Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI – Part 5, by J.M.

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(Continued from Part 5.)

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

One of the most useful capabilities of mobile devices is their ability to take pictures and videos. If you’re out on a patrol you can photograph people you encounter, potential enemy locations, plants you discover for future foraging, abandoned material for future scrounging, etc. Pretty much every mobile device has a built-in camera, and most have both a front and rear camera. My Armor X5 has a 13 megapixel (MP) camera, which can take high-resolution pictures. I recommend that you always use the highest resolution possible for photographs, since that will allow you to zoom in and make out small details.

Every mobile device that has a camera comes with some kind of built-in camera app, all with varying levels of quality and capability. You shouldn’t be too worried about things like the ability to add funny features or beauty filters to your pictures – focus on something simple that lets you easily control the quality of your photos and allows you to store them on the SD card. I like to use an app called Open Camera, which allows you to do things like add date/time stamps and GPS coordinates to pictures and stitch multiple pictures together for panoramic shots (they also provide a nice online users guide). I set the extra programmable button on my phone to open up the camera app, since you never know when you’ll need to take a picture in a hurry. For videos I recommend recording at a resolution of at least 1080p, as that will provide a good level of detail.

Beyond the built-in camera, having the ability to zoom in to capture details in photos at long distances can be useful in field situations. For example, you may want to set up an observation post (OP) on a hill overlooking a road and get pictures of everyone going by and determine if they’re carrying weapons, or take detailed pictures of a property you need to check out and share them with other team members to plan your approach. You may have seen mobile device clip-on telescopic lenses on places like Amazon, and believe it or not they actually work pretty well.

Alternatively, you could get a universal lens adapter and use your monocular or binocular lens with your camera. I’d also recommend getting one of those hated selfie sticks with a built-in tripod, which can be used to hold your device still while you take pictures. You can use it to take pictures/videos around corners or from behind cover without exposing yourself, and it has other uses which I’ll discuss later.Continue reading“Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI – Part 5, by J.M.”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. Note that as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

I had a trip to town this week, where I received a golden crown. Shunning any titles of nobility, I won’t call myself a Prince or King. Nay, I am from the common folk. But upon examining the bill from the dentist, I wished that I had been granted an annual royal stipend.

This week I did some ATV cleaning and repair.  I also filled some gas cans, cut some firewood, did some weed trimming for Lily, down in the Annex Garden on the part that we left fallow this year.   A few weeks ago, our neighbor brought manure down to that section, that Lily is going to spread and rototill under and plant Winter wheat this fall. An aside: For weed-whacking, I prefer to use our Cub Cadet string trimmer that uses the fat .155″ monofilament.  That machine is a real brute that can cut down 2-foot tall weeds–even Bull thistle with stout stalks–without bogging down. I always enjoy work when I have the proper tools.

I shipped a few more orders this week. Despite my best efforts, my inventory for Elk Creek Company is dwindling. I did manage to find a few old big-bore S&W top-break revolvers and a Winchester M1873 Saddle Ring Carbine chambered in .44-40, from an estate. I should be able to add those to the catalog, this coming week. Other than a few guns that are currently off for Cerakoting, I won’t have much else to add to the catalog in the next few weeks. Speaking of which: If any blog readers have any pre-1899 cartridge guns or barreled actions that they’d like to sell, then please drop me a line. I can either pay you cash, or sell them for you on consignment. See our Want List, for details.

UPDATE (Saturday P.M.): Success! just left a gun show, where I bought or traded for seven pre-1899 antique cartridge guns to add to my inventory: A refinished Winchester Model 1894 Saddle Ring Carbine in .30-30 that was made in 1896, a first-year-of-production Winchester Model 1894 takedown rifle chambered in .38-55, a Remington-Smoot .38 revolver with elephant ivory grips, a Model 1896 S&W .32 S&W (this was their their very first swing-out cylinder design), a Marlin. 38 spur trigger revolver, an Adams (British) revolver in .455 Eley (Webley), and a Chilean contract Ludwig Loewe Model 1894 Mauser 7×57 Saddle Ring Carbine.

This coming week, I hope to finish up the wood cutting to be ready for the coming winter. Since I have some travel planned for September, the last of the splitting and stacking might not be done until October.

