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Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Communicating When Cell Phones Won’t Operate


Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…


 

ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

 



Communicating When Cell Phones Won’t Operate

 

When it comes to an emergency: your cell phone probably won't work.

 

Yes, those networks have backup generators... but that doesn't matter.

 

See, the first thing people do in a big emergency (and that could be a power outage, wildfires, a flood or hurricane, or just about anything that affects a large area) is call their loved ones.

 

Almost nobody owns a land line any more, so that means all those people are calling on the wireless telephone grid at once... and that crashes the grid faster than you can say "Can you hear me now?"

 

Now, even though people forget about the cell phone grid going down in a disaster, this isn't the "commo" mistake I mentioned - it's just the cause.

 

The mistake is actually something a lot of us make when trying to gear up to solve the problem!

 


Well, there are three different areas of communications you should have covered for survival:

 

1. 2-Way Radios

 

A lot of preppers carry GMRS/FRS radios.

 

These two-way "walkie talkies" are great for communications among members of your family or group.

 

They work even if the cellphone grid is down because they don't depend on an outside tower and, while they're "public" to anyone else on your channel, there are a lot of channels.

 

Having a set of these so that members of your party can talk to each other when in close proximity just makes sense.

 

But just know that they're not very strong, so they don't have much range. 

 

2. Police Scanner

 

When an emergency happens, first responders, police, fire, and other EMS services are going to be very active.

 

If you can listen in on what they're doing, you can get advance notice of important events and threats.

 

(This will give you the advantage when it comes to bugging out, and allow you to make better survival decisions.)

 

Many police scanners are "base stations", which means they're meant to sit on a desk, so you'll want to make sure you pick up portable model instead.

 

There's another portable solution, though - "outlaw" programmable Chinese radios, like the "Baofeng" radios, that are... well, pretty much illegal.

 

In a real widespread disaster, one of these programmable radios might be just what you need to stay in touch with members of your family or survival group... while doing double duty as a scanner for your local police and EMS frequencies.

 

They give you a lot of options and, depending on the antenna and battery pack you choose, a lot of power.

 

Right now, you can still buy them, but you need a special license to use them if you don't want to get in trouble.

 

That's because, while they let you listen to lots of frequencies, they also transmit on frequencies that you and I aren't supposed to be on.

 

(Some of these can even "step on" emergency services calls, which is very much not good!)

 

3. AM/FM Radio

 

The third thing you have to have to keep survival covered is an AM/FM radio.

 

You need to have some way to learn about what's going on in the outside world.

 

Even in a widespread power outage or other disaster, your local AM/FM stations have backup generators and will be broadcasting important alerts. 

 

The Emergency Broadcast System will be transmitting through them, too.

 

But that brings me to 1 simple mistake a lot of people make when gearing up for survival communications, and it really comes down to your choice of AM/FM radio.

 

Lots of people already know they need one... but they go too big when they buy it, because so many of the survival radios on the market are freaking HUGE.

 

Especially if you have to bug out and take your stuff with you, space and weight are really going to matter.


But the massive survival radios on the market take up too much room in your bug-out bag, and they're waaaay too big to carry on your body.

 

(Some of the hand-crank models could turn your right arm into something out of a 1980s Schwarzenegger movie - and all for about a minute worth of power!)

 

There are survival radios that even have shortwave, so you could listen (especially at night) to transmissions from around the world... but that's overkill, honestly, unless you're tracking a global alien invasion (ha ha).

 

If your survival radio is too big, in other words, it isn't convenient for moving around, and it uses up space in your pack that could be devoted to other, critical gear.

 

That's why, for survival and bugging out, you want an AM/FM radio that's as small as possible.

 


You need to get ready for communication in a disaster or emergency... but you also want to make sure you don't weigh yourself down.

A power outage in summer can be uncomfortable. A power outage in winter can be fatal. Without electricity, you’re not going to have heat. Going without heat for a day is one thing. Imagine not having heat for several days or even several weeks.

