Generators for Family Readiness – Part 1, by Greg X.

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Many of us own a generator. But how much research did you do before purchasing yours? Generator system integration into you home power design is frequently a series of tradeoffs. I’m going to cover how generators work, potential design features, trade-offs, and strategic considerations. I actually own four generators of various capacities, fuel types, and features, each for slightly different purposes. I also work doing generator fleet maintenance.

Key Components

I like to break generators down into an alternator, and engine, a DC control system, an AC control system, a fuel system and a cooling system. Generator sets are typically powered with gasoline, diesel, natural gas or propane engines. The engines typically run at 1,800 RPM, 3,600 RPM, or are variable speed. The engines will be air cooled or liquid cooled. Alternators can be permanent magnet, brushless or they cnd bedesigns that use traditional brushes. The AC waveform can be made by the alternator or byan inverter/converter. The AC frequency can be created by the engine/alternator or by the inverter converter. The AC voltage can be controlled by a voltage regulator, the inverter/converter or by a circuit in the alternator. They can be pull-start or electric start. The generator manufacturing industry combines all these to create generator sets with different performance characteristics at different price points.

All the alternators rotate a magnetic field inside a set of wires (windings) to convert the rotating energy of the engine into electricity. The rotor is spun by the motor, and the stator is the stationary copper windings that produce the electricity. The best alternators are brushless with four sets of windings, the exciter stator, exciter rotor, and the rotor and stator windings. The voltage regulator (VR) sends a DC voltage to exciter stator which passes the energy electromagnetically to the rotor to create the rotating magnetic field. These alternators can produce high quality power, they can handle the stress of motor starting surges, and can last for tens of thousands of hours with simple bearing and diode replacement. They tend to be found in commercial generators.

A brush alternator still uses a voltage regulator, but passes the VR DC energy to the rotor via brushes. Brushes wear out, but power quality is still fairly good and brushes can be replaced. Inverter generators typically use an alternator that spins a permanent magnet as the rotor to create the voltage for the inverter. No brushes to wear. PMAs are typically smaller than other alternators, but require the inverter. Power quality is as good as the inverter. Consumer household generators may also contain a simple brushless alternator that uses an extra winding and capacitor in the rotor to somehow energize the rotor. They are reliable, inexpensive, but don’t regulate the voltage very well. My brushless consumer generator produces 129 VAC at zero load and steadily drops down to below 120 VAC by teh time it reaches 2/3 load.

I also have a generator with brushes and a voltage regulator. It produces 128-129 VAC all the time from zero to as much load as I could pull from it. The manufacturer told me they set the voltage high to allow for extension cord voltage line loss. The voltage regulator can be adjusted to a lower voltage, if that is what is wanted. I plan to order a spare pair of brushes. Voltage variability on the inverter will depend on the design of the inverters. I checked the two I own and one dropped about 4 Volts in the transition from zero load to ¾ load and the other dropped less than 2 Volts in the transition from zero load to ½ load.Continue reading“Generators for Family Readiness – Part 1, by Greg X.”

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:

My darling wife gets all the glory this week. Since I’ve been out of state helping an elderly relative, I haven’t accomplished a lot of prepping. Granted, I’ve placed a few re-stocking and “top off” orders–mainly for food and food prep items. I also completed a couple of deferred vehicle repairs and cleaning.

Oh, while here, I found a seller with several “ex-rental” refurbished 5-liter Invacare Platinum O2 Concentrators on Craigslist. I dickered that gent down to just $250 each. With those, I helped out three relatives with gifts or “at my cost” sales of those oxygen concentrators. (With new HEPA inlet filters, new outlet filters, new air humidifiers, and sets of five soft cannulas, for each.  That added just $17 to the cost of each machine.)  Downloading the Operator’s Manual cost nothing, and printing several copies on our ink tank type printer will cost just pennies.

My only other prepping this past week has been getting plenty of daily exercise. I’m just praying that I return home healthy. I will certainly take all of the requisite precautions!

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them; This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, saying,

What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp,

And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people:

To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, and offer them for peace offerings unto the Lord.

