Cold Steel Code 4 Folder, by Pat Cascio

2

I’ve never been let down by any products from Cold Steel. I waited a good long time to get their Code 4 folder in my hands. It is a very popular folder, and they are quite often out of stock. But I found that it was worth the wait.

Lynn Thompson, who owns Cold Steel, started the trend with his version of the ancient Japanese Tanto style of blade – his first knife was a fixed blade version – and I couldn’t tell you how many companies attempted to copy it – all to no avail. You see, there is the original, and then there are all the others – and none really come close to the Cold Steel version. Now I’m not knocking anyone else’s Tanto folder, but I believe that Thompson just absolutely nailed it, on his version. I don’t think anyone makes a stronger Tanto fixed blade than Cold Steel does.

Take some time, and look at some of the videos on the Cold Steel web site, and you’ll see how Thompson and some of his friends, torture test his knives – and he isn’t shy about what he does – he just absolutely puts his knives through some serious testing – I don’t know of any other knife company, that can make the claims that Cold Steel does. As a sort of disclaimer, Thompson and I are friends, have been since I first started writing about knives, and I believe that was back in 1993. However, friendship aside, Lynn knows I report fairly and honestly on any knives I test, Cold Steel or from any other makers. I just call it the way I see it when I’m done with my testing.

A Cold Steel Tanto blade is tough, real tough – the design of the point on the blade, actually allows it to penetrate much deeper and with ease, when stabbed into any fleshy material, and even non-fleshy materials. Some of Cold Steel’s testing shows not only fixed blade Tanto blades being stabbed through a car’s hood, but also some of his folders with a Tanto blade – that is confidence in your products without a doubt.Continue reading“Cold Steel Code 4 Folder, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: Cord’s Baked Spaghetti Squash

1

Reader “Cord” kindly sent us this recipe for baked Spaghetti Squash:

Directions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F.
  2. Wash one or more spaghetti squash.
  3. Trim the ends.
  4. Cut squash in half, lengthwise.
  5. Clean out and discard the seeds
  6. Place upside down in pan with 1/2in water
  7. Bake on center rack at 375 dregreees F for 40 minute or until tender. (Usually the outside of shell will indent easily.)
    While the squash bakes:
  8. Cook up ground sausage in a frying pan – enough to top the amount of squash
    We like to spice it up with salt, pepper, onion, green pepper, garlic and tad of hot pepper.
  9. Remove squash from oven – flip right side up.  (Be careful not to cut the shell as it will become your bowl.)
  10. Briefly fork most of the squash inside loose, to a spaghetti-like consistency.  Do not over-stir it, or it will get mushy.
  11. Slather each squash half with 2 tbls of butter
  12. Top with sausage.
  13. Cover that with a generous amount of your favorite grated or crumbled cheese.
  14. Return to 375* oven for about 10 minutes.
  15. Broil until the cheese browns to your liking.
SERVING

Serve hot, in the half-squash “bowl” placed on each dinner plate.

STORAGE

Keeps refrigerated for one day, and can be re-heated in a microwave oven.

—

Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

Economics & Investing For Preppers

9

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. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at the risks of another economic depression. (See the Derivatives section.)

Precious Metals:

Video Interview: Why gold will hit $2,000 within two years according to Nolan Watson

o  o  o

Gold, silver prices rally as storm clouds on horizon

Economy & Finance:

Buckle Up, Folks! Global M&A Plunges To 3-Year Low Amid Recession Threat 

o  o  o

China Will Rein in Hong Kong Through Its Economy.  JWR’s Comment: And if that doesn’t work, they’ll deport the international press and start busting skulls.

o  o  o

Recession or Slowdown? Why You Should Care About the Difference

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — October 6, 2019

Today is the birthday of science fiction author David Brin. (He was born in 1950.) He wrote The Postman, which was very loosely the foundation of a movie by Kevin Costner.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 85 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  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 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 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.
  3. 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,
  4. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. 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).
  7. 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. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. 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)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 85 ends on November 30th, 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.

Use Fiction To Become Better Prepared, by Alex

18

The “prepper” community is largely (and some might say intentionally) misrepresented by the mass media. Many stereotypes about the survivalist originate in mainstream media non-fiction “documentary” and “reality television” programming: the lone wolf survivor, the person or group who actually want to see the end of the world come about, the people preparing so they can prey on the weak, gun lovers who welcome the opportunity to go on a rampage, etc, etc, etc. People within the community already know about these falsehoods. What I want to discuss is the role that fiction can play in the life of a prepper or survivalist.

People consume fiction in a variety of ways (books, television shows, movies) – almost always just for entertainment. Not many lessons can be learned from a ‘slasher’ horror movie except don’t run upstairs to escape the killer. I would contend that fiction from the survival/prepper/TEOTWAWKI genre can be much more than mindless entertainment. Survival fiction can be used as a means to learn, open up lines of communication, and get inspired. Even the critiques of the genre and individual works tell you how much you can learn (or have already learned) about preparedness.

“The main character was just too perfect.”

