Prepping

Energy

In our prepping series, we already talked about some others, like records. One of the middle tier needs for prepping is energy, and that’s what we are going to talk about today.

Many of the other things that we rely on for survival rely upon energy. We use it for a lot of things- heating, cooling, light, communications, all sorts of the things that we use rely upon energy. In some parts of the country, heat is important. Here in Florida, not so much. What we need is energy for cooking, light, air conditioning (summer heat will kill you more than our mild winters), communications, and other things.

The most useful of these is electricity. We could use propane for cooking, but it isn’t practical for other things. Since electricity is what is most useful, that’s where we are going to look. Most of the time, we rely on the electric grid. However, anyone who has lived through something as mundane (for Florida) as a hurricane know that it isn’t unusual to lose power for several days. In fact, during the ten year period that ended in December, we had no fewer than four electrical outages. Those outages ranged in duration from two hours all the way to three days.

I want to have a redundant backup because that is what prepping is. Knowing that not being prepared for a grid failure is a violation of the 7P rule, I want to plan to ride out a grid failure. Since the stakes are high as well as the cost, I am going to research and plan the crap out of this. I will post the results of my research for others to benefit. I will also post the results once the system is installed. I report, you decide.

There are three methods of backing up our electrical needs:

  • A gasoline powered portable generator that powers selected loads. The advantage is that it has a small upfront cost of around $1,000 or so. Disadvantages are that you can only power a few, small loads, and that you have to refuel the thing every few hours. The power goes out, you have to go rig the generator, which takes a bit of time. They are also noisy. The one I have now (a 9kw gasoline powered genny) goes through about one and a half gallons per hour.
  • A mounted generator that powers all or most of the loads in the house. The advantages here are that it powers more than does a portable genny, and it needs to be refueled less often since the fuel supply can be buried in the yard. It’s nice- the grid drops out, and within seconds, your genny takes over and powers the house. The disadvantages are that it costs more (the quote I got for a whole house generator was just under $15,000 including the transfer switch, permits, cable trench, propane tank delivery, 240 gallons of propane, tank utility, back filling the trench and a 10 year warranty.) 240 gallons of propane will last about three to five days, which will get you through most minor to moderate outages, but after that you are in the dark.
  • The third option, as I already mentioned is a solar setup. I am pricing out a 9 kw solar system with batteries. I have been doing a ton of research and have discovered that there is a lot of BS out there. Enough that the solar discussion will be its own separate post or two. The advantage over the generator system is that it doesn’t need refueling and if done correctly, it can power the entire house indefinitely. Many people who have solar systems don’t even notice when the grid fails. The disadvantage is that it isn’t cheap. A solar system can cost as much as $30,000 or more. There are ways to offset that, but that will be for the future post. The good news here is that 30% of whatever you spend on solar can be recouped in the form of a nonrefundable tax credit* that isn’t available for a fueled generator. More there on a future post.

The first thing that we did was calculate our electrical needs. Our average electrical use is about 700 kilowatt hours per month. Our highest use has been 43 kilowatt hours in a single day. Our lowest has been 10 kilowatt hours in a day, but we were out of town. The average is about 25 kWh/day. These numbers are for the new house, so we haven’t seen what it is like to run the air conditioning on a hot day, yet.

To rein the cost of air conditioning, I am installing smart thermostats for our two AC units. That will allow me to control and monitor our AC use more accurately. The smart thermostat that I have selected is the Ecobee smart thermostat. It accurately tracks your AC and heat usage and compares you to similar homes. It has a lot of added features that help maintain comfort at a minimum amount of utility cost.

So now that I know what I need, I can plan for what option will be the best. Another post coming on that.

Someone in comments suggested pairing a Goal Zero with 10 gallons of propane and a couple of 400 watt solar cells. That is a horrible option. You only get 3.6 kw of power for more than $13,000. That is the least cost effective of the options and was one I wasn’t prepared to consider.

* A refundable tax credit is one that can be used to reduce your taxes paid in a given year. What nonrefundable means is that, if your taxes owed are $400, and you get a credit of $500, you can’t receive the $100 as a refund. Since I always pay more than $30k a year in taxes, this isn’t going to be an issue with me.