 In this video, Canadian Prepper talks about how to survive a power outage in the winter. He breaks it down into ten steps. Here they are:

 1. Have a good supply of non-perishable food items. Freeze-dried or dehydrated foods are recommended.  Also, make sure your water is not frozen as well...


 

Yours for a Socialist-Free America!

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

 

USEFUL STUFF…
 

A few weeks ago, I shared an article on Facebook about the potential for an economic collapse in the near future, and someone left a comment saying, “Why do I keep hearing this warning over and over and over for years, and yet nothing ever happens?” Good question. When people keep saying that the sky is falling and it never does, it’s hard not to be skeptical.

 As I said in my response to him, “After the stock market crash in 2008, everyone started claiming an economic collapse was about to happen, but what they didn’t realize is that it DID happen… in 2008. Since then, the economy has slowly been recovering. But the systemic problems that led to the crash were never corrected, and the bubble has been re-inflating. It can’t re-inflate forever.”

 Just like in the years leading up to the Great Recession, people have too much debt and not enough wealth. Meanwhile, the stock market has soared to new heights, as it always does before it comes crashing down...


As the size and regularity of our cities expand across the globe, we must learn what it takes to survive in these environments. War and disaster have not stopped just because our urban areas have grown—in fact, a look at the last century will tell you just how integral (and deadly) cities have been for humans as conflict seizes the land.

 More and more of us live in these places, so we need to start educating people on how to survive and protect themselves in such situations.

 The heightened importance of urban spaces results from demographic developments, with the global population advancing toward 70 percent living in urban areas by 2050, and from recent trends in terrorism, counterinsurgency and stabilization efforts. Both people and the fight are converging on cities...


Cities are taking over the world, so to speak. More people live in them than ever and more of them are popping up all over the world. Learning to survive in a dense urban environment is becoming an ever more important skill.

 To help you better prepare, we have put together this civil war preparedness series to give you a quick down and dirty overview of what survival in a city will entail. This is the third part and it deals with your physical security.

 "The heightened importance of urban spaces results from demographic developments, with the global population advancing toward 70 percent living in urban areas by 2050, and from recent trends in terrorism, counterinsurgency and stabilization efforts. Both people and the fight are converging on cities..."


 

Poll Results: Do You Think Voters Will Dump Trump in 2020?


88% of respondents say Trump will win again/do not support impeachment and feel Dems are using this approach because they can’t win in 2020. This is the 4th poll I’ve found in support of Trump in the past week!  I strongly suspect those aired by CNN are fake polls.


 

Handwell [Backup] Well Pumps
 

We manufacture a series of easy-to-install "Narrow-Profile" deep-well pumps, engineered to install in the well alongside your existing electric water well pump system. All of our manual well water pumps can be permanently installed for daily use, or stored and ready for loss of power


 

How to start a neighborhood barter club

 
 

People need to become more self-reliant, not more dependent on government.

How to Survive the War on the Middle Class

 Download at: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AgMpmQI6plfXh0T3zKGDM-c3PUnr   or here:

http://1drv.ms/1d9kfiU


15 Tips for Retirement in Panama: Panama's Pacific and Caribbean coastlines, wildflower-covered mountains and river-crossed jungles might draw you to the country. But it's Panama's affordable cost of living, modern infrastructure, quality health care, established expat community and the convenience of being able to use the U.S. dollar that will make you want to retire in Panama

‘Grassroots’ Justice Dems Fueled by Out-of-District Money


This is the pro-Communist group which recruited, trained the likes of AOC, Omar & Rashida to run for office…

 

Free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom!

 

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2 comments:

Sam said...

Civil War, no cell phones?! Millions of idiots would perish.

Stephanie said...

I'd be highly tempted to laugh at those whose cell phones are tied by umbilical cord to their body; so many are seriously over obsessed w/ checking their phones 100xs a day; they'd do into withdrawal!