09:03 – It was 42.4F (6C) when I took Colin out around 0730 this morning, but the temperature has already fallen. We’re expecting cooler weather to move in today, followed by another warm period. Barbara just left for the gym. This afternoon she’s headed down to Winston to run errands and stay with her sister overnight. She’ll be back mid-afternoon tomorrow.
Yesterday, Sears made official what everyone has known for at least a couple of years. They’re going out of business. That’s bad news for them, of course, but it’s also bad news for every shopping mall that has a Sears.
I’ll always remember Sears fondly. I got my first chemistry set from them, back in the early 60’s. I also bought my first firearm there, in the summer of 1967. It was a .22 rifle, and things were a lot simpler then. I’d picked out what I wanted from their catalog and accumulated enough money to buy it.
I walked downtown and up to the sporting goods counter at Sears. I told the guy what I wanted to look at, and he passed it over the counter to me. I told him I’d take it. He asked if it was okay with my parents. I told him it was. He went to the back room and got another that was still boxed up. I handed him the money for the rifle and a brick of 500 rounds of .22 LR. He made change, and I walked out the door with my new rifle. I made a detour on the way home and walked along the railroad tracks, shooting cans and other targets of opportunity.
So now Sears is gone, and Walmart is trying hard to avoid the same fate. At least they’re smart enough to realize that the retail environment has undergone a sea change and that on-line has become critical. They’re trying hard, but they’re going to have to do better.
In the continuing saga of the order I placed with Walmart on March 15, I found out yesterday that my order had been delivered. The only problem is that it was delivered to someone in Greenfield, Indiana. Ordinarily, I’d just drive over and pick it up, but that would be a 1,600 mile round trip. So now I have to figure out how to let Walmart know about the problem. They don’t make that easy. There are several checkboxes on their problem report form, but none of them for “you shipped my order to someone else.” Herewith the whole sad story.
Delivered
Shipping Activity
Mar 21
11:33 AM
DELIVERED GREENFIELD, IN
Mar 21
4:38 AM
OUT FOR DELIVERY INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Mar 20
9:06 PM
ARRIVAL SCAN INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Mar 20
8:44 PM
DEPARTURE SCAN INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Mar 20
12:20 PM
ARRIVAL SCAN INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Mar 20
8:31 AM
DAMAGE TO PACKAGE CONTENTS WAS REPORTED. WE WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER. / WE’RE INVESTIGATING THE DAMAGE CLAIM. WILKESBORO, NC
Mar 20
1:50 AM
DEPARTURE SCAN GREENSBORO, NC
Mar 17
10:14 PM
ARRIVAL SCAN GREENSBORO, NC
Mar 17
8:44 PM
DEPARTURE SCAN WILKESBORO, NC
Mar 17
7:50 PM
YOUR PACKAGE WAS DAMAGED IN TRANSIT. WE WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH DETAILS. / DAMAGED MERCHANDISE DISCARDED, BALANCE BEING RETURNED. UPS WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH THE DETAILS WILKESBORO, NC
Mar 17
7:50 PM
YOUR PACKAGE WAS DAMAGED IN TRANSIT. WE WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH DETAILS. WILKESBORO, NC
Mar 17
7:50 PM
SERVICE DISRUPTION OCCURRED / THE PACKAGE WILL BE RETURNED TO THE SENDER. WILKESBORO, NC
Mar 17
11:08 AM
THE RECEIVER DOES NOT WANT THE PRODUCT AND REFUSED THE DELIVERY. WILKESBORO, NC
Mar 17
6:23 AM
DESTINATION SCAN WILKESBORO, NC
Mar 17
4:55 AM
ARRIVAL SCAN WILKESBORO, NC
Mar 17
3:31 AM
DEPARTURE SCAN WINSTON SALEM, NC
Mar 16
7:02 PM
ARRIVAL SCAN WINSTON SALEM, NC
Mar 16
6:17 PM
DEPARTURE SCAN GREENSBORO, NC
Mar 16
11:53 AM
ARRIVAL SCAN GREENSBORO, NC
Mar 15
11:31 PM
DEPARTURE SCAN INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Mar 15
2:44 PM
ORIGIN SCAN INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Mar 15
11:25 AM
BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
ups
Tracking Number
1ZY756Y60316819114
* * * * *
Great story about your first rifle. That is how it should be; every little boy (and girl) should have their own .22. I have a couple of wee old rifles in my collection that were clearly children’s guns. It’s sad – and wrong – that we can’t (legally) introduce kids to shooting in many countries today…
Well in our case, it has been intentional. No longer do we have “a rifleman behind every blade of grass.” I can’t help but believe that such a profound change in our defensive ability wasn’t engineered by our enemies.
We do still have a long tradition of hunting, gun use, and marksmanship in the non-urban areas. It continues, but is greatly reduced.
Whenever I’m at an event for our local FFA (future farmers of america- a bit like the 4 H club) I’m impressed by the kids’ hard work and dedication. Ditto for the young kids exhibiting at the Houston Rodeo and Stock Show.
