Radio Communication Methods During Emergencies- Part 3, by R. in NC

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We just took a look at non-FCC License Dependent Communications, including use expectations and purchase considerations. Today, we begin examining FCC license dependent communications devices.

FCC License Dependent Communications

GMRS

GMRS radios operate on the same frequencies as FRS along with a number of additional channels. They can use up to 50 watts, and the FCC allows for better antennas and repeaters. GMRS will require a license. No test is needed, and the FCC license covers all residents of a household. On last check, the license cost $85 dollars. Pros and cons, along with distance, are similar to FRS, with the exception of additional power, use of repeaters, and better antennas. (See FRS radios for details.)

Amateur Radio – Ham Radio

Ham Radio Overview

Ham radio covers frequencies ranging from 135 kHz to above 275 GHz (as of March 28, 2017). The range of frequencies is immense and covers a wide range of possible communications distances. In addition to the features of each band of frequencies, Ham radio operators have access to satellite-based communications and EME (Earth Moon Earth) bouncing. EME is a technique where signals are bounded off of the moon to a distant location. As long as both antennas can point to the moon at the same time, this can greatly extend range (though it requires significant amounts of power and special antennas). Satellite access is typically setup as a repeater and/or APRS. (See below for information on APRS.) It is even possible to chat with astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) when they are overhead and on their Ham radio.

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Internet Censorship is Now Rampant — It is High Time to Bookmark Your Alternatives

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The New Censorship

With every passing week, we are seeing growing censorship of the Internet. The key  mass media phrase of 2016 and 2017  has been “Fake News.” But much of what  is being called fake news isn’t, while much of what the mainstream media is pushing is indeed what is “fake.” Meanwhile, The Powers That Be are enforcing their view of “Community Standards” to quash free speech. I won’t re-hash this with a huge laundry list of particular incidents, because they are too numerous and have been well-documented. Rather, I will suffice with just a few summaries:

  • The Google search engine now routinely uses special algorithms to deemphasize some search engine results. Meanwhile, they over-emphasize others, in an overt “pay for play” arrangement. In essence, if your site is conservative, it often gets pushed far down the list of search results, out of view from all but the most doggedly persistent searchers.  (Most people don’t scroll down to see the second, third, or fourth page of search results.) Even religious sites are now being targeted. During the 2016 presidential election campaign cycle, Google was caught red-handed in corrupting the “auto-complete” feature of their search box.
  • YouTube (a subsidiary of Google since 2006) has become notorious for de-monetizing anyone who isn’t sufficiently pagan, homosexual, anti-gun, and/or leftist.  They now delete or un-index some speech they deem to be politically incorrect. Most recently, they have been “disappearing” many videos on civilian-owned firearms. If you search many topics using the YouTube search box, you simply will not see a lot of content that has been blacklisted or “pushed down.”  And unless you actively subscribe to some content, it will just disappear from view. Poof!  Down the Memory Hole.

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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 “HJL”. A disturbing escalation of hometown surveillance is on the horizon now.

Ruger P-Series Mag Identification

Commander Zero recently posted this great tutorial: Ruger 9mm P-series mag identification. If you have a Ruger P-series collection, this tutorial will be a welcome addition to your viewing as you try to make heads or tails of the different magazines out there.

Death of a Bread Machine

We don’t use a bread machine much around here anymore. One of my sons has taken a liking to making artisan breads by hand and the family is happy to indulge him. In fact, we often end up eating alot of bread as he hones his skills. He often remarks that baking a cake is like science. You add the exact amount of ingredients and do the same things every time and you reliable get the same product. Bread baking, however, is more of an art because you are dealing with live cultures to create it.

Not all of us have the will (or the time) to devote to learning an art though and the “science” method is very appealing. Enter the bread machine. It’s an amazing device that very nearly makes baking bread as easy as baking a cake. But like all appliances, there is a limit. Here is some practical wisdom from Patrice Lewis: Requiem to a bread machine.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day

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“When I was a lad it was required of all able bodied men to go kill Jerrys and Japs, at government expense, one at a time for the common folk, in batches if you showed an aptitude for heavy machinery. We stood shoulder to shoulder with the USSR fighting to free the world of tyranny. It was simple and majestically pure, like life itself at that age.

Then, in my first years at school there were air raid drills with Silent Hill-style sirens wailing because the Reds were going to attack us, and our brave allies too—Germany and Japan. We didn’t know what “world domination” might be, exactly, but the USSR was guilty and it was badder than bad.

Were these the same Russians as our former allies, those brave folks who fought the forces of evil to a standstill and harvested fields of grain in their off hours? What happened? They seemed so nice.

Meanwhile, Germany and Japan, having lost the war, had achieved victimhood, which meant … but no, that was unthinkable.

The unintended lesson was: Things change. A lot. And fast. How today, for instance, do you fully endorse Equal Opportunity, once a non-negotiable principle of racial justice, now outright hate speech. So here’s a thought: don’t get too attached to the normalcy of the day, in not much time you’ll be holding it by the stinky end.” – Ol’ Remus, in his Yer Ol’ Woodpile Report blog

Radio Communication Methods During Emergencies- Part 2, by R. in NC

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Today, we’re continuing to look at communications devices in this communications overview section of the article. So far, we’ve look at Ham radio/licensed devices, but now we’re moving into non-FCC license dependence communication devices to consider.

Cell Phones – Using During An Emergency and Improving Reception

During an emergency it is very common that the local cell phone towers become saturated. Many people attempt to connect at the same time, resulting in busy signals. In addition, some cell towers have special equipment that restrict public use and dedicate additional bandwidth to emergency services. This section covers how to get a message out, as long as the cell tower is working.