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

3

“Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.

From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.

For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.

Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations.

He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.

So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.” – Psalm 61 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — August 7, 2020

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August 7th, 1933 The birthday of Jerry Pournelle. He, along with Larry Niven authored the survivalist classic Lucifer’s Hammer.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 90 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical 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,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for the delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 90 ends on September 30th, 2020, 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.

Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI – Part 4, by J.M.

8

(Continued from Part 3.)

There’s an App for That

The ability to run thousands of different apps is where the power of a mobile device really comes into play. It allows you to have access applications, files, sensors and other things in the palm of your hand. One of the most obvious app uses for mobile devices in field operations is maps – you can use them to figure out where you are, plan you need to go, note your findings, etc. I’ve standardized on mapping apps that utilize Open Street Maps (OSM) data files and support GPX files for exchanging tracks and other information. My primary mapping app is OsmAnd+, along with the contour line plugin; it’s not as detailed as USGS topographic maps, but the terrain in my area of operations (AO) is only moderately hilly so I don’t really need that level of detail. I make sure to download offline maps for every area I could conceivably end up operating in, and they don’t take all that much space. OsmAnd+ also allows you to create markers on your maps, which can be exported via GPX files to other systems to share, and there are plugins that allow you to take pictures/videos/notes and associate them with map locations as well as do freehand drawing on maps.

Yes, I realize that GPS may not be available, but you can still use the apps just like you would a paper map and compass, without the problem of constantly marking up your paper maps. In addition to the OSM map apps I also have PDF copies of USGS topo maps files for my AO stored on my SD card, and high-resolution satellite map screen captures I got by connecting my laptop to a friend’s 4K TV using the laptop’s HDMI port.

Taking notes is another thing I do frequently in the field, and using my mobile device allows me to stretch out the stash of paper notebooks in my preps. You’re not going to write the next ‘War and Peace’ on a mobile device, but for quick short notes it works well. I use an app called Joplin Notes, which allows me to synchronize with a Joplin Notes server running on my home base network when I return home, supports insertion of pictures and other files (like recordings) into notes, has full end-to-end encryption and allows you to create simple checkbox lists (for my to-do items). It’s not as powerful as something like Microsoft OneNote, but there’s no cloud required and I have full control over all of my information. Note-taking in field operations can be a useful way to keep track of discoveries, create reminders, follow checklists and get a leg up on after-action reports (if you’re into such things).

An audio recording app is another useful tool for field operations. You can record quick spoken notes, interviews, capture ideas, etc. One feature you should look for is the ability to save your recordings to an SD card – the one I use is called Voice Recorder (original name, I know), and is one of the highest-rated apps on Google Play. Another possible application for a voice recorder is to record intercepted radio communications you encounter while you’re out in the field. You can just hold your mobile device’s microphone up to your radio’s speaker and record, or [if the impedance matches] you could connect the audio out from your radio to the microphone jack on your mobile device using a microphone-compatible cable. Note that this is a good solution for recording radio traffic for short periods of time – I’d recommend no more than an hour or two, since most of the recording apps don’t support voice activation, and it’ll quickly consume the battery on your mobile device. If you want the ability to do voice-activated recording of radio traffic for long periods of time I’d recommend getting a small dedicated voice recorder that supports line-in so you can directly connect it to your portable radio/scanner with the afore-mentioned cable and let it collect recordings for hours and hours.Continue reading“Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI – Part 4, by J.M.”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at the ongoing coinage shortage that has closed the window of opportunity to stockpiles full bankers’ boxes of nickels. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Gold, Silver, and Platinum resumed their bull run this week. A recent headline: Gold Futures Surge Above $2,050; Silver Nears $27.  Update, as of Thursday Evening, courtesy of a blog reader:  Silver was $29.38 per ounce and gold was at $2,070.80 per ounce. I expect silver to outshine the other metals. The silver-to-gold ratio was around 100-to-1 when I started sounding the alarm about ratio trading. The ratio is now at 70.73-to-1. It will likely get back below 50-to-1 fairly soon.  We could see a spot silver price of $40 per Troy ounce as early as October, 2020. But of course the market manipulators could attempt to drive down the price of silver again. It is noteworthy that COMEX silver is a notoriously “thin” market”, so it doesn’t take a tremendous number of short contracts to depress the futures and spot prices. Plan (and invest), accordingly.

o  o  o

Futures Jump, Gold Soars As Dollar Destruction Accelerates

o  o  o

Hub Moolman:  This Inflation-Adjusted Silver Chart Tells An Interesting Story.