But urban culture is insidious. You hear rap music from pickup trucks even in rural areas. You see wastrels and disaffected ‘youth’ emulating the gangsta style everywhere.
n
“You see wastrels and disaffected ‘youth’ emulating the gangsta style everywhere.”
Obviously, I can’t teach teenagers to shoot firearms, since that’s not allowed. However, I imagine I might have had great satisfaction from showing them that it is not possible to hit a target when shooting “gangtsa style” (other than by fluke). The clever ones start to wonder what else about gangsta “culture” is nonsense.
What? You can’t just hold a pistol sideways and pick off five guys 50′ away? I’ve seen it in movies many times.
Oh, I think there’s still a rifleman behind every blade of grass, at least in rural areas. There have been something like 15 million M-forgeries sold to civilians, after all. And that doesn’t count the hundreds of millions of other rifles that people have been buying all along.
I’d guess there are more rifles than people in Alleghany County, and that’s probably the norm in any rural county, particularly in red states. I always smile when I read a PA novel that has LEO’s in rural areas confiscating guns. Yeah, right. Cops have a very strong sense of self-preservation. I’m trying to imagine any rural cop going door to door to confiscate guns. Can you say shoot-out? Molon labe.
Walmart doesn’t make it easy, but I finally got a live person on the line to report the problem. She said she’d re-enter the order and make sure they didn’t charge me again. While we were on the phone I got an email from Walmart with the new order number.
This was a lot of work to get a $40 order delivered that comprised three restaurant size containers of Heinz Ketchup, two of French’s Mustard, four 18-ounce bottles of Heinz Worcestershire Sauce, and a pack of plastic-coated playing cards.
When I go innacity, I turn the bill of my baseball type cap to 5 o’clock.
I thought that Sears invented “online” selling with its catalog 80 years ago, or thereabouts.
@Slim I thought that Sears invented “online” selling with its catalog 80 years ago, or thereabouts.
I think much of their early success was as reading and cleaning in the privy.
currently listing to my county doing their emergency management net checkin…
Every agency in the county, and apparently we have a ‘regional radio center’ too.
Got the Uniden Home Patrol II scanner for my birthday. Been just poking at it for the last few days. I really like the display, instant replay, lock out, and temp “lock to this agency” features.
It’s a P25 digital capable scanner so I have all the agencies that moved onto the digital system earlier this year, back again. Plus I have all the analog. I’ve still got analog scanners on the desk because there is still a bunch of useful listening on analog. I had to bite the bullet and add the digital though.
More about the scanner as I use it.
n
In the mean time, anyone considering off grid or in a shipping container should watch this guy and think hard about all the stuff that he isn’t saying, and listen hard when he does say something like “there’s an awful lot of work involved in living this life”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRN0uClnJBw
Watch it with your finger on the skip forward button, or turn the speed up. He’s a bit long winded and slow, and there is a lot of redundancy in the video.
n
I can’t help but believe that such a profound change in our defensive ability wasn’t engineered by our enemies.
As my buddy, Mr. OFD, says: the Commies took over without firing a shot. Welcome to the pussification of America.
In the “didn’t get the memo” department:
Ageless beauty! Original Charlie’s Angel Jaclyn Smith gets herself ‘glammed up’ for Kmart photo shoot
Next up: lingerie shoot for Sears.
11 here today; wind chill tonight and tomorrow below zero. Snow, sleet and rain mixes through next Tuesday.
“In the “didn’t get the memo” department”
71???!!! Yikes.
The Uniden Home Patrol is highly recommended by several of the right-wing prepper/veteran radio guys. At least two of those guys were Army infantry and special forces radio people in combat and both of them have the Extra license. They reiterate that listening is way more important than yakking. Learn antennas and learn how to build them yourself and set them up in temporary scenarios, etc. Keep logs. Look into SDR stuff and EchoLink. Maybe not a bad idea also to learn Morse and low-power rigs, and marine rigs if you live near large bodies of water. I’m still slowwwwwwly hacking away at the Technician class and book. There are just so many claims on our time it seems difficult to reach various prepping milestones like commo capability.
And yes, the urban gangsta crap has long since migrated to rural areas, with the kidz, anyway. And we all have the pixels blinking away 7×24 out here, whether the tee-vee, computers, tablets, cell phones, etc. I rarely see the urban wigga getup around these parts, though; a bunch of the local yokel kids live and work on farms much of the year. Their thing, and there may be a practical reason for it, with the ball caps, is to have the bills facing forward but up, so the hats are perched on the backs of their heads.
Yes, also; look into acquiring firearms and ammo while prices are cheap like this; some are saying that we might see price increases in the run-up to next year’s elections, though. Once gotten, learn how to disassemble it and clean it and put it back together, Join the NRA and the nearest local gun range, assuming they run a tight ship. Take the NRA classes, if offered in your area.
Well, it’s sunny w/blue skies here today but otherwise a frigid winta day.
Breaker-break, this is CowboySlim, … 40 years ago, I would periodically check into Channel 9 on my CB radio, Roger that, Good buddy? 10-4, back-to-ya, your turn, I’ll be on the side, standing by, over and out!
