Be Prepared - Page 53

Beef · 01-31-2013, 07:31

I'm glad to hear that. Of course a chemical/POL plant in South LA is not a place I personally would want to intiate a mass shooting. I image several guys named Boudreaux would take exception and my efforts would be short lived! LOL! Commercial and industrial people seem to be more proactive on this than our schools. Which is problematic.

mugwump · 09-01-2013, 11:26

Mountain House has suspended their minimum advertised price for September. Safecastle, Ready Made Resources, and others have deals with 40-70% off and free shipping. Various restrictions apply, usually full-case (6 can) multiples only, but there are some legitimate deals out there.

**The Reaper** · 09-01-2013, 13:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by mugwump

Mountain House has suspended their minimum advertised price for September. Safecastle, Ready Made Resources, and others have deals with 40-70% off and free shipping. Various restrictions apply, usually full-case (6 can) multiples only, but there are some legitimate deals out there.

Great deal!

Thanks for the tip.

TR

mugwump · 09-01-2013, 23:35

Happy to help.

mugwump · 09-30-2013, 12:51

There has been a price revolution in handheld ham transceivers (requires a ham no-Morse technician’s license or better). The latest generation of Chinese handheld dual band (2m/70cm) transceivers match the Japanese Yaesu and Icom models feature for feature at a fraction of the cost. For example, I just purchased a BaoFeng UV5RE Plus off of Amazon for less than $40 delivered. If you’re willing to go the Ebay route I think you can get them for less than $35. The user’s manual is unintelligible chenglish, programming the presets manually is a total pain and it won’t take a 3 min, 3m bath like the Yaesu can and still survive. That said, it’s the bomb, otherwise. I’ve been having great luck using it even in hilly, forested terrain.

Note that you can get yourself in trouble using the UV5RE. Freqs that you shouldn’t have access to (and people put a lot of effort into accessing via circuit surgery in the high-end HTs) are available out of the box. You can transmit on GMRS, FRS, and MURS frequencies at full power--4W-5W depending on who’s doing the testing. (That’s against all the rules for those freqs and according to FCC device certification you’re not even supposed to have access to all of those on the same transceiver.) It includes a Sanyo scrambler chip that is normally found in wireless phones. Using this feature is optional and can be assigned on a frequency basis, but even so voice scrambling on ham bands isn’t legal, either. The no-no list goes on.

All that said, if you pay attention and have a tech license you can use all of the (legal) frequencies and features without violating FCC regs. For example, you can program a FRS preset and specify it uses the appropriate low power setting with no scrambling—perfectly legal. It has scanning capability (2 freqs/sec vs. 100/sec in a dedicated scanner and no trunk-tracking, but still, it scans), accessories are dirt cheap (battery packs, speaker mics--$9 wtf?, AAA and AA packs, antennas, 12v adapters, etc) and there is a large pool of users to smooth out the bumps (accessory modification advice, some guy wrote a ridiculously good user manual, etc.). And there is an outstanding free program called CHiRP that gets around the convoluted manual programming of presets by allowing everything to be entered into a spreadsheet and uploaded to the device—but you’ll need a $7 programming cable (everything associated with these things is inexpensive).

Check them out, there’s tons of stuff on Google. Be aware that there are a boatload of different versions (some of the older ones can be had for $15, new!) and some of the early teething problems are solved in the later models. Search for UV5RE Plus…I’d start w/ the Amazon reviews.

mikec71 · 09-30-2013, 13:09

I have been using mine as a Fire scanner in my local area in Michigan. For the price it was cheeper than buying a scanner at Radio Shack! Cool acceseries.

Father in Law who works on radios for the FAA is impressed too.

albeham · 09-30-2013, 13:11

Heard of a few that had issues with theirs.
A buddy has one, seems to work good.

AL

mugwump · 09-30-2013, 15:34

I've also purchased 10 of the Baofeng "BF-888S UHF FM Transceiver Walkie Talkie Two-way Radio CTCSS/DCS" tranceivers, with chargers, for $160. (That's the total cost--$16 a pop for a single-band FM UHF handheld tranceiver.) At first flush they all seem to work. They're quite simple with only 16 channel presets, which I see as a big plus given their intended use. There's an amazingly well-written review on Amazon.

They are pre-loaded with GMS, MURS, FRS, and Marine frequencies out of the box but they are illegal for anything other than the 2M band operated by someone with a technician ham ticket. (They transmit at 5W and aren't FCC hardware-certified for GMS, MURS, FRS, Marine.) The plan is they won't be used in anything other than extraordinary circumstances (grid down, WROL, etc.) when they'd be handed out to neighbors to create a cheap "AGRIC Alert" system as used by Rhodesian farmers during the troubles there.

They're kind of a pain to program but a guy has figured out the proper incantations for computer interfacing HERE. See the RollingJ post, #10 in the thread. Once you set one up the rest should be easy to clone. Haven't done it myself with the 888 yet.

