Be Prepared

[Toaster]

Originally Posted by Shar

MRE's: This is more a question... I saw mention of a bulk order you all did awhile ago. Was this cheaper than the MRE's that you can buy in the commissary? We like having MRE's around as 72 hour kit and camping food and I keep a few in the cars, but DANG they're pricey. My husband flat refuses to bring any home from work. I'm not going to push his ethics on this one, but... can't I find them cheaper somewhere besides the commissary?

While you might find some cheaper elsewhere, they will likely be several years older. In this, you get what you pay for, only if you get them from a good source. There is an app about MREs, what's in them, and how old they are.

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by JoeyB

Picked up 2 wouxun kg-uv3d radios. Still have to find a local class to get my ticket...
The manual is predictably crappy, can anyone point me to a good guide? I will get the clone cable and program but would like to be able to do it manually....

A couple of the study guides for your FCC ticket are available online and you can bang away at practice exams to your heart's content here. Be sure to also study for the General license; much of the Tech material is repeated (albeit phrased differently) on the General. At an exam session you can keep taking tests for the same session/fee as long as you pass them. The General opens up a much larger realm of possibilities. Honest, they are both within your grasp.

I have also a couple of .PDF's that are user guides for the radio you are talking about that aren't so much in "Chinglish." One is somewhat large (455K); will see if I can put them up here. They are good little radios in terms of bang-for-buck. Any units not being used/charged regularly, keep the charged batteries OFF them else it will be useless when you go to pick it up. Many of these types of radios are that way.

The KG-Commander program is a good one and you can save different freq sets for whatever you've ferreted out if you need to change the mission of the radio - but there are alot of channels available in the radio.

Hope this helps.

Don't MRE's bind you up? During an emergency that lasts for more than a few days, who wants to suffer from constipation while trying to stay warm amongst other attempts to stay comfortable?

Plus I have also looked into those Biolite Stoves too. Seems to be a great idea for outdoor use.

[Toaster]

Originally Posted by MAB32

Don't MRE's bind you up? During an emergency that lasts for more than a few days, who wants to suffer from constipation while trying to stay warm amongst other attempts to stay comfortable?

(Errant information in red)

Do you want to be caught with your pants down?

It might be a little uncomfortable, but those minutes every day can probably be better used doing something else.
(If I am in error please correct me)

[Peregrino]

Originally Posted by Toaster

(If I am in error please correct me)

Yes - You are in error. Constipation is not a laughing matter. In fact - any health problem is a matter of concern in a survival situation. And MRE's aren't as bad as legend would have the uninitiated believe.

[Toaster]

Originally Posted by Peregrino

Yes - You are in error. Constipation is not a laughing matter. In fact - any health problem is a matter of concern in a survival situation. And MRE's aren't as bad as legend would have the uninitiated believe.

Peregrino,

Thank you for the correction, and subsequent removal of ignorance. I have to change my kit a little bit.

I've found MRE's to plug me up a little, but not to an uncomfortable degree.

[mugwump]

There are screaming deals right now on genuine USGI woodland camo modular sleep systems. A used/excellent MMSS with patrol bag, cold weather bag, Goretex bivy sack, compression bag, and ground pad can be found for $79 + shipping. New ones are going for $125. Search Amazon and Ebay for the best deals.

I've purchased several very good/excellent sets from here and there and haven't hit a dud yet. No holes, damaged zippers or snaps, not even a name or unit marking. One guy recommended washing in front load washers only which I've done without a problem.

For you folk who live in the frozen northland these legitimate -40F bags are selling at don't-miss-out prices. Yes, the complete system is heavy at 11-12 pounds and bulky at about 1 cu ft and my 6'4" frame isn't the best fit. But...remember that stretch of -20F last winter?

Winter is coming.

[mugwump]

Latest score by the Coupon Queens (pronounced KOO-pin, of course). A nice hand crank forge and blacksmith tools. They paid exactly $0 for the whole lot with a promise not to sell them. We have a young man in town who is learning the trade and the lady who passed them on was tickled that her husband's tools would be put to use.

We're on a mission to gather up every hand tool, manual and horse drawn farming implement, farrier tool, and blacksmith item in the area. The Queens are currently negotiating for a 1920s-era milking machine that can be belt-powered off of a Listeroid 6/1 running vegetable oil. If you've got an old farm implement as a yard ornament and you're within a 100 mile radius, expect a knock on your door and a twisted arm.

image.jpg

[mugwump]

Get this book, preferably the Kindle version as there are oodles of hyperlinks --> Prepping for a Suburban or Rural Community: Building a Civil Defense Plan for a Long-Term Catastrophe [Kindle Edition]. It's only $2.99.

There is some discussion of the usual stuff: defense, food, yadda yadd but only vague recommendations...very little is concrete à la "get clean water like this" or "set up your farms like that." The real focus is on organizing your community now to mitigate future disasters. Figure out what works for your circumstances and environment. Set up a structure now. Have plans to more easily establish a post-disaster polity and maintain rule of law if the worst happens.

We've followed a lot of his advice, establishing committees for water, fuel, sanitation, medical care, scrounging, law, defense, Amish relations (ISYN) etc. But the real gold nugget is his detailed advice on establishing a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Tax exempt, as in charitable donations to the organization are fully deductible. Some money is going to have to be spent on this stuff, and the tax-exempt status takes out some of the sting. It's a pain in the butt, but worth it in the end.

And you know that surplus military gear that Uncle Sugar is spreading around on the LEOs? Well State and local organizations can apply for grants and materiel if they have their ducks in a row and decent relations with the State and County governments. Hesco barriers, sandbags, diesel generators, fuel filters and groomers, medical consumables, storage racks and shelving, fuel storage blivets...there are lots of goodies out there. You're gonna need a lawyer or a paralegal with OCD though...tons of paperwork.

