their individual lanes, Bravo team will quickly move through the hostiles fighting position shooting any armed individuals and clearing any rifles that are found. Once Bravo team has cleared through and has taken up defensive positions 35 meters past the hostile’s fighting position, Alpha team will also pick up and assault through the hostiles fight position. They too will take up defensive positions.

At that point, while maintaining security, execute a 100% check on men, weapons and equipment. This is to ensure everyone, their weapons, and gears are accounted for. Any friendly or hostile casualties can be treated at this time. It would be best to check the bodies for identification to use in notifying any local authorities that may still exist. React to Contact seems difficult and confusing but when actually put to practice it is rather simple. This is only one way it can be done and there are many alterations that can be made. Once the concept is concrete in your mind you can take that base of knowledge and adjust this battle drill to fit the situation. More information can be found in FM 7-8 Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad Chapter 4 Battle Drills and in the SH-21-76 the Ranger Handbook Chapter 6 Battle Drills.

In no way is this article comprehensive or exhaustive on small unit tactics. This barely scratches the surface on the specific tactics I described alone. This article was meant for individuals who may not have considered these things as an important subcategory of their overall survival education. Like I have said several times in my article there are many ways to do the same thing when it comes to small unit tactics. If you master the basics you know all there is to know. In reality there are no advanced small unit tactics. The idea again, is to master the basics so you can operate within a framework of knowledge and modify these tactics to suit your needs and the situation. I urge you to take this seriously because there will be no cavalry that swoops in and saves you at the last second. There will be no “That was a close one!” Either they will die, or you will. It will come down to who is better trained. Survival is most likely when risk is mitigated to the highest degree. I say most likely because it is impossible to avoid risk entirely. Risk mitigation in order to survive can come in many forms. Preparing for all possible situations or difficulties that may arise is the preferred method for survival. I say all of this to emphasize that all facets of preparation are necessary in the full spectrum of survival. Learning to fight as a unit is just one more skilled needed for TEOTWAWKI.

JWR Adds: Learning military tactics could indeed prove crucial, depending on the severity of WTSHTF. However, keep in mind that standard military doctrine is far more aggressive and risky than would be appropriate for most foreseeable situations faced by survivalists. Keep in mind that military tactics are geared toward offensively, boldly, and rapidly taking and then holding ground, while at the same time incurring “acceptable losses.” It also assumes that advanced medical care is available rapidly via helicopter Medevac. Modern military organizations also have the advantage of helmets and Interceptor Body Armor (IBA) being available for every soldier. Your mileage may vary substantially. (As a survivalist, your tactical concerns will more likely be primarily defensive, less hurried, and with a premium placed on minimizing casualties.)

Also, keep in mind that unless you are sitting on a stockpile of a lifetime supply of ammunition, then the typical military “suppressive fire” doctrine will probably be either out of the question, or curtailed substantially.

I recommend modifying military tactics to suit your particular circumstances. Typically, this would mean operating with less speed, greater stealth, and an emphasis on camouflage. Also, depending on circumstances, it would also mean conservation of precious ammunition and pyrotechnics.

Under current U.S. Army doctrine, there is just one Squad Designated Marksman (SDM) per squad. But for TEOTWAWKI, I would advocate having as many as three per squad, especially in open terrain. That will increase your standoff distance and hence minimize friendly casualties. I would also recommend having every member of your patrol wear full ghillie suits in all but the hottest weather.

The bottom line: When you are out patrolling with members of your own family, then the concept of “acceptable losses” takes on a whole new meaning.

Musings of a Newbie Prepper, by Tyson D.

After being raised on my grandfather’s farm, spending time in the military and being a first responder for the last 15 years, it is strange to find myself being a Newbie in the daunting task of creating an emergency preparedness cache for my family.  I now find myself living in a suburban/rural area of a major metropolitan city and a long way from where I grew up and started learning about some of the skills needed to survive.  I’ve always considered myself to be a prepared, self-sufficient individual.  I’ve hunted small and large game, I’ve backpacked in the backcountry for weeks at a time and I’m trained in emergency medical skills.  But when I started to delve into the world prepping, it became immediately clear how unprepared I am.