By Divemedic, ago

Prepping

Preparing for disasters is important, but too often people who are into prepping spend lots of money on the sexy things like expensive firearms while ignoring things like sanitation or infection control. Far more people will die of dehydration, hunger, or even diarrhea in a widespread collapse than they will by civil unrest.

Remember that, if we are prepared for the big disaster, we are more likely to survive the small ones.

At the end of the day, we need to prioritize our preps to take care of the basics before we drop $4,000 on that new Sig Blastomatic Model 19 in .50BMG. I have deployed to dozens of disaster sites and travelled to nearly 50 foreign countries. Here is, from my experience, how our preps should look:

At its most basic, the three most important preps that we can make are food, water, shelter, and medical needs. Once those are established, only then should we worry about security and energy. Finally, surviving an event isn’t enough. We need to survive and rebuild our lives so that we aren’t just refugees, but are able to live our lives, not just count more days.

I am going to spend more time over the next several weeks explaining my thoughts (and the thoughts of others that I will shamelessly adopt) on the matter. For today, I am going to talk about the top of the pyramid- records.

Making it through the disaster will be much smoother if you can safeguard your life and not be living as a refugee for the next few years. There are a number of things that you need to safeguard:

  • Our vital documents: scans of birth certificates, professional licenses, certifications, transcripts, credit cards (front and back), medical histories, credit records, diplomas, bank account information, and any other important documents you can think of. Keep a copy of those documents on several password protected, encrypted thumb drives and update them at least once per year. Keep a drive in each vehicle, in your locker at work, and one in your gun safe. You can buy a 16gb encrypted thumb drive for as little as $32– for as little as $170, you can have copies of all of your most important documents with you no matter what happens. The encryption doesn’t have to be perfect, but good enough to deter common thieves.
  • Photos you don’t want to lose: Pictures of your kids, your family, and other memories that are irreplaceable if they are lost. Thumb drives are cheap- you can keep them with the others.
  • At least $300 in cash, with $1,000 being even better, locked in your gun safe. You can have more, but $300 should get you through a weekend disaster. YMMV. Just don’t be tempted to “borrow” from it for non-emergency reasons, because you won’t repay it and it won’t be available when you really need it.

The other thing to consider here is rally points. That way, if you and your family are separated, you can meet up, even if you aren’t in communication with each other.

  • You should have one within sight of your house- for us, it’s the fire hydrant across the street.
  • One within walking distance. For us, it’s the entrance to the neighborhood.
  • There should be one far enough away that it will be outside of a large disaster like a HAZMAT spill or a wildfire. For us, that’s my wife’s parents’ house. They live an hour away. This rally point for us has the advantage of offering emergency shelter, food, supplies, and support.

Also make sure that you have a plan for deciding when to evacuate, when to stay put, and don’t hesitate when it is time to go. Include your significant other in the decision. Nothing is worse than trying to evacuate or shelter in place with a bitchy, pissed off wife who disagrees with the decision. Worse yet, evacuating and becoming a refugee because you didn’t plan for the evacuation.

If your plans are robust, flexible, and comprehensive, you should be able to do well with anything from a loss of employment, another lockdown, your neighbor’s house burning down, your spouse’s heart attack, to the zombie apocalypse.

Can anyone else come up with other ideas along this line of thought?

By Divemedic, ago

Resiliency

The things that you need to survive and thrive in an emergency fall into broad categories:

  1. Records: Documents, photographs, and other needed items. I include a moderate amount of cash on hand ($300 or so) in this category.
  2. First Aid: Medications, drugs, bandages, disinfectants, etc. Nothing elaborate. Simple is better here.
  3. Heat and cooking: You can live on cold canned goods and MREs, but they are simply not tolerable for more than a day or two. Hot meals are best.
  4. Light: Flashlights, lanterns, fire, batteries for them, chemlights, and other ways of creating light.
  5. Tools: People are tool users. Screwdrivers, knife, hammer, hatchet, etc.
  6. Communications: There are many ways to communicate. Cell phones, radios, flags, spray paint, chalk or grease pencil markings left on buildings, signs stapled to telephone poles, etc.
  7. Food and water: Obvious. From half liter bottles of water to reverse osmosis, MREs to farming, we need to consider short and long term food and water needs.
  8. Shelter: Tents, homes, hotels, tarps, even your vehicle. Any way to get out  of the weather.
  9. Security: Weapons, cameras, sensors, rotating watches.
  10. Energy: Solar, fire, electric, generators, etc. Anything that helps us power our equipment or our selves that is not cooking or heating related.