Anywho, the book is highly recommended, more for the tone and philosophy than concrete prep advice.

PS - A kid on the water committee (working on his Eagle Scout--they still do that out here) is standardizing a way to increase the yield of filtered water from 8 gals/day up to 60 gals per day using 2 x 5 gal buckets, a ceramic filter, a Schroeder valve, and a bicycle pump. He didn't invent the method, the plans are on the Interwebs, but sourcing enough materials for a community, negotiating prices, creating clear construction and maintenance instructions, purchasing and storing the bits and pieces--it's a big job. How many filters are needed for a community our size? Where are the filters to be emplaced? What are the manpower requirements to run these? What's the 5-year plan when the filters are worn out? It really goes to show how the author of this book is right...it will take a lot of folks pulling together to save a town if the worst goes down.

PPS - we can see weeks in a row where the high temp never gets above 0F. The heating committee is working on a plan to turn water heater tanks into efficient volcano wood stoves. What tools, skills, materials are needed for the job? What do we need to stockpile? What will likely be available in local stores if we prevent looting? Stovepipe costs an absolute bomb! What are safe alternatives?

You get the drift.

[mugwump]

Link to the seminal book on rocket mass heaters, still the most highly ranked book on the subject at Amazon. As far as I can tell, it's a legit distro of the pdf (per a couple of forums on the subject). The author claims to cut firewood requirements from 4 cords per winter down to 2/3 cord. All for $50 in salvaged parts and a weekend's effort. I'm looking hard at this.

The pdf opens onto a couple of blank pages. Scroll down a bit...it's there.

Rocket Mass Heaters

.

[mugwump]

Guy next door planted 3 trial acres of potatoes and they're all harvested...a little late. He averaged 22,000 pounds of spuds per acre. State average is 34k lbs/acre, so we have a ways to go. We also ruined about 10-15% when harvesting but that's why you practice when everyone is still smiling. Wastage will drop a lot with hand-harvesting. We're learning the crop now because we'd be replacing some soybeans with potatoes if we were feeding a horde.

Seems like a lot of taters but when you figure 440 50lb sacks per acre into 1000 mouths it goes fast. When potatoes were the staple food of the Irish they ate on average 6.5 lbs per day along with a quart of milk. (Spuds + milk is nutritionally complete.) So those 60,000 lbs of spuds would support only 25 people for a year, assuming they could also get a quart of whole milk per day as well.

Also, that's a lot of burlap sacks. Storage would have to be distributed, as no one has the time or money to build enough root cellar space to store a mountain of spuds. A dark closet would be fine, given the temps most folks will likely be able to attain in the winter.

We're rotating the spuds to some of my marginal sandy land next year and trying some turnips, parsnips, onions, and neeps on his test plot.

[Volunteer]

Sirs,

On the off-chance you may not have already heard of this elsewhere, some of the cheap radios are beginning to show symptoms indicating memory reliability issues. Although attractive at first glance, they may not be the bargain they appear to be.
Some details concerning the issues here:
http://hamgear.wordpress.com/2014/01...bility-issues/

Might be worth considering smaller Vertex, Icom, Kenwood VHF portables instead.
Personally I use an Icom IC-F30GT, 256 channels, narrow band with all VHF statewide LE, FD, MED and the majority of ham repeaters for NorCal, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Similar models also safe for use in explosive atmospheres.

Respectfully,
Volunteer

[mugwump]

That report is pretty weak IMO. Not saying the anecdotal report isn't true, or that Chinese QC can't be spotty, but the comments are instructive.

I have a Yaesu HT. It's nice and I like that it's waterproof. But the HT I carry around the farm is my cheap-ass UV-5R. When I use it, I use it a lot. No problems so far in over a year. Does everything the Yaesu does and if it gets lost/trashed I won't lose any sleep.

Like everything, it depends on your use case. For what you seems to be using them for, a more expensive HT makes sense. For me, not so much. Yaesu/Icom are nice but when you can buy six UV-5Rs for the cost of one Japanese HT? No way. These things are hammers to me. You can put 20 x Baofeng 888-S with chargers and twenty spare batteries in a garbage can for less than $400. They all worked when I programmed them, but if a few are dead if I ever need to pass them out I won't be bothered.

I also have a case of Yugo SKS I bought when they were going for $84 apiece. Same idea. Would I rather have ten quality ARs? Well, yeah! Too pricey though. What is the patrol coverage of five, 2-man teams armed with SKSs and a cheap HT for each team (that only needs to hit our simplex repeater anyway) vs one guy with a nice BCM M4gery and an ICOM? No comparison.

"Quantity has a quality all its own."

Good to see a ham posting here. I'm not slamming you or your post. Keep an eye on the issue and let us know what develops.

[mugwump]

I'm still looking into rocket mass heaters and found the following summary page. Some good stuff here. It's nice to see some plans using standard HVAC duct and fittings. I'm all for expedient and scrounged materials, but if the SHTF there's going to be a lot of unused ductwork from forced-air furnaces waiting to be repurposed.


Good rocket mass heater collection

.

[mugwump]

I went through the car kits last weekend just to check everything out, replace old protein bars, etc. I was surprised to find that all four butane lighters had totally frozen strikers wheels, rendering them useless. Trying to break them free by running the striker along the pavement just abraded a flat spot on each wheel. These weren't Bics but were Costco specials. Took the striker assembly off of a couple of them but couldn't identify the problem. I always worried about leaks, not the striker.

Both of the AA Maglite Mini LEDs were dead as well, one with a leaked battery and the other with I assume the same problem but the end cap was seized to the point I couldn't get it off using a Leatherman.

To round things out, mice had chewed into one pack and eaten all of the energy bars.