For the last five years I have been consumed by the post-apocalyptic genre.  I’ve read The Road, the Dies the Fire series, One Second After, and Patriots.  Recently I’ve read The Jakarta Pandemic and Lights Out and Survivors.   I’ve watched movies like The Road Warrior series, I Am Legend, The Book of Eli and Contagion.  All of these allow you to insert yourself into survival situations both in the science fiction sense and in the all too real possibilities.  I’ve also attended briefings and taught classes on surge capacity events and pandemic flu scenarios.  But for some reason, I awoke one day to realize that I do not have the resources to provide for my family during a natural disaster or when the grid goes down much less the three days that the federal government recommends.

So where to start?  That is the million dollar question.  Actually for my family of four it is probably the $10,000 dollar question.  But for someone who is going through the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University program, that expense really isn’t in the budget.  So again I ask the question, where do I start to prepare my family to be self-sufficient on a budget yet obtain all the necessary items?

Well, I have turned to books like, How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It, “Patriots and The Jakarta Pandemic.  Although some of these books are works of fiction they are filled with great examples of what a prepared family looks like.  I have scoured the Internet and quickly become sucked into great web sites, messaging boards and YouTube channels like; sootch00, SurvivalBlog, and The Survivalist Blog.  The information shared by these experts and those contributing with their first hand experiences provide invaluable experience.  I also get sidetracked by clicking on the advertisements on the sides of the pages and quickly get sticker shock on some the items that I decide I “must have.”

The first area that I have been making slow progress at over the last year is my selection of firearms.  I had some of the basics from growing up hunting like, a 12 gauge shotgun and a .30-30 Winchester.  I also acquired some more from my father’s estate which added a nice little .22 LR Marlin.  There were some others that I have used to trade and start to finalize my collection.  I have added a bolt action .308 and a 1911 .45ACP.  The final rifle I will add to my collection will be a semi-automatic rifle.  I will be able to buy this rifle by selling two remaining pistols and then using the money to purchase the parts to build a reliable AR-15.  This weapon system has come a long way with all of its customization and accessories from when I used to hump around with a M16A2 in the early 1990s.  By purchasing the different parts and assembling it on my own, I keep the costs down and take pride and ownership in my rifle.

The food preparation has been my biggest hurdle so far.  I have become bottlenecked at this point.  There are a lot of great companies and products out there that allow you to customize for each individual member of your family right down to their age and caloric intake.  Do you want regular canned goods, dehydrated or freeze dried products?  If you buy bulk do you want to bag it yourself in mylar bags, with oxygen absorbers and five gallon buckets with Gamma Seal lids?  Do you buy new food grade buckets or do you stop at all the grocery store bakeries and ask for theirs. Or do you just buy a whole package from one of the discount membership stores and have it all delivered to you in neat boxes and #10 cans?  Did I mention cost?  This is where I have friends say that since the end of the world is coming anyway, just put it on a credit card and forget it.  These are also the same people who would tell me that tithing at church is ridiculous when we are living on a tight budget to pay off the expenses we already have.  Is there a balance?  I believe I have found one for our family.  It involves using the “extra” money that comes in occasionally with overtime and starting a food cache with regular canned foods and other staples with a long shelf life that we typically use throughout the week.  This method will allow us take advantage of the 10 for $10 sales and other specials at the local grocery store.  I believe this will allow us to get into the habit of rotating foods and at the same time begin to get a sense of security in knowing my family would not have to go to the local food distribution center during a time of shortage.