And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and burn the fat for a sweet savour unto the Lord.

And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.

And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which sojourn among you, that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice,

And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer it unto the Lord; even that man shall be cut off from among his people.

And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” – Leviticus 17:1-11 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — March 13, 2020

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On March 13, 1933, banks in the U.S. started to re-open, following a week-long “bank holiday” declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

—

Today is the birthday of the astronomer Percival Lowell, in 1855. His flawed “Canals of Mars” theories persisted from 1895 to 1909.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 87 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 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 (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made 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, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. 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).
  6. 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. 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)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. 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.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 87 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

The Ultimate Prepper Vehicle, by Spotlight

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I will admit that the title that I chose for this article was mostly tongue-in-cheek. There is obviously, no ultimate prepper vehicle. What works for me may not work for you. However, I do want to take the opportunity to make the case for what I think is an excellent prepper vehicle: the minivan. Yes, the lowly, oft-mocked minivan. The “Loser Cruiser” as one of my buddies put it when I drove up one day. As I sensed he was attacking my manhood I responded that if he was getting his manhood from the car he drove, he had much bigger problems than I could help him with! Let’s take a look at why I think this type of vehicle is perfect for a prepper.

First of all, some background and personal experience: My wife and I got our first minivan in the early 2000s. It was a 1994 Dodge Caravan my brother in law was getting rid of and he only wanted $1000 for it so we grabbed it up. It was fire engine red so we called it Clifford the Big Red Van after a character from a book our daughter loved as a child. It was nice, but very basic. We kept the third row seat out permanently as we only had one child and almost never used it. The second row seat was removable but it was a bear to move it. It was unwieldy and weighed a ton. It was hassle enough that I would think long and hard about whether I really needed to take it out to put whatever large item I had into the van.

It also had an aftermarket alarm system installed by the owner prior to my brother in law. (Are minivans really hot on the stolen car circuit?!) I don’t know how this thing was wired but it had a red light and a green light. If the red light came on, the alarm was armed and it could only be disarmed by multiple presses of one of the buttons, which sometimes disarmed it and sometimes didn’t. If it turned red and you turned the car off, you could not get it restarted with the red light on so we constantly had to keep an eye on it. I had two different alarm installers look at it but they said it was so wired into the whole system they were afraid to mess with it for fear of causing other problems.

Even with those issues, Mrs. Spotlight loved it. She drove it every day and we never worried about how much stuff we wanted to take on a trip. In 2008 Clifford breathed his last and we got a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country Touring. Talk about an upgrade! This thing had leather, heated seats, folding middle and third row seats and more bells and whistles than we could have imagined. Mrs. Spotlight really loved this car and I did too. We drove it everywhere, on more trips than I can count, loaded it up with garden supplies, suitcases, wood, etc. You name it; it went into that van.

The only thing my wife did not like was the color, navy blue with grey interior. But, buyers of used cars don’t get to pick their colors. We drove that until December 2018 when we bought the same exact model only 10 years newer, a 2015 Town & Country with only 7,800 miles on it. Again, even though it’s the same model, it has many more upgrades. Heated steering wheel! I thought that was the dumbest thing ever until I tried it and it is actually kind of nice! This thing is like riding in a limousine. People laugh at us since our only child is grown and married and we still have a minivan but the laughing stops when they get in they see how roomy and comfortable it is. We like to go antiquing and the van is perfect for that. One thing my wife didn’t like: the color. It is literally the same exact color, navy blue with grey interior! Sorry, honey!Continue reading“The Ultimate Prepper Vehicle, by Spotlight”

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.

Crash Alert — It Will Get Worse

Today, we look at the effects of both the new oil price war and the Wuhan coronavirus on global finance and equities markets.  I’m writing this column on Thursday evening, near the end of two of the most turblulent weeks in U.S. market history. In has been a roller coaster ride, but the general trend has been downward, albeit with some big rallies. I’ve concluded that the downtrend will continue. Any further rallies in 2020 will likely be “Bear Trap” rallies. For example, there will probably be another rally just after President DJT is re-elected. Take advantage of such rallies to unload any of your remaining equities positions. Be aware that even precious metals might suffer in the near term, as the big long options traders desperately liquidate everything, to cover their positions. My advice: Continue to get out of equities and into precious metals and firearms. In a deep recession or depression, fine art, rare wines, Swiss watches and assorted collectibles will suffer. Don’t buy any of those until you are confident that those markets are at or near the very bottom.

