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. Today the focus is on GPS receivers.
Another Senseless GPS Mishap
Our friend Commander Zero over at the great Notes From The Bunker blog had a link to a familiar story: Yet another motorist stranded because of their foolish faith in GPS technology: The Latest: Couple who survived six days in Utah. JWR’s Comment: [[[Sarcasm on]]] How many times does this have to happen before Congress finally takes action and bans the evil assault GPS technology? GPS receivers can be bought on the street without any background checks and can be easily concealed. They often get into the hands of children. Only the police and military should be trusted to have GPS technology. [[[Sarcasm off]]]
Here is a follow-up article with more details.
Piercing The IDF OPSEC Veil
JWR’s wife Avalanche Lily spotted this piece over at YNET: Inside ‘the pit’: Commander offers rare peek into IDF nerve center. JWR’s Comment: The IDF is famous for their OPSEC–even down to individual troops, who in my experience often won’t even mention which branch of the IDF they are with, to strangers. To have a Brigadier General be this open is actually sending a message to at least one of their opponents. If they aren’t quaking in their boots, then they should be!
A Genuine Source for Binary Triggers
Many SurvivalBlog readers have taken my advice and gone shopping for a few binary triggers for their ARs. But many have been shocked to see their prices have nearly doubled. The classic Law of Supply and Demand hasn’t been repealed. The “new normal” seems to be around $650. Ouch. Meanwhile, eBay is knocking down auctions and Buy-It-Now binary trigger listings almost as fast as they are posted. And many of the companies taking orders don’t actually have them in inventory. Since both Franklin Armory and FosTech now have 8+ week (and growing) order backlogs, I now DO NOT recommend buying from any dealer that doesn’t actually have their advertised triggers in captivity. There is now the risk that fast-tracked ban legislation could be signed into law before you can take delivery.
Thankfully, I did find a company in Utah that has a decent supply of Franklin BFS-II Binary triggers in stock. They are: Valley Food Storage. I ordered several from them for around $500 apiece. And again, I’ve been assured that they actually have these on hand. Tell them that Jim at SurvivalBlog sent you. Note: These triggers are not legal to purchase if you live in: CA, DC, IA, ND, NJ, NY, or WA. The clock is ticking on this one, folks! – JWR
Please Pray for the Citizens of Santa Rosa
This 10-minute video sums up the devastation in Northern California: Firefighter’s perspective – Tubbs Fire Santa Rosa
Your WiFi May Get KRACKed
Reader.B.K suggested this article at Ars Technica: Serious flaw in WPA2 protocol lets attackers intercept passwords and much more. This vulnerability is dubbed “KRACK, short for Key Reinstallation Attacks.”
Communications History Comes Full Circle
Pigeon caught smuggling cellphone into jail. (Thanks to T.P. for the link.)
Pistol Packin’ Grandma
An Illinois grandmother kept her cool and waited for the right moment to pull her pistol on a would-be kidnapper. As the grandmother pulled up to a mall parking lot, a man who appeared to be waiting for a bus assaulted her with a butcher knife. She fought back and kicked him in the chest and he ended up cutting her arm (which needed 24 stiches.) He forced her to drive. 20 minutes later he had her pull onto a gravel lot and told her that if the police showed up, they would both die. She then chose her moment and pulled her .380 on him, chasing him away and then drove herself to a hospital. Thanks to C.F. for the link.
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Regarding the KRACK WiFi hack. It was reported to the big companies in July. Apple is reporting they have a fix for this in the latest versions of their software. So patch your Mac laptop, iPhone, or iPad.
About “Another Senseless GPS Mishap”
Besides blindly following GPS there are a few items in this article that got my attention.
First was leaving an SOS. Good idea at first, but if you are going to leave the location where you marked SOS always put an arrow marker pointing in your direction of travel. Make sure to frequently put location markers along the way.
Second, when you frequent areas without cell service have a backup. Granted the location might still have issues with a CB or VHF/UHF HAM Radio, but it’s better than nothing.
Third, am I the only one left with an atlas in their trunk?
Regarding the firefighter’s perspective- Tubbs fire, I have great respect and admiration for the brave men and women fighting these fires and pray for their safety.
I spent several years back in the 1990’s up to 2002 trying to convince mountain communities in the southern Rockies about the problem of catastrophic wildfires that would eventually occur in the wildland/urban interface communities. The 1990’s were relatively wet but that changed in May 2000 when dry, windy spring conditions set in. In Los Alamos, NM 400 families lost their homes to a wildfire that was caused by the Forest Service doing a controlled burn that went wild. Several communities then knew they had to take steps to acquire forest fire fighting resources, and look into mitigating the intensity of wildfires. The resources need was for the most part met with grants, donations, and budgeting from local revenue. I drove through a couple of northern New Mexico mountain communities recently, and the bigger problem of mitigating the fire intensity has not been met. The fire intensity problem(more fuel= more fire intensity) is that there are millions of tons of excess timber in our forests that need to be removed, and the primary reason is the government’s policy in most of the 20th century was to put out all forest fires which resulted in overcrowded timber stands. Being a logger at the time, I had conceived a plan to do the large scale thinning. But little did I realize how much opposition and red tape I would receive from state and federal bureaucrats.