There are many other areas that I feel that I have a decent start on.  I’ve had a water storage supply for the last few years.  I have both the 6 gallon containers and the smaller 2 liter bottles.  I also know where the closest supply of fresh water is, outside of the water main supplying my house.  These containers get rotated out at day light savings time, along with my smoke detector batteries.  Since my family enjoys camping we have those supplies such as tents, sleeping bags, large and small stoves and warm rugged clothing and shoes.  One of my weaknesses is flashlights, meaning I can’t pass the latest and greatest version at the checkout counter at the hardware store.  We also have candles with matches and lighters.  We have recently begun to grow a garden in a raised box.  Granted, this does not provide enough food for long term storage like canning but it has given me the confidence that I can recall those skills shown to me by my grandfather and the 4-H club.  I have multiple first aid kits around the house and in the vehicles.  They are smaller versions of what I use at work.  Although I am not trained in advanced life support, my basic life support skills will help stabilize most injuries.  The other training that I have received in the hazardous materials spectrum gives me the ability to isolate and deny entry into my home from others on the outside to protect my family from whatever bug maybe going around.

I also need to create a plan for long term sustainability.  As mentioned, we are gardening on a small scale.  There needs to be forethought to where a large, diverse and sustainable garden would be planted.  We are fortunate enough to have large lots in our suburban neighborhood that would provide ample growing space.  This leads me into my next thought of neighborhood cooperation.  Since those open spaces don’t belong to me, and my family alone cannot begin to plant, grow and harvest it all by ourselves, especially if it needs to be done by hand, we need to gather support from our neighbors.  This support would not only be for growing but for equipment, supplies, transportation and security.  Now this is a big list of ideas to suddenly spring on your neighbors but it can be done overtime.  If you don’t even know them, the best place to start is to invite them over for dinner.  You can get a good impression on most people by sitting down and breaking bread with them.  You may be surprised to find out that they have their own emergency cache set up!  If not, then there is no time like the present to start.  It could really create a sense of community within your neighborhood by getting to know them and call them friends, instead of someone who you sometimes wave at from cross the street.

So is this a complete plan?  Far from it!  It feels like I’ve just opened the box of a 1,000 piece puzzle.  I can see what the finished product should look like on the front of the box and I’ve found most of the border pieces and I’ve even put a few of the easy parts of the picture together but it’s far from done.  I’m still finding the best web sites to gather information from, the best products to provide food, water and security for my family and I’ve just begun to find others in my circle of friends, neighborhood and community who share the desire to be prepared.

Behind the Green Door of the NSA’s Bluffdale, Utah Enigma

There has been lot of buzz in the press in recent weeks about the NSA’s new “data center” being constructed near Bluffdale, Utah. The selection of Bluffdale, Utah for the site is curious. I suspect that this is more than a data center. Because LDS church doctrine has a strong emphasis on overseas missions, a lot of their young men come home with foreign language skills. And since many LDS church members have squeaky-clean backgrounds, they can usually get through the hurdles of a TS/SSBI clearance without much trouble. Consequently, a lot of Mormons end up with Top Secret clearances and SCI access. So it might be safe to assume that there will be some translation and analysis of SIGINT and HUMINT gathered from overseas planned for the new NSA facility.

My conjecture is based on this precedent: The 300th MI Brigade (Linguist). This Army National Guard MI organization started out as company, but grew into a battalion, and then eventually a brigade. Note that Bluffdale is not far from Orem and Draper, where the 300th MI Bde. has its HHC and two of its component ARNG MI battalions. I wouldn’t be surprised if the new facility is situated on the flats at the north end of the 24,000 acre Camp Williams Military Reservation. I guess we won’t know whether the new NSA facility is just a data center, or if it is a data center plus linguist/analyst/data fusion center until we see how big its parking lot is, and how many cars regularly park there. Furthermore, given the long-established nature of the NSA and the maturation of modern secure telecommunications domains such as NSANet and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS), it is safe to assume that the new organization’s intel taskings could span several continents and include a variety of both civilian and military intelligence organizations (Active, Reserve, and National Guard.)

Hopefully, my conclusions will set some minds at ease. Presently, there are a lot of folks that have rushed to judgment that this new “spy center” is somehow conspiratorially directed at the American citizenry. Well, If I’m right, Utah was chosen simply because that is where the linguists with clearances are. And if they need a bunch of linguists, then their taskings are probably directed at foreign nationals, not at Mr. and Mrs. Joe Sixpack.