“No one in their right mind would do that.”

Have you ever said those? Both statements were probably true…but that means you were analyzing the characters and the story and applying your survival knowledge to the situation – and putting yourself in their shoes. You were becoming a better prepper without even knowing it! That in itself shows that fiction has a role in preparedness. But there are a few other ways that we can become better prepared using fiction.Continue reading“Use Fiction To Become Better Prepared, by Alex”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

25

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 the relative effectiveness of perpper spray versus firearms, for defense against bears..

Does Pepper Spray Work Better Than Lead Spray?

Reader Davy F. sent us this: Does Bear Spray Work? The science is clear, right? Not so fast, according to, well, science.

Two Interesting New 9mm Pistols

Jon Patton, over at TGC News recently mentioned two interesting new polymer frame 9mm pistol offerings: The Springfield Armory Hellcat, and the BUL Armory Cherokee, made in Israel. The latter is a DA/SA design that seems to be a cross between a Baby Desert Eagle and a CZ-75. The deep $150 discount he mentioned on the BUL Armory Cherokee is only available if you e-mail the manufacturer directly at:  “usa@bularmory.com“.  By the way, I highly recommend subscribing to TGC News for their weekly video summary of gun industry news.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

1

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.

And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.

These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.” – 1 John 2:15-29 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — October 5, 2019

1

I have an update on the turn-key homestead/retreat property in North Idaho that is being sold by Don and Patrice Lewis of the Rural Revolution blog. You may recall that I mentioned this property in SurvivalBlog two months ago. This great property is still available, and quite reasonably priced. It is located east of Plummer, Idaho. (That is just a bit over a one hour drive south of Coeur d’Alene.) Patrice just wrote me to mention one interesting option:

“For those who might be interested in the property but that are unable to relocate immediately, we’re offering a bit of a deal: If someone makes an acceptable offer and subsequently purchases the property, we will rent it back for the cost of their monthly mortgage payment until next spring/summer.”

I you are looking for a truly self-sufficient retreat property that sits on a defendable plateau, with lots of like-minded neighbors, then I recommend that you prayerfully consider buying it.

By the way, the peak of the fall colors in the region is in the last two weeks of October. So if you have a spouse who is “on the fence” about moving to Idaho, then that would be the time to travel there, to see the scenic beauty!

—

October 5, 1703 was the birthday of Jonathan Edwards. He died March 22, 1758. He was a prolific Calvinist theological writer. Many of his writings were later collected in the multi-volume book The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards, edited by John Gerstner.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 85 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  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 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 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.
  3. 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,
  4. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. 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).
  7. 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. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. 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)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 85 ends on November 30th, 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.

Thoughts on Survival at Rosh Hashana, by Ze’ev

16

Editor’s Introductory Note:  This essay describes a SurvivalBlog reader’s thoughts on the nature of survival and the meme of survivalism, from the perspective of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana. This was celebrated just one week ago. Rosh Hashana is a holiday, but a serious one. It is a time of introspection and renewal of faith.  L’Shana Tovah Tiketevu!  – JWR

—

What does it mean to ‘survive?. There are different levels of survival for human beings. And even those ‘levels’ are subtle–based on how we perceive notions of survival. For more than 15 years I’ve oscillated between binges of reading survival information and blogs, and then at times ignoring it as my attention to the ‘survival’ community waxed and waned. Obviously, the levels at which survival can be perceived are influenced by our perception biases. Each individual experiences different biases at different times, moods, periods of their life, with respect to the different groups they belong to, and even with respect to the very medium of communication they are using to think and express their sentiments. Someone in the woods talking to a buddy about survivalism is likely to talk and think in very different terms than that same person, 12 hours later, when they are reading and then typing on the Internet.

From a young age, I was exposed to much ‘survival’ literature as it related to real-life stories about my grandparents fleeing Europe, as well as the stories of those who didn’t ‘make it out’. I also grew up on the communalist survival stories of how those who survived the war, then went on to thrive by continuing to fight and build their own worlds. These stories of my own personal bubble were a type of survivalism, but there are so many bubbles– theworld can be seen as a composite of nested bubbles, some expansive, some distinct, others even vaguely defined, some too remote to be seen, but above all, unknowingly interconnected.Continue reading“Thoughts on Survival at Rosh Hashana, by Ze’ev”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

42

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. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

I’ve just returned to the Rawles Ranch after a lengthy trip out-of-state to help an ailing relative. One of my projects while on this trip was helping to transport some newly-purchased e-bikes for my nieces and nephews. I’m also bringing one home for our use at the ranch.  These new e-bikes are a far cry from my first mountain bike motor unit that I purchased from Omni Instruments (aka E.R.O.S.) back in 1996. (I alluded to that in my first novel, Patriots.) That unit worked on friction drive, with the motor’s wheel in contact with the tread of the rear tire, and a simplistic momentary on-off controller. These new e-bikes have the motor built into the rear hub, and controlled by sophisticated adaptive circuitry that cleverly assist your pedaling, to reach a desired speed. You can select four different “assist” levels, and there is also a handlebar twist-throttle override.