Economy & Finance:

The Census Bureau’s Grim Take on the Employment Shock During the Pandemic: Not Improving Yet

o  o  o

Coming banking collapse will make financial misery caused by coronavirus even worse

o  o  o

Why’s the ECB Buying the Debt of So Many Non-EU Companies?

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — August 6, 2020

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On August 6th, 1945 at 8:16 a.m. (Japanese time), an American B-29 bomber– the Enola Gay– dropped the world’s first war-time atom bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people were killed as a result of the blast, with another 35,000 injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. History is always written by the victors, so the reasoning and justification for this will be argued for years to come. But one thing is for sure: this action officially ushered in the nuclear age in war and has generated mass fear among civilization ever since, even though the firebombing of Japanese cities caused far more damage and loss of life. An interesting side note is Tsutomu Yamaguchi was 3km from the Hiroshima blast but survived. Along with a few other survivors, he made his way to his hometown, Nagasaki, and was again within 3km of the second blast yet survived this one also.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 90 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical 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,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for the delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 90 ends on September 30th, 2020, 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.

Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI – Part 3, by J.M.

10

(Continued from Part 2.)

It’s All in Your Hands

The core component of my field technology system is what most people would call a cell phone or smartphone, but I prefer to call a Mobile Information, Communications and Control System (MICCS), or just mobile device for short. Why not call it a cell phone? – because the cellular network will most likely be one of the first things to go in a TEOTWAWKI scenario. Granted, you could potentially create your own cellular network if you have the money and expertise, but for the purposes of this article I’m going to assume you’re operating without any cellular (and hence, Internet) connectivity. As a result you don’t need to worry about what kind of cellular connectivity your mobile device supports.

You should also consider the availability of GPS post-disaster – it may or may not function, depending on the specific event. Unless something like a CME impacted the GPS satellites directly, GPS signals will most likely continue operating for some period of time post-TEOTWAWKI. Exactly how long is subject to some debate – the older systems required updates from ground stations every few weeks, or the signals would start to drift, reducing their accuracy. The newer satellites are supposed to be able to maintain their precision for a lot longer, so accurate signals may be available for several years after an event. For the purposes of this article I’m going to put GPS in the ‘nice to have but not critical’ category.

Here are the requirements I came up with for my MICCS mobile device:

  • Rugged with at least an IP68 rating (or able to be ruggedized by putting it into a case)
  • At least 2GB of Random Access Memory (RAM) – 3GB or more is better
  • At least 32GB of flash storage (more is better)
  • Supports a removable microSD card
  • Supports multiple GPS systems (GPS, GLONASS, etc.)
  • Minimum of Android version 8 (I know absolutely nothing about Apple devices, so I’m going to focus on Android)
  • Supports On-the-Go (OTG) for connecting external USB devices
  • Minimum of 3000mAh battery

The device I ultimately settled on is a Ulefone Armor X5 – it met or exceeded all of my requirements, and you can find it for around $100-$150. A slightly less expensive option would be the Ulefone Armor X7, which has less RAM and flash memory; a more expensive option is the Ulefone Armor 3WT which offers a lot more RAM and flash memory, a 10,500mAh battery and a built-in 2W 400MHz-470MHz radio. Blackview and Doogee are other manufacturers that make some decent rugged mobile devices. Note that these tend to be bulkier than most mainstream consumer mobile devices, so you’re probably not going to be carrying it in the back pocket of your skinny jeans. If you have a friend in military procurement and a lot of money, another option is the Samsung S20 Tactical Edition (it’s ‘Proven by operators’, according to Samsung 8-))Continue reading“Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI – Part 3, by J.M.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at germination experiments using seeds from the Svalbard global seed vault.