SMS Texts

SMS texts (aka messages on an iPhone) use an alternate channel on cell phone towers called a control channel. This control channel is isolated from voice and data channels and is not impacted when too many voice and data connections are made. SMS also caches the message on your device and makes several attempts to deliver it, which is very useful if service is intermittent.

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Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest 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 JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today, I’m posting an update on investing in binary triggers. (See the Tangibles Investing section, near the end of this column.)

Precious Metals:

First up, there is this from Peter Hug: Gold Price Fighting Stronger Dollar

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American Eagle Gold, Silver Coin Demand on Track for 10-Year Lows. JWR’s Comment: My Inner Contrarian is whispering: “Jim: When others are shunning physical, then buy physical.”

Stocks:

Mark O’Byrne: Next Wall Street Crash Looms? Lessons On Anniversary Of 1987 Crash. After another 200 point jump on Monday, one must ask: how high is up? This mania cannot carry on much longer without a sharp correction

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European shares flat as banks weigh, Spain lags again

 

Commodities:

U.S. Midwest oil refiners boost output, cut region’s dependence on Gulf Coast

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Noble Group Warns of Loss Topping $1 Billion

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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. This week the focus is on Kestrel Elite weather gauges. (See the Instructional Videos section.)

Books:

The Gun Digest Book of Firearms Assembly/Disassembly Series.  (I recommend this entire book series.)

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Leonardo da Vinci, a newly-released biography by Walter Isaacson

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A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation

 

Movies and Television:

Random Quest. A clever film about a scientist who visits a parallel universe. Available on DVD or for free download for Amazon Prime members.

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The Lost City of Z.  Available for free download for Amazon Prime members.

 

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution.” – Barry Goldwater

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – October 24, 2017

October 24th is the anniversary of the firing squad execution of Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling, in 1945. His ignominious place in history was to have his surname become a noun. “Quisling” is now a moniker synonymous with treason and alliance with an invading army. Something tells me that the popularity of “Vidkun” as a boys’ natal name in Scandinavia dropped precipitously after about 1942. Ditto for “Adolf”, in Germany, and “Benito”, in Italy, after 1944.

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I noticed that OpticsPlanet.com is having a 11% off sale for orders over $100. This sale ends at midnight on October 26th. Use coupon code “YEAR17”.

And meanwhile, MidwayUSA.com is offering free shipping for most orders over $99. Use coupon code: 99FS2017102324. That offer ends at midnight on October 24th.

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Radio Communication Methods During Emergencies- Part 1, by R. in NC

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Communications Overview and General Guidelines

About This Article

A modern two-way radio combines transmit and receive components together and is known as a transceiver. In this article I will use the terms radio and transceiver interchangeably. I’m also trying to write this to the largest audience possible and for that reason I may sacrifice technical accuracy in order to express the concept.

Not all emergencies will require advanced communications equipment. Common usage technologies, such as email, voice mail, and SMS texting, should not be ignored. The more options you are able to take advantage of, the better your chances of establishing communications.

Radio Communications and Where To Start

When it comes to radios, different frequencies propagate differently and have different send and receive requirements. Some frequencies are great for your neighborhood but will rarely be usable over three miles; others can talk across your neighborhood and international but may have gaps in communicating throughout your state.

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SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies of interest to preppers that are located in the region. The emphasis this week is on the makers of the GrainMaker home wheat grinder.  See the Montana section of this column.)

Idaho
First up:  An Idaho congressional candidate is under attack.  Why? For simply pointing out inconsistencies in the official Las Vegas Massacre narrative. See:  Idaho congressional candidate pushes Las Vegas shooting conspiracy theories. JWR’s Comments: The leftward-leaning Idaho Statesman has an unjustified vendetta against Michael Snyder.  I recommend that Idaho citizens visit Michael Snyder’s campaign web site. His campaign deserves your support.

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Next, there is this, over at Redoubt News: Zollinger Shines As Cowardly Smear Campaign Fails

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Brooks Announces for Idaho State Senate

Montana (GrainMaker Mills)

Moving on to Montana news: Glacier National Park soars to new visitation record, even with fire closures

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Our Friend Commander Zero (Editor of the great Notes From The Bunker blog) recently wrote me. He told me about a company in Stevensville, Montana. It is Bitterroot Tool & Machine Company. They make two types of very stout hand-powered grain mills. They are sold under the brand name The GrainMaker. These are configured a lot like the ubiquitous Country Living grain mill.  They have a flywheel pulley with a v-belt groove. This makes them suitable for adding an electric motor. (The company also makes and sells a mounting table and motorizing kit.) Their mills have extension handles, to make them easy to use for hand grinding. Hooray! Another product useful to prepared families made here in the Redoubt.

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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 “HJL”. Tensions ratchet up a notch this week between North Korea and the U.S.

Reason #5045 to Leave Public School

Florida teacher accused of giving 17-year-old student STD – Are these incidents becoming more common place or are people just more willing to report them? I think it’s probably a bit of both.

Millennials are Ditching Religion

I always thought that in a time of emotional upheaval people would return to their roots. It’s easy to be a Christian when things are going well, but we tend to get lazy and just give it lip service. You might say that we talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk when life is easy. When things begin to get tough, we remember who we should be and get ourselves right with God. This generation coming on line seems to break with that though. Millennials are turning from faith to things of the occult like witchcraft and astrology. Perhaps we have failed this generation by not teaching them the things of God like we should have? Thanks to H.L. for the link.

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Preparedness Notes for Monday – October 23, 2017

On October 23rd, 2002, around 50 Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theater, taking 700 hostages during a popular musical. After 57 hours, during which two hostages were killed, Soviet Special Forces pumped a powerful narcotic gas into the theater knocking the terrorists and hostages unconscious before breaking in through the walls and roof. When the dust settled, most of the rebels and 120 hostages had been killed.