Who knows what goes on behind the Green Door? We’ll probably never know for certain. The preceding is just my opinion, based on open source data. I haven’t been in the loop for many years. ASA Lives!

Economics and Investing:

Several readers sent this: Next Great Depression? MIT researchers predict ‘global economic collapse’ by 2030. Of course, many SurvivalBloggers would consider the timeframe of their prediction overly optimistic.

SurvivalBlog reader G.T. Mace, a gold dealer, sent me some details on a new gram units gold bullion product from KB Edelmetall Gmbh of Switzerland and Germany that is packaged in tamper-proof plastic, in the form factor a credit card: Karatbars. Be advised that I haven’t researched their mark-up percentage (and you definitely should, before buying), but the concept is captivating. BTW, with 31.1035 grams per Troy Ounce you can simply divide the spot price per ounce by 31.1035 to determine the cost per gram.

So much for global economic recovery. See this: Too Many Container and Dry Bulk Vessels But What of Oil Tanker Futures? And this: COSCO reports yearly losses of $1.66 billion. (Thanks J. McC for the link.)

CIO, Board Struggle to Fix CalPERS

Ben Bernanke to Engineer a ‘Shock & Awe’ to Save the Fed

Items from The Economatrix:

Is Now a “Golden” Opportunity?

Gold Falls to 3-Month Low, Fed Easing Hopes Wane

Budget War Threatens America’s Survival

Odds ‘n Sods:

OSOM mentioned that he saw a recommendation from Richard Maybury for a PowerPoint presentation on Fire Extinguishers.

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Owners of ARES Shrike belt-fed AR-15s will likely want some of these 200 round belt pouches. By the way, my #1 Son (who runs SurvivalRealty.com) helped to design the subdued Shrike patch and also designed the Kit Carson Enterprises web page. The company is run by a widow who lives in Vermont. The Shrike pouches are just her first product–others will follow.

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Cameron sent this evidence of creeping Nannystatism: Yes, the New York City Department of Education “Banned Words” List is as Bad as Reported

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T.X. sent a link to some useful information: Which VPN Providers Really Take Anonymity Seriously?

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I read that FreezeDryGuy is running a special on their Adult “Danger Close” 3-Day Backpacks. This makes a good “core” G.O.O.D. backpack that you can add to, and tailor to your needs.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"In the United States neither paper currency nor deposits have value as commodities.  Intrinsically, a dollar bill is just a piece of paper, deposits merely book entries.  Coins do have some intrinsic value as metal, but generally far less than their face value.  What, then, makes these instruments – checks, paper money, and coins – acceptable at face value in payment of all debts and for other monetary uses?  Mainly, it is the confidence people have that they will be able to exchange such money for other financial assets and for real goods and services whenever they choose to do so." – From a paper published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 1961

Notes from JWR:

I still need the current e-mail addresses for nine of the 24 Honorable Mention prize winners in the most-recently-ended round of the SurvivalBlog nonfiction writing contest. Please let me know via e-mail ASAP, so that I can have all of the $30 Amazon.com gift certificates sent out, electronically, in one batch. Thanks!

—

Today we present another entry for Round 40 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) 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, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A FloJak F-50 hand well pump (a $349 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) 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, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 40 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Four Seasons of Gardening Lessons, by Mrs. B. in the Midwest

Although I had a front-row financial services seat for the market collapse in 2008, it wasn’t until fall 2010 that I was stuck by an awakening that “something wicked this way comes.” With a master’s degree in Medieval Literature (it’s not as useless as it sounds, really) two things I have studied are the ravages of war and famine over the centuries, both of which desperately scare me as the mother of two young children.

I have paid particular attention to the many SurvivalBlog entries on gardening, one of my few practical skills. Most are either submitted by seasoned vegetable gardeners who have had a large garden for years, or about lessons learned by beginners.