Hydroxychloroquine Versus Remdesivir

Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Hydroxychloroquine vs. Remdesivir: History’s most deadly con. The CDN article begins:

“The world has been rocked by a deadly virus with millions infected, 153,000 deaths reported in the United States, and 667,000 worldwide.

An intense battle has emerged on how to treat COVID-19, between hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an inexpensive treatment for malaria and other diseases that’s over 50 years old, and Remdesivir, a drug that has been around since 2009, manufactured by Gilead Pharmaceuticals.

This battle shows how public perceptions can be manipulated for profit and political advantage, in this case, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of needless deaths.

As the truth finally comes out, the people who perpetrated this con job will be reviled in history, and those who manipulated the narrative, and the data, will be exposed.”

Recently-Imported Israeli FN-FAL Magazines

I just learned that Palmetto State Armory (“PSA” — one of our affiliate advertisers) is running a special on a small batch of original Israeli metric FN-FAL magazines that were recently imported. There is a mixture of new and used magazines. A few of them are actually original Belgian magazines with blued followers! These typically sell for $25 to $35 each, but PSA is selling them for just $14.99 each.  Type SKU # 5165493391 into their search box. I recommend that you jump on a few of these, even if you don’t yet own a FAL, since their price is bound to go back up to $25+, very soon

Face Masks Confuse Facial Recognition Technology

D.S.V. sent this:  Face Masks Confuse Facial Recognition Technology

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — August 5, 2020

5

August 5th is the sad anniversary of the Mann Gulch Fire in Montana that took the lives of 13 firefighters (including 12 smokejumpers and one former smokejumper), in 1949. The intense, fast-moving forest fire took place in what later became the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. The events of that fire were chronicled in the book Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean and immortalized in the haunting lyrics of the ballad Cold Missouri Waters by James Keelaghan.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 90 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical 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,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for the delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 90 ends on September 30th, 2020, 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.

August 5th, 2020: Our 15th Blogiversary!

31

Today, August 5th, 2020, is the 15th anniversary of the launch of SurvivalBlog. Since August of 2005 we’ve accomplished the following:

  • Posted 33,200+ articles, letters, and columns. In 15 years, we’ve hardly missed a day of posting. All of the blog’s archives are fully searchable and available free of charge–just as they’ve always been.
  • Posted more than 5,470 Quotes Of The Day and 1,580 Bible verses.
  • Cumulatively awarded more than $1.1 million worth of writing contest prizes. (Our sincere thanks to the many generous prize donors. These loyal blog supporters deserve your patronage.)
  • We’ve inspired thousands –and possibly tens of thousands — of people to relocate to The American Redoubt and to other safe regions such as Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau.
  • With your generous help, we’ve supported several very worthy Christian charities.
  • We’ve helped to educate and motivate hundreds of thousands of people to get trained-up, teamed-up, and stocked-up. Nearly every prepared individual will be part of the solution, in the next disaster or societal crisis.  And of course, every prepared individual represents one less person who is rushing to the supermarket at the 11th hour. Thus, we in effect create extra capacity in the supply chain.
  • We’ve promoted dozens of home-based and family-operated businesses.
  • SurvivalBlog has motivated a new generation of gardeners, livestock raisers, beekeepers, hunters, and fishermen.
  • Most importantly to us, we pray that we’ve been able to witness the truth of scripture and that in some small way we’ve helped to draw many SurvivalBlog readers to a closer walk with the Lord Jesus (Yeshua).
Our Plans

We don’t plan to change much with SurvivalBlog.  We intend to continue to consistently deliver you the best editorial content of any preparedness blog. And we’ll keep our layout “old school” –without annoying pop-up ads, 10-item slideshows, or embedded videos. (We recognize that a good portion of our readers still have dial-up Internet connections.)

In January of 2021, we’ll be releasing the 15th Anniversary Edition of our waterproof archive USB  stick. It will be bigger and better than ever before. And take note that we have something special planned for this edition.

