SURVIVING - PART II

As I think I mentioned in PART ONE, I'm not preaching "Doomsday", rather preparedness. You should be prepared for a natural or non-natural disasters aftermath, hopefully coping better than those who haven't (prepared). Hurricanes, Tornadoes come to mind when I think "disaster"; telephone lines down, no electricity, cellphone towers damaged, etc. All of this, after a period of time, will be repaired. It would help to have some devices that let you know what is going on, and if possible to communicate with, along with staple items like food, water, batteries, generators, etc. But what about non-natural disasters, like an EMP?

You may have heard this term talked about before, or maybe not, so assuming "not" - "What is an EMP?" Well, first of all it's and abbreviation for Electromagnetic pulse, in other words a "Blast" or "Burst" of electromagnetic radiation. Check it out on wikipedia, books in your public library, or just GOOGLE it.

An EMP is born by an atomic bomb set off at a high altitude. The radiation emitted will wipe out every electronic device, rendering everything we know pretty much useless. We won't see it coming, but we'll see the results. To give you just a small look at the results I've compiled a short list, which should get the point across -

• No electricity
• Electronic devices not even plugged into the wall at the time are useless
• No water. Water requires electrical pumps.
• No running automobiles. The computer in your car or truck is toast. You could walk to the closest dealer to buy a replacement, but everything on the shelf is toast as well.
• No radio
• No TV
• No Satellite
• No cell phones
• No regular phones
• No Internet [but for the sake of an argument, say the Internet was alive! Well, all of you computers would be dead - and not coming back]
• No Electric heat
• No Air Conditioning
• And I'll stop here and let you figure out all of the other "No's".

So now that it has sunk in, you realize this is not one of those things where life returns to normal very easily. With no transportation there will be food shortages, people fighting other people for water or other necessary items - in other words: the worst of mankind. We saw it happen in New Orleans, imagine it country wide...




CARS WOULD BE USELESS WITH ALL OF THE ELECTRONICS FRIED


I recall a manager of mine who built an underground storage/living facility on his property back in the 90's, and occasionally read about survivalist groups across the country that pop up in news stories, but don't grab that shovel just yet. There are a few things that can protect your electronics from an EMP, for instance a simple Faraday cage would work, and it's something you can make yourself. There are simple pouches that will act as a Faraday cage, and come in various sizes. I bought a 2-pack recently and plan to get a few of the larger ones as they aren't terribly expensive.

Your microwave oven is a Faraday cage, but if you had one, what would you put into it? Your cell phone? Nope, no cell towers or electricity to power them even if they worked, so a cell phone would not be a good choice. You'll require communications of some sort, so a all-in-one radio would be a good idea. Something like this:



ETON FR160R



• AM (520-1710 KHz) and FM (87-108MHz)
• NOAA weatherband ? all 7 channels (you'll read more about that later).
• Built-in 3 white LED light source
• Powered by solar or dynamo both of which charge internal Ni-MH battery
• USB cell phone charger, or charger for any other 5v USB device. 



HAND CRANK TO CHARGE INTERNAL BATTERY



SOLAR PANEL TO CHARGE INTERNAL BATTERY

DON'T LET THE PICTURE SIZE FOOL YOU - IT'S VERY SMALL, AND IF POSSIBLE FIND A LOCAL SOURCE TO CHECK OUT VARIOUS MODELS FROM DIFFERENT MANUFACTURERS. THIS ONE WORKED WELL WITH EVERYTHING EXCEPT NOAA WEATHER RECEPTION AND WAS SENT BACK. IT'S USED JUST AS AN EXAMPLE.

I'LL CONTINUE LATER IN PART 3, BUT FOR NOW -

'Nuff Said,

Woody