Gardening is in my blood, passed down from generations of German farmers and English gardeners. My grandparents all moved off the farm, but they continued to garden extensively, as did my parents back in the 1970s. I watched my mother and grandmothers can their harvest. In turn, I have a couple decades’ experience with English perennial gardens, but little experience with vegetables.

I have put off submitting an article for a year in order to try and provide a unique slant on the topic of survival gardening: what happens when an experienced perennial gardener actually makes a serious attempt to grow real food, for the first time ever? And thereby hangs a tale.

We live in a small, conservative Midwestern city, in a solid brick farmhouse that is well over 100 years old, and that was encompassed by the suburbs in the 1930s. If the worst comes, we plan to bug in, as our foot-thick brick walls seem defensible. An old brick carriage house, 1,000-gallon koi pond, sealed-off well, and a rainwater-filled cistern are also on our quarter-acre lot. The perimeter of our property is in perennial beds, with an oval of lawn maintained in the center for our two young children to play upon. We also have a livestock watering trough and 250 square foot strip of vegetable garden in the undeveloped alley, portions of which receive less than 6 hours of sunlight a day. After clearing out some perennials toward the back of the yard, my total space dedicated to vegetables is 500 square feet. We even have an old dirt-floor root cellar. And of course we have a large (72 cu. ft.) compost bin. We garden as organically as possible, although I (very infrequently) cheat with a systemic on some of my more disease-prone roses. We have duplicates of all the gardening hand tools that we need.

My husband and I are both hard workers, still fairly young and strong, with good backs and a love for working with our hands. But we both work full time, so I garden in the few spare hours I can find.

Over the past year I have taken careful notes on my food project. So, as appropriate for a gardener’s tale, I have divided my experience into the four seasons, beginning late last fall.

Winter: Root Cellaring

“More than an hundred thousand persons, of all ages, perished of famine in this district. ‘It was a frightful spectacle,’ says an old annalist, ‘to behold, in the roads and streets, at the doors of houses, human bodies devoured by the worms, for none remained to scatter a little earth over them, all being destroyed by famine or the sword’….often, for the remains of the repast of a groom in the Norman army, the Saxon, once illustrious among his countrymen, in order to sustain his miserable life, came to sell himself and his whole family to perpetual slavery.” (Augustine Thierry, on the Norman Harrowing of Yorkshire)

Root vegetables were the hidden treasure of the medieval peasant—marauding armies might raze your village, burn your barn and steal your cow, but it was hard for them to root out all the turnips and parsnips.

In the fall of 2010 it was too late to put in any new vegetables for this project, but I had some vegetables I had planted for “fun,” including beets, carrots, and some heirloom potatoes that were misplaced in our cellar and rediscovered, sprouting, in time to plant for the spring. I harvested a good 10+ lbs. of potatoes from 6 potatoes planted, for somewhere around a 9:1 yield. I stored these in the root cellar for the full winter; they stayed firm and didn’t begin sprouting till the early spring.

I also stored a sampling of apples, which lasted a long time in the root cellar, but started reaching different stages of mushiness by late winter. I picked out the most perfect apples to keep and wrapped them individually in newspaper. Most were Empire apples, which I had used for making applesauce, and they have a very delicate white flesh; however, not the best choice for a “keeper” apple. In the spring, I planted two late-producing, disease-resistant Goldrush apple trees for my keepers down the road. This past fall we harvested many pounds of paw paws, which make a delightful cream pie, and have kept very well in the root cellar, and I have been experimenting with making sauerkraut and pickles the old-timey way, fermenting them in crocks.

I also had a row of carrots and beets that I “root cellared” in the ground. I just heaped dirt and mulch around them, and they lasted well in the protected, sunken alley. When I dug them out the following spring, they were still beautiful and tasty. This is kind of a lazy man’s clamp, which is an ancient form of root cellar. You dig a pit a couple feet deep, line it with straw, put in your potatoes, apples, carrots, cabbages, and other “keepers,” pile on more straw, and then cover it with a pile of dirt with some “chimneys” of bundled burlap or straw to provide some ventilation.