Unless one of you readers beat us to it, in coming months Avalanche Lily and I plan to write articles on the following topics that we believe have not yet been covered sufficiently in SurvivalBlog:

  • Utility ATVs for Retreats
  • Thermal Night Vision
  • Dehydrating Vegetables and Herbs
  • Footpath, Equestrian, and ATV Trail Construction
  • Coin Grading Explained
  • Home Pressure-Canning Meats
  • Frost-Free Yard Hydrant Installation and Repair

It may sound hard to believe, but there are still some preparedness-minded folks who have not yet heard about SurvivalBlog. So please spread the word.  And also mention SurvivalBlog to any potential advertisers or prize donors for our bi-monthly nonfiction writing contest.

I also want to sincerely thank the more than 100,000 regular readers of SurvivalBlog for making the blog such a great success! Thanks for sharing your knowledge in your writing contest articles, letters, and comments. And my particular thanks to the 2% of SurvivalBlog readers who are regular Ten Cent Challenge subscribers. Your voluntary subscriptions keep the lights on! – JWR

Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI – Part 2, by J.M.

7

(Continued from Part 1.)

You Can’t Stop the Signal!

Much of the gear I’ll be discussing utilizes wireless communications for remote control and data exchange, so there are a number of dynamics that need to be understood to maximize their use. First, there are the factors that impact every radio signal:

  • Transmission power – The more power used to transmit, the stronger the signal and the further away it can be received. In the US the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sets limits on how much power can be used to transmit.
  • Antenna – The more closely the antenna is matched to the desired wavelength (or an even subdivision thereof – e.g. ½, ¼, etc.) the better the reception. The location and orientation of the antenna can also impact transmission and reception. In general, the higher the antenna is the further it can transmit and receive, and a having both the transmitting and receiving antennas in the same orientation (vertical or horizontal) will tend to improve the communications.
  • Obstacles – The obstacles between two points of communications can impact how well the signal gets through. This can include rain and snow.
  • Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) – This is the disruption of radio signals by other sources of electromagnetic radiation. The good news is that in a post-SHTF scenario the most common forms of EMI (like power lines, microwave ovens and WiFi networks) probably won’t be an issue.
  • Distance – In general, the further apart two communication points are the less likely they are to have a good signal.
  • Frequency – Lower frequencies tend to travel further than higher ones.

I know the radio purists out there are probably grinding their teeth at my over-simplifications, but I just want to provide some general ideas for how various factors can impact wireless communications. Note that most of the equipment I’ll be discussing utilizes WiFi networking and a 2.4GHz frequency, so that’s what I’ll be focusing on here.

For WiFi networks there are two common types – ad-hoc and infrastructure. Ad-hoc networks are point-to-point networks – two devices connect directly to each other to communicate back and forth. Infrastructure networks have some kind of central router device which multiple devices connect to and exchange information. Some of the equipment I’ll be discussing creates its own WiFi network and you have to connect directly to it with your mobile device to control or access it, which is essentially an ad-hoc connection. Other equipment requires that a separate WiFi infrastructure network already be present to connect to – for these types of devices you can use something like a GL.iNET GL-MT300N, which is a tiny USB-powered WiFi router. I made a field-deployable WiFi network in a box using an Otterbox DryBox 3250, a GL.iNet GL-MT300N router, a small 10,000mAh USB battery pack, some SMA pigtail cables, a USB cable with a power switch, a short USB cable and some high-gain USB antennas.

The MT300N router circuit board has two small U.fl/ipx connectors that aren’t used, so you can open the router (the bottom panel pops off), plug in the short SMA pigtail cables, drill holes in the top of the Otterbox for the SMA connectors (and seal with silicone!) and attach the external antennas to significantly increase your range.Continue reading“Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI – Part 2, by J.M.”

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books, and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how-to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This week the focus is on a sermon by Pastor Chuck Baldwin on Kalispell, Montana. (See the Sermons section.)

Books:

Sean Hannity’s latest book was just released yesterday, and became an instant best-seller: Live Free Or Die: America (and the World) on the Brink. When I last checked, it was ranked #1, overall in books, on Amazon!

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Reader “St. Funogas” suggested this general reference book: Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition.

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The Slow Cooker Cookbook: 1000 Flavorful Slow Cooking Recipes for Any Taste and Occasion

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A Complete Foxfire Series 14-Book Collection Set with Anniversary Editions (Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 plus 40th and 45th Anniversary Editions)

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With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”