And what about the long term? I’m still betting on a deep deflationary recession or even a decade-long general market depression, possibly including a spasm of mass inflation and currency repudiations and/or currency consolidation into regional sovereign cryptocurrencies. All this, as governments and central banks attempt to thrash their way out of the morass that they have created with their unrealistic fiscal and monetary policies.

Precious Metals:

Just as the equities markets were taking another dive on Monday morning, the silver-to-gold ratio spiked briefly to 100-to-1. That was an all-time record. On Tuesday the ratio rebounded to around 97-to1. But then by Thursday morning, it was back to 100-to-1. So this is a great time to buy silver, or to ratio trade out of gold into silver. Any time that you can catch a market swing at an extreme point (“the end of the pendulum swing”), then it is usually a good time to shift your investments.

o  o  o

And speaking of “the end of the pendulum swing”, it is noteworthy that spot platinum just did a belly flop dive to $772 per Troy ounce. At the same time, spot gold was at $1,572. That is a more than a 2-to-1 ratio!  That is hard to fathom, since platinum has traditionally sold at a premium above gold. So this would also be a good time to trade gold (or rhodium, if you still have any), for platinum.

Economy & Finance:

For the first time in history, the entire US debt market is trading below 1%. This is an unprecedented level for interest rates in the United States. Buckle up, folks. This ride is going to get very bumpy! – JWR

o  o  o

Coronavirus updates: Fear batters the economy as U.S. death toll rises to 26

o  o  o

At Zero Hedge: Funding Freeze Getting Worse: Dealers Demand Record $216BN In Liquidity From Fed Repo

o  o  o

Payments on mortgages to be suspended across Italy after coronavirus outbreak

o  o  o

At Wolf Street: Tourism is 10% of GDP in France, 13% in Italy, 15% in Spain. And Now it’s in Free Fall

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“The war on drugs has turned into a war on civil liberties The reason is simple. The war is a war on people suspected of using, or dealing in, or otherwise being involved in drugs. But the drug industry survives because tens of millions of people engage in voluntary transactions, which they try to keep secret. Hence law enforcement must attempt to penetrate the private lives of millions of suspects, which could be almost anyone.” – J. Orlin Grabbe

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — March 12, 2020

Today is the birthday of science fiction author Harry Harrison, who is best known for his Deathworld trilogy. (He was born in 1920 and died in 2012.)

On March 12, 1850 the first US $20 gold piece was issued.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 87 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 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 (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made 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, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. 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).
  6. 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. 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)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. 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.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 87 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Preps for Coronavirus by A.J.S.

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Coronarvirus Simplified and Explained with Suggested Actions

At this late stage the time for preparedness has largely passed but it is not entirely too late. Please read the following and consider either preparing accordingly or supplementing your current preps accordingly.

Background Info:

The novel coronavirus (COVID 19) currently spreading rapidly around the globe is reportedly spread primarily by droplets (think the size droplets you get when you sneeze–big enough to feel most of the time) with some spread being reported by airborne particles (think the size of the dust motes that you see suspended in the air if the sunlight hits them just right). What this means in practical terms is that most of the time people get the virus when someone contagious coughs or sneezes into their hand and touches an object (think doorknobs) or directly onto an object and then someone else touches it and subsequently touches their eyes, nose or mouth which introduces the virus into the body or when someone sneezes or coughs into the air at a distance of less than 4-6 feet from you and you inhale the droplets. Those size droplets usually fall out of the air within a few feet.

There is practically no chance of it going through intact unbroken skin into the body; that is simply not how it works. Some people–specifically the people on the cruise ship–reportedly got it from those much smaller particles that suspend in the air which is called airborne transmission. What makes this such a challenge to contain is that these size particles suspend in the air for a long time–they get sucked up into HVAC systems and recirculated, they drift on air currents etc.