There is no point in mentioning the brand name of the bikes, since that company went out of business. Thankfully they used all “off the shelf ” components, so I’ll be able to maintain and repair them.  In all, it is a solid design, but I have doubts about the weatherproofing, particularly for main control wring junction box at the bottom of the frame. So I think that I’ll relegate this bike to Fair Weather ONLY jaunts.

It felt very good to get home. I always pine for my wife and kids, whenever I travel. I’m now looking forward to burning my slash plies, and then deer and elk hunting season!

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

1

“Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

For thus saith the Lord God; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:

That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.” – Amos 5: 1-15 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — October 4, 2019

3

October 4, 1923 was the birthday of the late Charlton Heston, who was born John Charles Carter. He died April 5, 2008. He is often remembered for movies like Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, Soylent Green, The Planet of the Apes, and the survivalist classic The Omega Man.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 85 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  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 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 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.
  3. 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,
  4. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. 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).
  7. 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. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. 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)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 85 ends on November 30th, 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.

How To Use a Baofeng UV-5R, by Tunnel Rabbit

45

The following is a piece intended to supplement three readily-available World Wide Web resources:

  1. How to manually program a Baofeng UV-5R
  2. Download the free programming software called Chirp
  3. How to program a Baofeng using a computer

After punching in some frequencies, set the radio up for a ‘tactical’ operations by:

1.) Turning off the lighting in the display, and all beeps and bells and whistles.

2.) Set the power level on low for all tactical frequencies.

3.) Select the narrow band option to reduce the range further.

4.) Use several coats of black nail polish to ‘black out’ the LED light, but better yet is to use JB Weld or another epoxy, to form a cap over two of the small buttons on the side. This in ensures the flashing light and siren are not inadvertently triggered. Be sure not to do this to the big button that is  in between the two smaller ones. That one is the Push To Talk (PTT) button. (Unless you do not want that radio to transmit.

Note: Should one find the need to use one of these capped button to access the flashlight or FM radio, simply use your K-Bar to carefully pry the ‘cap’ off. One should always have fighting knife handy for these occasions.

Given the several antennas that usually come on these radios, I would test them, but if not, at least limit the range that the radio will transmit on in the ‘memories’ section in Chirp, to 144 to 153 Mhz, and 430 to 450 Mhz for the most common antenna. The shortest antenna that a UV-5r normally is supplied with is good for only 144 to 148 Mhz, and is no good for the 70 cm band. It is also no good for MURS or VHF business band (itinerants). If you have one of these short antennas on all, and any of your set of radios, then replace it! Standardize every aspect of your radios, so that they look and function the same.

We would not want to shorten the life of the radio by transmitting outside the antenna’s design range. So don’t do so, except in a pinch. The external antenna that can be used on a vehicle, that best matches the Baofeng UV5R’s useful transmit range, is the Tram 1181. This antenna–unlike most antennas offered–is pre-tuned, and could also be used as a base station antenna for either a mobile, or a handheld.Continue reading“How To Use a Baofeng UV-5R, by Tunnel Rabbit”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

4

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. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at the price of gold, vis-a-vis the Hong Kong protests. (See the Precious Metals section.)

Precious Metals:

Gold Prices Plunge Right On Cue As China Golden Week Begins. JWR’s Comment:  But watch gold soar, once the Chinese PLA and PAP crack down on the Hong Kong protestors. I predict that will get ugly there on a Tiananmen Square scale, sometime soon. I suspect that the PLA will probably wait until there is a major international distraction elsewhere, and then let slip their dogs of war.

o  o  o

Hub Moolman: Silver and the Yield Curve Inversion

Economy & Finance:

At Wolf Street: Fed Admits Failure of ‘Plan A’ to Control Money Market Rates, Shifts Back to Repos (which was ‘Plan A’ till 2008)

o  o  o

H.L. sent us this: Banks Just Changed the Rules of the Negative Rate Game for Danes. A pericope:

Denmark is about to become a test case for what happens when banks start charging a lot of customers to store their money.

That’s because one of the country’s biggest banking groups just changed the rules of the game, by removing the floodgate that had shielded most retail depositors. Until Friday, only people with roughly $1 million in surplus cash at their banks were facing a negative rate. Now, the threshold has been reduced to just over $100,000, with no guarantee it won’t go lower.

Other banks have hinted they’ll follow and economists say the development marks a major shift in how monetary policy will be felt across the economy.

Denmark’s latest response to negative interest rates has made it an even more interesting case study for the European Central Bank. Jan Storup Nielsen, a senior analyst at Nordea, reckons that many hitherto unknown consequences of negative rates will finally play out in the real world.

‘So far, it’s just been a lot of theories about what will happen, but now we get a chance to see it in real life,” Nielsen said. “For the rest of Europe and the ECB this is perfect, because they can let Denmark learn all the consequences and then see what they should decide.'”

o  o  o

Repo Madness Day 8: NY Fed Pumps $110 Billion of Cash into Market

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”