To get to the point, I can mention a few problems I see with a house the firefighters were able to save in the Tubbs fire video(pause the video a 10:02). The other structures that did burn probably had some or all the same elements contributed to the flammability of the homes.
1. A wood picket fence surrounding the house: flammable
2. Roof appears to be asphalt shingles: flammable
3. Siding appears to be wood or vinyl: flammable
4. Vegetation growing against the side of the house: flammable and has vertical fire continuity from the ground up.
5. At 10:03, a large tree in the back yard: flammable. Tree appears to be a pine tree which typically has a lot of resins and tars that are very flammable. Note also that many pine trees survived while everything around them was burned, even cars. It is not unusual to see this, pine trees are adapted to fire environments.
6. Neighbor’s house is close and something is stacked between the two houses. Whatever it is, it may be flammable.
It is not my intention to single out a single home owner, rather this house is typical for the area shown in the aerial photograph at 4:16. The houses are very close to each other and there is flammable vegetation around the houses. Add very low humidity and wind and the result is catastrophic wildfire. The Oakland Hills fire in 1991 had similar losses with fire temperatures reportedly reaching 2,000 degrees. Three wildfires had previously burned the same area and the people rebuilt each time. Be wise and aware where ever you live.
I am sorry for the loss of life and property and will continue to pray for the survivors as well as all the emergency personnel involved.
As for a GPS in your car, they may be alright in the East but not in the Great Redoubt. 4 or 5 years ago I was antelope hunting in a remote area of Wyoming (Where in Wyoming ain’t it remote) anywho I had only seen one other truck all morning, and I was driving up a rather rough road and when I got up on top of a butte I saw 3 vehicles on a side road that had very deep ruts and I couldn’t imagine what was going on, but I thought it was best that I mind my own business, anyway the road I was on was starting to get pretty grease so I decided to turn around and head out, then I noticed that one of the vehicles was the truck that I saw earlier and the guy was digging around his truck with a shovel so I decided maybe I had better see if they needed help. As it turned out the guy in the truck was trying to pull the 2 cars out that were stuck and his 4 wheel drive unit had went out and he had got stuck also. The ruts in this road were so deep that I had to drive over the sage brush to get to them to pull them out. This was a rather interesting event whereas the first car that got stuck was a Gal with purple hair and a big green and yellow parrot tattoo on the side of her neck, she had followed her GPS instead of common sense and was stuck on this remote road and some how she had a cell signal and had managed to call her boyfriend who was 100 miles away, and how he found her I have no idea, but he made it to where she was stuck and he got stuck also, she had been there from about 9PM the night before and this was around 11AM the next morning so it was a long cold night for her. Anyway I managed to pull all 3 vehicles out and everyone was happy except for the boyfriend, because when I pulled his little car over the sage it pulled the plastic shroud out from under his car. No one would have probably died but it was about a 15 mile hike for help. So in remote country use a paper map or stay on a hard surfaced road. Use the GPS to go to the grocery store not for taking short cuts. You could die, a few have! Trekker Out
We got stuck in a Wildlife Preserve years ago, walked out to the ranger’s house. He was happy to let us use his phone but couldn’t pull us out due to a new rule. Seems he scratched the lower part of a front bumper pulling a car out and the owner showed his gratitude for being saved a $300 long distance tow truck callout by filing a formal complaint. Winston Churchill said it doesn’t take all kinds, there just are all kinds.
GPS isn’t only dangerous in rural areas,locally there are several low bridges that are repeatedly struck by trucks using gps,they ignore multiple signs(even flashing signs installed after a fatality). New drivers are amazed when shown a real atlas(found on sale at a truck stop for $1)when they are lost because gps is wrong.
Just a note on GPS. Sitting in my driveway, right at my house, the GPS in my car says my house is 200 feet east. I’ve tried using it when going places that I knew where I was going and how to get there. I found that the GPS tried to steer me to some convoluted route that made no sense whatsoever. If I could turn it off, it’s part of the car, I would. It’s a useless pain in the behind.
any idea how to purchase and ship a binary trigger without a paper trail ?
I assume the feds will simply demand or hack into the shipping records of the manufacturers to track down the buyers?
I have a mailing address that would be difficult to associate with me but assume the manufacturer would want a credit card or paypal ?