My latest endeavor is to secure a source of backup power for the new house. I originally was looking at a standby generator. The problem is fueling it for more than a couple of days adds to the logistical complexity of preparedness. The cost of installing such a generator (including buried propane tanks) is in the neighborhood of $10,000-15,000. Then you have to fuel it, and you only benefit from it when the grid is ,down.

Then I looked into solar. An 8kw solar setup with a Tesla wall to get you through the night or cloudy days will generate about 1200 kilowatt hours a month. The system will cost about $20,000 after taking the Federal tax credit into account. There is no fuel needed, and when times are good, you sell power to the electric company which zeroes out your electric bid, thus subsidizing the cost.

So I think that solar is the way we are going to go for our backup power needs.

By Divemedic, ago

Hot Safe, Cold Safe, Caching, Staging

I recently modified my gun safe from a digital lock to a manual combination lock. This will ensure that no one has a back door code to get into my safe. The downside to this is that the mechanical lock is a great deal slower dial in than simply typing in a combination, and the lock is harder to manipulate in the dark, meaning it’s more difficult to enter my safe in a hurry. Additionally, my gun safe is quite large and won’t fit in my bedroom closet without the wife getting pissed at the loss of storage space.

We are moving to another house (under construction) within the next few months. Now is a great time to consider how to meet security storage needs. How can I store firearms to protect them from a diverse set of threats while still making firearms accessible for access in the event of a break-in?

I have been looking at my options, and I think that I have the answer. See the title above for that. My large gun safe will be the “cold safe” and is located on the other side of the house from the bedroom- in the man cave.

The “hot safe” will be in the master suite, and will contain loaded firearms available for fast access. It will likely be an electronic one with a fingerprint lock. I am looking at a Vaultek RS 500i for that. Fast access, and secure enough against most thieves. Even if it IS compromised with a backdoor, I won’t lose but a gun or two. The bonus is that it is only 14 inches wide, so it will not steal much room from the suite, but it can simultaneously hold a shotgun, a couple of ARs, and 2 or 3 pistols, all with magazines and ammo. This allows for EDC to be locked away and also means I won’t have far to go for heavier weapons than my bedside handgun.

For staging, I already have the means for securely keeping a handgun and a long gun in my truck, along with a couple of hundred rounds of ammo. All of it secure, unobtrusive, and out of sight, while still being readily accessible.

For caching, we all need to give thought into a weapons cache or two. Put a couple of off paper firearms in each cache. Say, a handgun, a cheap AR, some ammo and a few magazines. All sterilized of fingerprints and any other means of tracing back to you.

By Divemedic, ago

Gun Safes

So I have been looking into some solutions for quality gun safes. The good ones are not cheap, but I am sitting here trying to figure out what I want to do. Many of us keep things other than guns in our safe- things like PMs, documents, etc. Let’s say that you have 25 ounces of silver, 2 ounces of gold, 10 rifles, 2 shotguns, and 5 handguns. That means you easily have $15-40 thousand dollars worth of stuff locked in that safe- and that isn’t even a large collection. The PMs in such a case are worth almost $5,000, before you even begin talking about guns. A good safe is expensive, but can be a lifesaver.

I personally know someone who has far more in his safe than that. He owns a couple of machine guns, and we all know how much those are worth.

In my case, I have a shotgun that was owned by my great grandfather, and it has been in my family for over a century: A Parker Brothers Trojan 20 gauge shotgun, and that gun is worth quite a bit by itself, not to mention the sentimental value.

Since we are about to move, this is a good time to think about getting a new safe. With all of the news about data breaches, I just don’t trust companies to keep data safe. Imagine what a target a safe company’s data is: the get the company’s sales records, which include the safe model number, your name, email address, physical address, and the code/combo needed to open your safe. So any thief now knows that you have a safe, your address, and the combination. Sound like a problem to you? OR does it sound paranoid and far fetched? If a company like LastPass, Norton’s Life Lock, or a major bank can be compromised, so can a safe company. The fewer people who know what my combination is, the better off I am.

