Take These Steps Today To Survive An International Crisis

SHTF Plan ^ | 3/20/14 | Brandon Smith

[Kartographer]

Buy Three Months Of Food Stock Buy A Water Filter Buy A Small Solar Kit Store A Fuel Source Find Alternative Shelter Buy One Semi-Automatic Rifle Buy 1,000 Rounds Of Ammunition Approach One Friend Or Neighbor Learn One Barter Skill Grow A Garden Prepare Your Mind For Calamity

[3D-JOY]

Yes, people near the Sebastian Hospital got power and my children’s home was nearly destroyed and no power for weeks. They had friends who let them sleep in their living room until they had power. Finally a small FEMA trailer for over a year! Beachside was without power for only about 2 weeks. Big hotels might be the reason?

I do not have enough books to read for several months, but I would make do!

[Texas resident]

It has a pretty good kick. Interesting pattern on a paper target with #4 shot. Since the barrel is rifled, the pellets spread and rotate left.

[albie]

We have a 6 month supply of dry foods from a survival company and go weekly to buy 6, 1 gallon jugs of water. How long does water stay good?

Also, does anyone recommend having random cigarettes and liquor for barter?

[ryan71]

“You don’t need an amateur radio license to ‘listen’.”

And if things get really bad a license won't mean anything.

[spudville]

The old microwave oven idea is great. Do they really work? No micro wave out, none in I suppose.

[LadyBuck]

Think I read somewhere you have to cut the cord off, but I could be wrong. Anyone know?

[Kartographer]

Water doesn't, but it does go flat and needs to be aerated. Just pouring it back and forth between containers will fix that.Bugle Boy loose tobacco comes with cigarette papers. Take a pouch or two (depending on the size of the jar) in to a canning jar and then vacuum seal the jar. No worries about crushing.

[Faith65]

BFL- REMINDER-(BUY a radio this week-look at suggestions on this thread!!!!)

[Eagles6]

Thanks. Would hand held ham radios such as Baofeng UV5R be useful when SHTF?

[DocRock]

If nothing else, you can tune in FM radio stations with the UV-5R

[Eagles6]

Would they be useful for communicating over a 50 mile range with a license? See them on sale at Amazon. Looking for something to keep in touch with family members if other comms are down.Thanks for your help.

[DocRock]

Probably not more than 4 or 5 miles. You will need external antennas, power amplification and good band conditions to get some decent range. That is true of any of the hand held radios. That is why repeaters are used but they can go down when emergency power runs out, if an EMP fries it or a storm knocks it out. See if your local library has any of the ARRL books and you can get started.

[Eagles6]

Thanks. I’ll check them out.

[Rodd OB]

You are exactly correct. Just like a shielded or screen room used in RF testing. Before retiring I was a EMC engineer. Even now I dabble using an inexpensive spectrum analyzer. Called a “RF Explorer”.

Any strong EMP source could cause total failure of communication equipment. As a prepper for TEOTWAWKI it is good to prepare.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Your built in tuner might not have the range to tune the G5RV on all bands. BUT 102' is a good length for a non resonant doublet. What you can do is feed it all the way into the shack with the 450 Ohm window line and a 4:1 or 6:1 current balun at the output of the tuner.

My experience feeding a standard G5RV with ~100' of coax was it was easy enough to tune for low SWR on all bands except 60M, but there was tons of loss on the higher bands, and also on 40M (for both TX and RX). SO, in that configuration it worked great for me on 75M and 20M (it is actually designed for 20M), not so well on the others.

But ditching the coax in favor of balanced feedline eliminates most of the loss so you just need the range in your tuner. The 6:1 balun helps to extend that (though you might need to switch it out for bands where your impedance is already low).

Usually, when I am running a non resonant doublet I just use a MFJ 941 manual tuner and the (nothing to write home about) built in voltage balun. For the super cheap price it does an admirable job. Others swear by those little LDG Z100 auto tuners, and they do offer a handy little balun you can plug right into the back for balanced line. I never tried one, I'm not afraid to twist some knobs. I recommend any HF operator have a manual tuner as an absolutely necessary station accessory. I operated a long time without a tuner of any kind, and now wherever I operate I bring one along. It plays into the survival aspect very well (my thing is actually portable operation). If weather or some other calamity brings down your everyday skyhook, with a manual tuner and whatever sort of wire you have on hand, you can be on the air quickly.

That Kenwood is a great rig, you take care of it and it will give you a lot of joy I think. Look around the 'net for different antennas you can build with wire, and don't be afraid to experiment.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Also, look at the link in my post 28. A couple of the guys there have put up some useful tutorial info, in the stickies at the top.

[Eagles6]

Thanks.