The only real way to be assured of avoiding these particles is to wear both a N95 mask AND goggles for eye protection. Fortunately the risk of getting it this route is much lower unless you are in certain specific circumstances (in a building or on a cruise ship where the air is recirculated and you are constantly exposed and re-exposed until finally enough makes it into your body to cause you to get sick). Masks and goggles can prevent this type of exposure and reduce this risk however, the biggest reason masks and goggles are helpful is simply because they serve as a physical reminder and barrier to keep you from touching your eyes, nose and mouth which are the three places where viruses of all types most commonly enter your body.

This particular virus is very easily spread–according to info I am seeing online it spreads as much as 6 times quicker and easier than the flu and as much as 3-4 times easier than the stomach flu–in other words it spreads FAST! Making things worse, there is no natural immunity anywhere in any human population–no one has ever been exposed to it and developed antibodies to fight it off before now so everyone is susceptible to getting it. Fortunately it is not a devastatingly deadly disease.

Assuming adequate medical care it kills about 2-3% of the people who get it. Another 16% will have serious complications and end up hospitalized– with a smaller percentage in ICU, on a ventilator for a week to 2 weeks and then recover. The common flu kills about 0.2% of the people who get it and about that many more require hospitalization. Much like the seasonal flu is currently and chicken pox was when we were kids, if this coronavirus persists for long enough pretty much everyone will eventually get it–it is too contagious not too.

The biggest goal of the public health sector is to slow it down so that hospitals and the healthcare system aren’t overwhelmed. As a simplified example: if your hospital has 10 ICU beds and 100 people need an ICU bed right now its a bad, bad day but if 10 people need them this week, ten next week and ten for each of the following 8 weeks then its no big deal. Most of the things that should be coming down the pipe will be to try to spread the illness out over time so that it can be better managed. The impact this has is very, very, obvious when you look at China–in cities with a low caseload the death rate is 2-3% but in Hubei province where the system is totally overwhelmed it is about 4-5%.

The other hope is that by delaying and slowing the spread that summer will get here and as the traditional flu season ends the spread will slow down naturally. I personally suspect that it will slow down over the summer here in the USA but will be running rampant through South America and Africa during their winter and will then come sweeping back through the US next winter again. By the following year we should have vaccine production ramped up enough to make an actual difference.Continue reading“Preps for Coronavirus by A.J.S.”

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 coronavirus quarantines.

All U.S. Hospital Beds to be Filled in May?

A bit of confirmation for one of my assertions, over at Zero Hedge: All Hospital Beds In The US Will Be Filled With Patients ‘By About May 8th’ Due To Coronavirus: Analysis. Here is a snippet:

“We can expect that we’ll continue to see a doubling of cases every 6 days (this is a typical doubling time across several epidemiological studies). Here I mean *actual* cases. Confirmed cases may appear to rise faster in the short term due to new test kit rollouts.

We’re looking at about 1M US cases by the end of April, 2M by ~May 5, 4M by ~May 11, and so on. Exponentials are hard to grasp, but this is how they go.“

What You Can (and Can’t) Feed Your Dog

Reader C.B. suggested this, over at Fox News:  Feeding your dog from the table: What you can and can’t do, according to veterinarian

Does Joe Biden Have Dementia?

Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Does Joe Biden have dementia?. A quote:

“Memory loss and difficulty finding words, the two top hallmarks of dementia, are present in just about all of his speeches and debates. His campaign and the DNC have downplayed the memory loss as no big deal and they attribute his difficulty finding words with his history of stuttering as a child. But again, we’ve seen Biden in action. When he was finishing up his second term as Vice President, he was very active as many were pushing for him to run for president. But even after he declined and started supporting Hillary Clinton, he demonstrated clarity with his cognitive abilities.”