I will avoid Liberty for one basic reason- they have shown that they care more for making the government happy than they do about safeguarding their consumers’ confidential information. They sold out one owner, they will sell out others. That goes for any other company that is in possession of the combination for my safe.

I looked at lots of different websites for safes over the past few days. I had a few criteria:

  • Any safe that doesn’t come with a mechanical lock was eliminated. There is just no way to ensure that no one else had a backdoor code that could be compromised.
  • The mechanical lock had to be consumer changeable without voiding the warranty, to eliminate the possibility of a locksmith having the combination. Now I can be sure that my wife and I are the only ones with the combination.
  • There had to be a diamond steel drill plate, to make the safe resistant to drilling out the lock.
  • There had to be some sort of quality relocker, so tampering with the lock mechanism would lock the safe.
  • The locking bolts had to all be live bolts, meaning that they all move in and out to secure the door.
  • It had to have at least a 90 minute fire rating.
  • The manufacturer has to have a dealer within 100 miles of my house.

Those criteria eliminated all of the most common gun safes: Winchester, Liberty, Fort Knox, and all of the other ones that you commonly see in stores. There was one manufacturer that met all of my criteria, and that was the Champion Safe Company. Two of their product lines look good: Champion, and Superior. I’m really intrigued by the Champion Triumph line.

The 50 cubic foot model has dimensions of 42″ x 72.25″ x 30.5″ and the walls are made of 10 gauge steel on the outside and 12 gauge steel inside. It will hold up to 58 long guns, and will be difficult to steal once the 1200 pound safe is bolted to the floor with some hefty hardware. The downside is that this safe costs $6800. However, as I said before, it is cheaper than getting your valuables stolen.

No safe is impenetrable, but I want mine to be difficult enough to get into that it will prevent all but the most well equipped thieves to get into that safe. I am going to take a good, hard look at this safe for my next purchase.

Now, the disclaimer: I don’t advertise, and receive nothing for my reviews or articles. I have no relationship with any products, companies, or vendors that I review here, other than being a customer. If I ever *DO* have a financial interest, I will disclose it. Otherwise, I pay what you would pay. No discounts or other incentives here. I only post these things because I think that my readers would be interested.

By Divemedic, ago

Channel 3 Project

Since the average citizen is NOT an Amateur Radio operator, there is a need to have a standardized method of being able to communicate with one another.  Nearly everyone has at least one form of communication requiring no license to operate: CB, FRS/GMRS, or MURS radios.  There is a movement in the prepping community to setup an emergency communications protocol that will allow people to communicate during a situation when communications are down. Because this link-up protocol is being distributed among various circles, if someone needed assistance they have the highest probability of linking up with someone of like-mind, even if the two parties did not personally know each other prior that moment.

Enter the Channel 3 project. The channel three project is where people will monitor the radio on the threes-

  • FRS/GMRS Channel 3 – 462.6125 Mhz
  • MURS Channel 3 – 151.940 Mhz
  • Ham Radio (simplex) – 146.520 Mhz
  • CB channel 3 – 26.985 MHz

Do NOT use sub-channels, TCS, or “privacy” codes

Make Contact In 3 – 2 – 1
– 3  (Turn your radio on and set it to Channel 3)
– 2  (Attempt to broadcast for approximately 2 minutes)
– 1  (Attempt again every 1 HOUR, on the hour, to save batteries)

If there is a real emergency, you could also monitor the channel threes to give assistance to others in need. To save batteries, monitor for 5 minutes on each side of the hour to increase the chances of hearing another prepper who may be communicating using the “Make Contact In 3-2-1” method. Some operators are monitoring every three hours, some every hour, others will do so continuously. It depends on each radio operators resources and battery capacity.

Remember, when making contact with someone you don’t know, always proceed with caution. Especially during an emergency or SHTF situation. Don’t allow someone inside of your perimeter that you do not know.

Etiquette dictates that if we simply use these frequencies for monitoring and calling others, we can keep the chatter to a minimum and people will be able to monitor these frequencies 24/7 in case of emergencies for important information.

