Prepping

As you probably have surmised by now, this column is really about taking a global collapse seriously. Radio communication is one subject that I find taken for granted in most of the internet press and supermarket survival magazines, but if you don’t understand the basics of what radios can be used for what types of communications, and go out and actually buy them, you will truly leave yourself in the dark when all of the standard communications go down.

I make a habit of checking assumptions when I believe something that a lot of other people believe. When I am online these days, all of the ad tracking systems have me pegged as a “prepper,” and I get ads for everything from freeze dried food to gold bullion. I have become a commodity, and it has made me feel like perhaps I should do a little research into just how imminent this global collapse is likely to be.

Do you have a “bug out bag”? Many of us do, but even if you are not planning on leaving your safe location should the Apocalypse arrive unscheduled, there is going to be a transition period between normal life, and survival life. During that time you have to be able to cook. Think about that, because if you are going to rely on freeze dried foods, as we suggested in an earlier installment, that means you should have some kind of cooking apparatus that doesn’t require setting up a stove. For this article we got to look at a fairly new product that is just now finding its way into consumer retail. It is called a “ration heater” from Milspec. This product was developed for heating military MREs, which for home prepping are way too expensive per meal, and they don’t have a 15 year shelf life like freeze dried. So we tried to use the Mealspec Ration Heater to actually cook a 4 serving rice meal from Wise, part of a popular pack carried by many gunshops, and even Walmart.

It is almost laughable when you hear people say “I don’t want to survive in whatever world is left after the collapse.” I promise you that every one of them will be singing a different tune when they are wasting away from thirst and hunger. “I don’t want to die like this!” That is what they are going to be saying. You can bet on it. That also goes for injuries and sickness. Nobody is going to say “Nah, don’t try to stop the bleeding! Don’t give me antibiotics to get rid of my Malaria! I really don’t want to live anyway since the world is so crappy now. Go help someone else.” Nobody wants to die when the time comes. Nobody.

One of the more memorable scenes from the 1973 film Soylent Green was Edward G. Robinson on his pedal powered generator, to keep the lights in a post collapse scenario. Is pedal power realistic? How much power do you get? We we able to try the $195 extremely innovative K-Tor Power Box, one of the few complete package options on the market. It generates 20 watts at a steady pedal rate. This is not a ton of power, but lets take a look at the actual numbers, plus a general review of the product itself. One of the nice features on the K-Tor is that it generates 120 volts, not 12v like most backup power systems. The power is DC, not AC, but you can plug your regular wall warts right into the K-Tor, because DC will pass through the power rectifiers in the wall wart. Most electronic devices run on DC, but electric motors are generally AC.

I have been sitting on a story since Media Day at the Range back in January on the day before the 2014 SHOT Show. It is a very simple GPS driven topography map interface for smartphones and tablets. Who doesn’t have one of those these days right? But outside of a very small percentage of hunters that hunt public lands with topo maps, I didn’t think many people would be interested in our gun world. One detail about these cards, though, makes them extremely relevant for long term survival. They don’t require a network connection to use the GPS or the data. Once you download the app, all you need is the micro-SD card with the data. At $69.99 without private land data and $99.99 with that data, these are a really cheap way to keep right at your fingertips a complete set of topo maps for your entire state. Right now the cards are available for all Android devices and the Ipad, and we were able to fondle the first generation of IPhone charger cases at SHOT Show, though they have yet to be released.

Measuring radiation isn’t as complicated as all of the terminology makes it sound. Any radiation measuring device has some sort of Geiger–Müller tube, also called a G-M tube. The tube is a surprisingly simple device that turns any type of ionizing radiation into an electrical pulse. The rest of the machine we call “Geiger Counter” or “radiation meter” is just a signal amplification circuit that can contain computing chips and measurement dials or readouts. In a nuclear emergency there won’t be time for news of it to hit The Drudge Report. You’ll have to take evasive measures immediately (a topic for a future article). We are all waiting for the next big false flag or hoax catastrophe, and if it turns out to be nuclear, you’ll want some sort of Geiger counter, both to tell you when it is time to go inside, and also when it is ok to come out. For the most part, Geiger counters aren’t cheap. But I found a source for a DIY Geiger counter that takes only basic soldering for under $60, including the G-M tube. You can also get a no-solder option for still under $100, and they work great.

Most of the work we do when prepping stays at home. But you may not be home when disaster strikes. What then? I carry every day, but there are times that a 9mm in a IWB holster simply isn’t enough. I wanted a rock-solid way to insure that I had everything I need. And here it is, my take on the get-home-gun, and everything that goes with it.

It boggles my mind when someone proudly exclaims that they are free from worry should a disaster strike, because “I’ve got a generator!” That’s great for a hurricane or a blizzard, but what are you going to do if there is a real collapse and your fuel runs out? Did you, in fact, just waste [...]