Finally, my Christmas present to my husband last year was a beer-making set. Although he currently has to brew from kits (we don’t have the room for barley, but perhaps we could put by some seeds, and I read with great interest the recent article on making cider) it has been an entertaining and very rewarding hobby.

 

Spring: Starving with Wild Edibles

“…three children huddled together, lying there because they were too weak to rise, pale and ghastly, their little limbs … perfectly emaciated, eyes sunk, voice gone, and evidently in the last stages of actual starvation.” (English Quaker William Bennet, on the English-inflicted starvation of the Irish)

The February full moon is called the Hunger Moon. This always sends a chill down my spine, since it’s a reminder that even when spring is around the corner, your winter stores are giving out and won’t be replaced any time soon.

As I started my vegetable seeds in our basement and set the tiny plants out in cold frames built by my husband, I realized it would still be a long time before they would become productive (our last frost date is May 15th). The problem is, even if your stores last till the spring, and you are a skillful forager, there is still very little for you to live off of, as wild edibles offer scant calories.

We took a wild edibles course at a local nature preserve, and learned quite a bit about the fungi, fruits and greens available in our local woodlands. I started throwing a handful of violet, sorrel, plantain and dandelion leaves into our salads, dressed with herbs and a simple balsamic vinaigrette, which provides a lovely counterpoint to storage foods—but it can’t replace them. We also found at least 5 lbs. of morel mushrooms—truly the feast of a feral king, but unfortunately offering just 340 calories for the whole lot. On the bright side, wild edibles can provide incredible amounts of vitamins A and C, as shown below. On the not-so-bright side, a vitamin powerhouse like Poke Sallet can kill you if you don’t prepare it properly or you eat the wrong part of the plant at the wrong time of year.

Here is a sampling of the food values of some common edibles (per 100 grams):

Chicory greens: 7 calories, 33% vitamin A, 12% vitamin C
Chicory roots: 66 calories, 6% vitamin C
Dandelion greens: 25 calories, 112% vitamin A, 32% vitamin C, 19% calcium, 17% iron
Lamb’s quarters: 32 calories, 156% vitamin A, 62% vitamin C
Poke shoots: 23 calories, 174% vitamin A, 227% vitamin C
Purslane: 16 calories, 26% vitamin A, 35% vitamin C

With such a low calorie count, you obviously would have to forage a huge bag of these items every day for them to make a significant contribution to keeping you alive.

Summer: Praying for Growth

“To eat your own children is a barbarian act.” Soviet propaganda posters during the Soviet-inflicted Holodomor in Ukraine

I started several trays of heirloom seeds indoors on a sunny windowsill, before moving them to a cold frame, and direct-sowed many more seeds. Here are my results for some vegetables that can be harvested over the summer. Cucumbers, mesclun, green beans, snap peas, and tomatillos were also grown, but the results were a thousand calories or less.

Carrots: the heirloom and Danvers-type carrots were a semi-fail, the salsify was a complete fail, and the parsnips didn’t even bother showing up. I am estimating 7 lbs total usable carrots; more went to the guinea pig. Part of the problem may be that they were in partial shade, but a major problem appears to be root nematodes, as they were freakishly misshapen. This was in an area that had never had a crop before. Total calories: 930

Corn: 25 seeds of a miniature heirloom yielded 1 pint of shelled dry corn grown in a 4 x 4 ft. space. Not much, but corn is such an energy powerhouse (365 calories per 100g) that it is worthwhile to keep seed on hand. This year I will be experimenting with several heirloom Indian corn varieties. Total calories: 1,656

Eggplant: 4 heirloom plants produced 16 lbs in 4 sq. ft. of space. Although prolific producers, they offer few calories. Total calories: 1,742

Melons: 4 Asian melon plants produced 15 lbs. The melons were the size of softballs, so I could grow them on a trellis, which is a very efficient use of space in such a small garden. Total calories: 2,449