Because this emergency protocol is being distributed among the prepping community, users have a high probability of linking up with someone. The purpose can be either for relaying important or emergency communications or simply conversing with community members as a block watch program.

This project does not take the place of calling 911 in the event of an emergency if you are able to do so. This is an information service when cell or landline communications are out of service during an emergency or any sort of SHTF situation.

In a local, regional or national emergency, traditional communication networks may be overloaded or even nonexistent.  As has been proven time and again Amateur Radio has proven to be the only dependable means of communication.
While a test and license are required to operate a “ham” radio under the current rule of law, there are other means of communication. I have already posted a comprehensive guide to the different radio frequencies.
Hams typically have local “practice nets”; predetermined times and frequencies where they reach out to one another.  Some nets are associated with the Channel 3 Project, where participants will take a break and switch over to channel 3 of CB, FRS, etc. in an attempt to contact local citizens. This is the opportunity for hams to relay any news to the citizenry, and, in exchange, find out about local conditions such as road closures, civil unrest, etc. 

Pass this along. Keep it in mind.

By Divemedic, ago

Communications Plan

There is a reason for all of the HAM radio posts of late. Since I am moving within a few months, I need to rework the communications plan for the homestead. Since we are moving more than 30 miles away, there will be a new set of repeaters, a new fire department and police department to deal with, and other things. So I just broke out the programming software for the mobile radio (a Yaesu FTM400) as well as for the Baofeng handhelds, and I am busy reprogramming all of the new frequencies into the radios.

Then next time we are down checking out the progress on the house, I will also check to see if I can hit the repeaters I want to use.

I won’t even begin to set up the base station until I can see what antennas I will be able to put on the property. That won’t be until after we move.

By Divemedic, ago

HAM Repeaters

When communication by cell phones stops working, most of us can (and should) be able to switch to radios. Still, radio to radio direct communication in the VHF and UHF bands is generally limited to a few miles. To go beyond that, either HF frequencies need to be used, or some sort of a repeater is needed. The issue with HF is that it requires long antennas and is dependent on atmospheric conditions. Not a big deal if we are talking about base stations, but handheld and vehicle mounted radios are VHF or UHF for that reason.

Repeaters allow HAM radios in the VHF and UHF bands to “talk” beyond the horizon. We have already talked about the SARNET, but there are local and regional repeater nets that give quite good coverage. For example, here is the one for west central Florida, centered around Tampa Bay. Just five repeaters cover the entire area.

The yellow circles are the area covered by 5 watt handheld radios, the outer circles are 50 watt mobile radios.

There are over 700 repeaters in the state of Florida alone. There is an excellent tool here that allows you to look for the repeaters in your area on a map. It isn’t complete, but it is very useful. Whenever I go somewhere, I always make sure that I have a list of repeaters for emergencies.

I was once in Maine on a fishing trip when we happened upon a car accident in a very remote area where there was no cell phone service. I was able to get the repeater in Millinocket, which was over 50 miles away, and called for help.

By Divemedic, ago

SARNET

In Florida, SARNET is a network of HAM radio repeaters in the 70cm band (. They are all connected, so activating one repeater ensures that your traffic will be heard statewide. A list of SARNET repeaters can be found here. Anyone who is a licensed HAM radio operator can use it in analog mode only, as long as the state disaster centers haven’t closed the net due to an emergency or other disaster, but it’s important to remember that anything you say will be broadcast across the entire state. Here is the coverage map:

It’s a great way to find someone that is a HAM operator, and then direct them to another means of communication. Long conversations are discouraged on SARNET. The network voice radio usage is intended to be short communications between users. During long conversations you are activating all of the SARNET repeaters across the state for an extended period of time, subjecting all of the hams in the state to a conversation that they have no interest in. Long local conversations are encouraged to move off of SARNET and onto another repeater that does not activate the net. Still, it’s a great way for a HAM in Key West to quickly contact one in Pensacola. Here is a video to explain it:

Another great use is calling a Mayday if you are in an emergency, because you are guaranteed to get a response if every HAM and EOC in the state can hear you.

By Divemedic, ago