Prepping

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

PM Usefulness

There were a lot of comments in response to the PM post the other day, too many comments to address individually, so I figured I would make a post about it. Points made in comments are bold, my response follows.

Having PM’s will get you robbed or killed by government agents or criminals: Of course they can. Anything of value may get you robbed or killed by those who want to take it from you- food, ammo, guns, cash. People have been killing each other in order to take their stuff ever since Oog hit Org over the head with a rock and stole the rabbit he was eating. That’s why there are a couple of things you need to do:

  1. The number one thing about all prepping, or owning anything of value, is- don’t talk about what you have or ostentatiously flaunt it. You wouldn’t wear a Rolex into a bad neighborhood (unless you are hunting), so why would you flaunt your PM, ammo, or stored food collection?
  2. If critters notice what you have, that’s why you have guns. To keep critters from stealing your stuff.
  3. If we are at a point where government officials are stealing your PMs, they will steal anything else you have, as well.
  4. If things have degenerated to the point where there are roving bands of criminals wearing colander facemasks are raiding homesteads like a Mad Max movie, none of your preps or stored stuff is going to help you any more than PMs.
  5. I can hide 20 ounces of assorted gold coins/bars inside of an electrical box installed inside of the wall with room to spare. $40,000 inside of a 22 cubic inch box is a density that you can’t match with many other means of storing value.

You can’t eat/shoot/use PMs in a TEOTWAWKI situation, so you are better off hoarding beans/ammo/whatever: Being prepared for disasters isn’t just a binary choice between everything is fine and cannibalism. As I said in this post here, there are many things that fall between those two extremes, and this is what I said:

The most likely disaster that we are likely to affect is a personal one. A disaster that affects just you, or your family. A personal disaster may be something as small as a flat tire, or as personally destructive as cancer, or simply being laid off from your job. We cannot know what that disaster will be, but there is a pretty good chance that the best way to fix it will be… money.

A variation of the above claim is The government/grocers/car mechanics/whomever don’t accept PMs. While this is true, PMs are convertible into cash far more readily, at a larger fraction of their acquisition cost, and hold that value better than a jar full of dried beans or a cigar box full of cash.

Having PMs serves a number of purposes:

  • It allows me to save a significant amount of money ($15-16 thousand) that won’t lose value due to inflation.
  • It is difficult enough to get to that I am less likely to dip into my savings for all but emergencies.
  • I am far more likely to need money to deal with any given emergency than I am to need a week’s worth of freeze dried Mountain House. Does that mean storing emergency food is not a good idea? Of course not, but a 6 month emergency fund is far more important and more likely useful for preparedness.

There are people who fake/counterfeit PMs, and are so good at it that even central banks are fooled, so you are better off buying ammo. There are ways to detect fakes by looking at density and using “ringers” or gold analyzers. It can be done using magnetic properties, or even metal analyzers. For example, commenter Fido informs us about this analyzer that costs about as much as a one ounce coin. Using reputable dealers is also an excellent way of preventing yourself from being ripped off. If fake gold is so good that a central bank is fooled, then how would anyone know? If I buy and then sell such a fake, would the person I sell it to be any better equipped to detect the fake than I was? If not, then how does it matter? To the best of my knowledge, I have never bought a fake PM in the 15 years that I have been buying them. As far as being better served buying ammo, see my comments above.

The big problem here is that everyone in the prepping community likes planning for the day when you will be engaging in firefights and car chases through their neighborhood over the last can of baked beans and cans of canned butter, but few people like planning for the day when you are out of work for six months because you ruptured your Achilles tendon while playing tennis with the neighbor, a scenario that is a lot more likely than a scene from “One Second After.” In such a scenario, you can’t convert a case of baked beans or a few bricks of .40 ammo into your property tax payment as easily as you can a couple of quarter ounce Gold Eagles.

That is why you are better off setting up an emergency fund of at least 90 days’ expenses before you do any other prepping. Money is the single most useful prep you can invest in. I’ve been a prepper since 2003 or so. In that time, I have faced a lot of disasters, including hurricanes, job loss, car breakdowns, and even bankruptcy. Not once did I have to dig into the freeze dried foods or the ammo stash. In every one of them, having a couple of months worth of rent money was a life saver. Take the advice for what you paid for it- but there it is.

By Divemedic, ago

Caching

I’m not saying that you should bury ALL of your guns. I am saying, what if you had several caches as sort of an insurance plan? Say one of these tubes, and buried a couple of off-paper rifles, a dozen magazines, and a couple of hundred rounds of ammo? Bury them somewhere where they are unlikely to be found, and even if they ARE, cannot be connected to you? Use your imagination. Bury them next to a sewage lift station or a radio tower. There is unlikely to be any digging there, and even if there is, it won’t be connected to you if you are smart and wear gloves.

Would it be an insurance policy against all of your guns being taken in a Red Flag order?

How about a handgun, a couple of mags, and a small amount of cash, buried in one of these?

By Divemedic, ago