Peppers: Including sweet peppers, banana peppers, ancho peppers, and an assortment of smaller hot peppers, they produced prolifically in the intense heat and dryness we had over the summer. They are also vitamin C powerhouses (green and red bells offer 134% and 213% daily vitamin C, respectively), and the hot peppers can easily be dried and stored through the winter. I noticed a huge difference between the peppers in the ground and the peppers I grew in pots, which were not terribly happy. Total calories: 1,995

Tomatoes: We harvested 130 lbs of tomatoes off of 20 plants (some of which bore heavily, others which never successfully ripened due to our weird weather). This tally includes 33 lbs. of green tomatoes and 20 lbs of ruined tomatoes, which we included as they would not have gone to waste in a survival situation. Not included are the many tomatoes that went straight into our compost bin over the course of the summer—again, closer monitoring would prevent the ruined tomatoes, and if we had livestock they could always be given to the chickens or pigs. Total calories: 11,700.

One big mistake that we made was, rather than planting roma-type tomatoes, we focused on delicious old heirlooms like Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, etc. that are great for eating out of hand, but they make a watery and flavorless sauce for canning, and are not as prolific as a roma plant.

Fall: When the Harvest Fails

“I saw the helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at the bayonet point into the stockades. And in the chill of a drizzling rain on an October morning I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep into six hundred and forty-five wagons and started toward the west.” (Private John G. Burnett, on the Cherokee Trail of Tears)

The crops planted for the fall harvest would be the heavy hitters we would depend on to get us through the winter, so a heavy production of calorie-rich food would be crucial to survival.

Beans: I planted 3 different types of heirloom beans in the partially shady portion of the garden and got about a pint of shelled dry beans for 30 seeds planted. This is not a good yield. Possible problems are the shadiness, letting the bean beetles get out of control before tackling them with diatomaceous earth, and planting the beans too closely together. In addition to spacing, another trade-off that one needs to consider is the length of time it takes to grow them to the dry-bean stage (all season) rather than harvesting them as snap beans. Total calories: 6,115

Cabbages: This provided a good comparison lesson for sun vs. shade. I planted several cabbages in late spring in a very fertile, yet partially shaded area of the garden (6 hours of sun)….and later in the summer, I found some leftover cabbage seedlings on the sale rack, completely pot-bound and leggy, and I planted them in an area of scruffy grass in some waste space along a very sunny fence. The sunny cabbages were 3-5 lbs a head, while the shady cabbages were 1- 2 lbs a head. Total calories: 1,742

Kale: With five plants of Red Russian kale, not only is this a lovely, ornamental-looking plant, but I have been able to harvest leaves all winter long in order to have fresh greens and Portuguese Kale Soup. Kale provides 50 calories per 100 g, as opposed to 16 for your average lettuce, and this amount provides 308% of your vitamin A and 200% of your vitamin C. The Irish would cook kale with potatoes for colcannon. Total calories: 3,402

Leeks: We grew 50 or so leeks, half of which are still in the garden, having survived the winter in fine style. I am estimating 10 lbs. Total calories: 2,766

Potatoes: Our potatoes were one of our scandalous failures this year. I planted 5 lbs of (very expensive) seed potatoes and harvested 13 lbs, when a good average should have been maybe 20 lbs for the type I planted. I made a number of mistakes: planting fancy types rather than prolific bearers; not combating flea beetles quickly enough; not hilling them up; not giving them enough space. All this combined with a bad, wet spring and a relentlessly hot, dry summer. In my defense, one of our local farmer’s market vendors, a seasoned farmer, had an even worse crop…but the potatoes should have been the backbone of our garden. As I dug up clump after measly clump, I thought about how devastating it would have been if we were actually counting on the crop. It likely would have been a death sentence. And I was shocked because I thought I was doing a very good job with them. Total calories: 4,541