One BF-888 ($16) with an add-on j pole antenna and one Argent ADS-SR1 simplex repeater ($80), along with a cheap 10W mono-crystalline solar trickle-charger (charger should be sub $100 w battery and charge controller from what I can see--should all fit, less the panel, into a 30 cal ammo can) placed on a 1100 foot hill near my place should make all of the local farms accessible. The ADS-SR1 has a pretty amazing feature set that opens a world of possibilities for creating a cheap, medium-range comm net in even hilly, wooded terrain.

I'll post an update when I have the repeater assembled and tested.

**Peregrino** · 09-30-2013, 19:22

Concur with all. I just ordered the Wouxun KG-UV6D v2 at http://www.wouxun.us/item.php?item_i...category_id=66 for all of the reasons mugwump just listed. Yes, it is more expensive but it also has a better reputation in the HAM community.

For anyone considering purchasing one of these radios - I STRONGLY recommend getting your HAM Technician license. Two weeks ago I spent a week of evenings reading the ARRL study guide and 20 minutes taking the test on the following Saturday morning. Painless. Had my results before I left the test site and my license the following Monday. A simple investment of time and $15 that will allow me to build experience legally and interact with a community of hobbyists that can help me improve my skills BEFORE I need them. To be blunt - knowing the rules and abiding by them makes life easier and flattens the learning curve. When the SHTF, all bets are off - do whatever you have to do to communicate (emergency - e.g. threats to life, etc.). And that is recognized in the law. Until then, I'm going to practice "squeaky clean".

albeham · 10-01-2013, 05:52

Other then getting into the Ham radio area, just for the better frequencies, etc.

You'll soon find-out there are a lot of like minded folks out there that are in the loop of being prepared. Not only ARES/RACES teams but also look into CERT teams.

I have been on the air since 1980 and seen many radios come and go. I have learned that a radio is a tool and like a good knife it is only effective if the person using it is skilled.

AL KA1FFO

Badger52 · 10-01-2013, 08:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peregrino

Concur with all. I just ordered the Wouxun KG-UV6D v2 at http://www.wouxun.us/item.php?item_i...category_id=66 for all of the reasons mugwump just listed. Yes, it is more expensive but it also has a better reputation in the HAM community.

Fine choice; have 2 Wouxuns. Picked up 2nd one dirt-cheap from someone who couldn't be bothered with the Chinglish manual. KG Commander (free software) and 8 minutes later the radio was cloned.

For those who may charge these things up & put them away for whenever, take the charged batt pack off the radio. Just sitting on the radio over time will often drop .5 to .75 volts off the charged pack. Just a thought for those who may want truly fully-charged packs when they need 'em.

Congrats sir on getting your ticket.

ODA CDR (RET) · 10-01-2013, 08:47

Searched various threads here and could not find the info. Would this charging system work for recharging batteries. Goal Zero Guide 10 plus. I like the pack-ability of it.

Ebay link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370891153568...84.m1438.l2649

mugwump · 10-01-2013, 09:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODA CDR (RET)

Searched various threads here and could not find the info. Would this charging system work for recharging batteries. Goal Zero Guide 10 plus. I like the pack-ability of it.

Ebay link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370891153568...84.m1438.l2649

For it's intended use of charging a few AA or AAA or a cell phone, then yes. My daughter is using this exact one trekking in the Himalayas. She charges batteries for her gps, flashlight, and iPhone 4S.

This one is the current king of the mountain if all you need is USB charging --> Instapark

mugwump · 10-01-2013, 10:20

ODA CDR I should add that she said she would just carry an extra set of energizer ultimate lithiums for her light and a Solarwrap Mini if she had to do it again. The Solarwrap is tiny and weighs next to nothing. She saw another trekker using one...just unrolled it and hung it on his pack all day. String on one end, dab of Velcro on the other so it doesn't get twisted. Said the battery was usually fully charged when they stopped for the day. It's USB only though, so no aa charging.

All that said I think your original goal zero would be better if you're thinking mid to long term. One warning: daughter unit's first one died after two charges. It was instantly replaced, but make sure you test it thoroughly before you depend on it.

mugwump · 10-01-2013, 11:41

Well paint my toenails and call me Sally. AA eneloop chargers using USB. Guess I never looked. Lots of options open up using these little AA/AAA chargers I guess. USB AA charger

This would sway me back to the Instapark for $50 (especially if you already own some AA recharg. batts) because it has a monocrystalline solar panel (sig. better in cloudy conditions and partial shade) vs the polycrystalline (set up under trees with dappled shade, power output drops more than is proportionate to the portion of the panel shaded) on the goal zero.

I've been researching this pretty extensively because I need 10W solar for the emergency comms net I'm planning. Neither of these work for me because I need 12v out for my charger but I have settled on a 10w monocrystalline panel.