Facial Hairstyles and Filtering Facepiece Respirators

Reader A.W. sent this: Facial Hairstyles and Filtering Facepiece Respirators

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

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — March 11, 2020

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Today is the birthday of author Douglas Adams (born 1952). He is the author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Trapper and survivalist Claude Lafayette Dallas, Jr.  was born March 11, 1950. The subject of several books and movies, Dallas had a “colorful” life. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of two game wardens, in Idaho. He served 22 years of a 30-year sentence before being released in 2005. He reportedly now lives in the wilds of Alaska.

Also on this day, the Great Blizzard of ’88 struck the northeastern United States (1888).

March 11th is the birthday of the late actor Anton Yelchin (born 1989, died June 19, 2016). He is remembered for his portrayal of Kyle Reese in Terminator: Salvation, and as Ensign Pavel Checkov, in the most recent Star Trek movie series. He died in a freak accident wherein his parked Jeep Grand Cherokee unexpectedly rolled forward on an incline, pinning him to a security fence.

Useful Transceivers for Most Preppers, by Tunnel Rabbit

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Preamble

The goal of this article to provide readers, the average preppers radio operator, with useful choices that may be capable of meeting a required level of performance. These are some inexpensive, or low power radio options that do not require an Amateur Radio License in the U.S..

Antenna choice is a very important to the part of providing reliable communications within a 10 to 20 mile radius using low powered radios. Terrain also plays an important role. If one located 50 feet higher than the average elevation of the surrounding terrain, the distance it may transmit and receive is much greater. The old rule of thumb in the Amateur Radio world is that ‘height is might’. Even though there will be additional loss of signal in a lengthy run of cable to an antenna that is mounted as high as possible, the additional height of the antenna that avoids obstacles and terrain in the radio wave’s path, easily compensates. In this example, extreme signal loss in a RG-58 cable intended for short runs only, can lose, say half of the signal strength, or 1.5 Dbd, is acceptable if the otherwise low in height antenna installation cannot make reliable communications possible.

Another configuration to consider is that a radio with only 2 watts output, using antenna that mounted at least 15 feet high, and transmits through an antenna with a gain of 1.5 Ddb, can outperform a 10 watt radio transmission that transmits through a 1/4 wave unity gain (no gain) antenna mounted on a vehicle roof. The radio’s frequency also plays an important role in how in negotiates terrain, and obstacles. Radio line of sight in not a straight line. Radio wave can penetrate, or follow the ground, and go around or deflect over hills by about 5 percent, and travel to it’s destination that cannot be seen with the eyes. The longer wave lengths tend to do this much better than the short wave lengths such are used in GMRS radios. GMRS radio using the 3 times shorter in wave length UHF frequencies as compared to VHF frequencies. So they will tend to penetrate some buildings and obstacles much better than VHF. CB radio waves are in the 11 meter band right next to the 10 meter Amateur band. CB transmissions can follow the ground much better than high VHF frequencies that is used in the Multi User Radio Service (MURS) that starts at 151.820MHz.

Three radios and antenna options to consider.

Option 1: SSB CB Radio

Pros:
– No license required.
– Affordable.
– Familiar format.
– No programming needed.
– Can talk with common CB radios.
– Semi-secure. Of the three choices, it provides the highest level of COMSEC.
It is semi-secure, as there a few SSB CBs in use, and standard CBs cannot receive an intelligible signal from SSB CB, when SSB mode is selected.
– Higher effective signal strength due the type of modulation as compared to standard CB radio.
The radio’s rated output is 4 watts, yet when used in Singe Side Band mode, this type modulation has an effective rating of about 12 watts. 12 watts that can provide reliable communications out to at least 10 miles, or more in average terrain. However, both radios in the network need to be CBs with SSB capability.

Cons:
– Large in 20 foot in diameter area needed for the ground plane of the antenna.Continue reading“Useful Transceivers for Most Preppers, by Tunnel Rabbit”

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 Red Feather Canned Butter. (See the Gear & Grub section.)

Books:

Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres

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The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

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Now that Paladin Press is kaput, this is now a quite scarce book: Defending Your Retreat: A Manual For Combat After the Collapse.

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I just noticed that my book How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times is still selling well, and now has nearly 1,000 posted reader reviews, at Amazon.com. My next nonfiction book will be released on October 20th.  But please wait until the release day, to place your order. Thanks!

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