Squash: With so little room, I planted two Victoria Blue squash in my perennial bed and let them fight it out. One vine died, and off the other vine, which was planted way too late from a seedling that sat in its little pot for way too long, I got two smallish squash—surprising, considering the neglect and mistreatment the poor little vine suffered. To do them right, squash require a generous amount of room (spacing of 6 to 10 feet), but since they keep so well, they are one of the fundamental cops for winter. Next year I will give them more room, very fertile soil, and cover the soil with black plastic, and they really prefer some heat. Since I wanted to test the keeping abilities of squash, I bought 15 assorted pumpkins and squash for Halloween decorations, protected them from frost, and then moved them to our dry basement. They have continued to last well over the winter, and, with some onions, carrots and cream, make a fabulous, savory soup. Total calories (grown): 1,234 calories

Some Hard Lessons Learned

If, like me, you have ever had the thought, “Hey, I’m a good gardener—if things collapse I can just live off the land”…well, think again. Growing vegetables to keep yourself alive is a lot more difficult than growing some fresh tomatoes and pretty roses, even if you already have the compost bin, all the hand tools, the basic knowledge, the fertile soil, the strong back, and a love for growing things.

I have to be able to feed, at a minimum, my husband and my two babies. That’s 4,500 calories a day at a starvation level. Although I did not list all the details here, when I add everything up, including the odds and ends, and calculate it against the number of calories we need, at this level, we would only have 9 days worth of food. (!!!) Our 130 lbs of tomatoes, for example, account for 2.6 days. If we picked our crabapple tree clean, that might provide us for another week or so.

So, this project was definitely a reality check, but I am grateful that I could learn my hard lessons in easy times. Here are a few general things I am planning to do in the coming planting season:

  • Approach gardening with humility. Nature is fully capable of kicking your butt, and it can be a struggle even for seasoned gardeners and farmers. Never stop practicing and learn from your failures as well as your successes.
  • I will continue to rotate crops and build the soil with compost and manure, and will be trying the organic fertilizer Steve Solomon describes in his Gardening in Hard Times, but I am also going to stock a good amount of time-release conventional fertilizer for if we ever have to live off our garden.
  • The bugs will find your crops, immediately, even though you live in the middle of town and have never before grown beans or cabbages. I need to research some gentle, preferably organic, pesticides beyond diatomaceous earth and stock up. 
  • I need to better plan out adequate spacing and thoughtful use of land, rather than cramming too many things together. For example, lettuce and leeks can be grown in the partially shady areas, while the rows of corn can be intercropped with rows of early radishes and carrots.
  • Ultimately, you can’t get the calories you need to live off of vegetables grown on 500 sq. ft. of land—even if we tripled the garden area and tripled the harvest, it would still provide just 22% of our annual need. We need more land and a way to convert “lost” calories (grass trimmings, vegetables we can’t eat, etc.) into animal calories. We need to consider some contraband city chickens or rabbits. And like Proverbs’ Wife of Noble Character, who “considers a field and buys it,” I am already actively searching for a few acres in the nearby Amish community where we can get started with some fruit trees and a laissez-faire garden.
  • I have arranged with some family members to grow some of my corn, squash and other space-hogging veggies on their very large property. This will allow me to practice my skills, give the “three sisters” concept a whirl, test the seeds and potatoes I saved from this year, just to see what comes up from open-pollinated seeds that may have crossed, and better fill my larder and canning jars next fall.
  • Grow plants from open-pollinated heirloom seeds. There’s nothing wrong with hybrids, but Monsanto (a creepy company if there ever was one) controls 20% of the world’s vegetable seeds (40% in the US), including the patents on Early Girl tomatoes. Do you trust them?
  • Finally, as my selection of quotations shows, all governments are fully capable of starving and “liquidating” their inconvenient citizenry in pursuit of political, monetary or ideological ends. The US has its share of blood on its hands, from the death marches of Indian tribes to the Indian Territory and reservations that were little more than big concentration camps, or the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II, and once again there is a rumbling of a distant thunder. Like the Scots, my first inclination is to run for the hills. But for me, joining the American Redoubt is not an option. My roots run deep in this Midwestern city and state, and I will stand my ground and be the “salt of the earth” here.