“KIM’S MISSILE FLOPS Kim Jong Un humiliated as missile EXPLODES on launchpad a day after despot boasted North Korea is ‘ready for war’”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3148522/kim-jong-un-north-korea-missile-test-explodes/
I wonder if we used one of our new laser weapons from orbit ?
Maybe not a bad idea also to learn Morse and low-power rigs,
I still know S.O.S. lol!
I may bite the bullet and memorize the ARRL questions, pop over to Nellis and take the tests. Better to have the license and learn, than to procrastinate.
RIP Chuck Barris. He would have made a great President. I can hear the giant gong clanging during press conferences. I loved The Gong Show with Jaye P. Mooorgoooohn!
Maybe not a bad idea also to learn Morse and low-power rigs,
Amazing how much stays with you after Boy Scout Morse training 55 years ago …
Terror attack in London, on the anniversary of the Brussels attacks last year:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4338998/Police-open-fire-outside-House-Commons.html
One more reason why normal people should be armed. No chance of that in the UK, of course.
Wow, we just got a six figure PO for a one year lease of our software in Russia.
I am going to wait to see the cash in my bank account before I dance a jig.
“One more reason why normal people should be armed.”– second that emotion.
@cowboyslim, post-apoc CB will get a good workout. almost everyone over a certain age has one in the garage. I’ve got stacks, and will take stacks to the hamfest. Last year I didn’t sell one, the year before I sold every one I had. Landscapers all use them around here. And after all, CB is just AM voice mode on a band adjacent to a ham band. The power restrictions are entirely regulatory. Otherwise, it would be just as effective as ham… and the radios are CHEAP.
@mratoz, take the online FREE practice tests until you can pass every time. Should only take a couple of days while you’re doing other stuff on the ‘puter. Then do the same with the General Class test. Might take a couple more days. Then go take the tests. Tell the examiner you will be attempting both (usually for one fee). When you pass the Tech, ask for the General, and them pass that. They really aren’t that hard if you have ANY experience with electronics (know what a resistor looks like.) Know how to apply Ohm’s Law to figure power draw. All the other stuff you can just remember the answers if you take the tests often enough.
THEN learn on the can from the ARRL study guides AFTER you’ve gotten on the air and started practicing. $40 bofang handheld and a local repeater and Robert is your dad’s brother….
DO IT NOW!!!!
n
I wonder if we used one of our new laser weapons from orbit ?
Didn’t Boeing mount a laser in the nose of a 747 within the last decade?
Back during our Vantucky sentence -er- tenure, I remember seeing a Boeing video about the airborne laser linked from the local paper. One test looked like the engineers pulled the scene right out of “Real Genius”.
Yesterday, Sears made official what everyone has known for at least a couple of years. They’re going out of business. That’s bad news for them, of course, but it’s also bad news for every shopping mall that has a Sears.
Sears has been hosed ever since the courts made them change the terms of their credit card back in the early 90s. Sears used to be separate from other creditors in Bankruptcy which meant that, while they could take the merchandise back the moment payments stopped, as long as you did make the payments you could get your car fixed or replace the refrigerator even if your FICO was heading south.
So now Sears is gone, and Walmart is trying hard to avoid the same fate. At least they’re smart enough to realize that the retail environment has undergone a sea change and that on-line has become critical. They’re trying hard, but they’re going to have to do better.
Marc Lore, he former Jet CEO turned senior management in online sales at Walmart has an axe to grind with Bezos. It is *very* personal for Lore after what Amazon did to his Diapers.com concept, driving the company to the edge of bankruptcy and then picking up what was left for pennies on the dollar.
“I am going to wait to see the cash in my bank account before I dance a jig.”
Mos def, Mr. Lynn. I hope that’s for real. Let us know, willya? And if it’s good, put a link of you dancing that jig here, too.
Real Genius is still one of my favorite movies. Along with Buckaroo Banzai and His Adventures Across the Eighth Dimension, and Repo Man.
n
think hard about all the stuff that he isn’t saying
There was a program on BBC a couple of days ago, partially about people moving from the city to the country. A couple of examples that stuck with me:
Two London bankers moved to a small town, to hand-make and sell their own artisanal breakfast cereal. They obviously have no concept just how many kilos of cereal they’ll have to sell, just to break even on their setup costs. Plus, they have basically no chance of getting into supermarkets – they clearly don’t know how that business works. We looked into it once – if you aren’t a big player with a really good logistics chain, just forget it.
Another farm, longer established, has a problem with low wool prices. Their solution: they raise their sheep, sheer them, compost the wool (along with plant matter), and sell the compost. Ain’t that a sad statement on the state of the wool market. They’d be financially better off to skip the sheep, and just compost the grass directly, but…tradition or something.
Unless you have some other source of money, country living is damned hard.
Real Genius is still one of my favorite movies. Along with Buckaroo Banzai and His Adventures Across the Eighth Dimension, and Repo Man.
The only thing missing from Boeing’s video was the giant Jiffy Pop. I wish I knew where that link went.
For the uninitiated — all three films have excellent DVD transfers. Cult films end up being labors of love for the digitization techs.
BTW, if you haven’t seen it, “Repo Man” is the gateway drug to “Tapeheads”. Both were produced by Mike Nesmith before PBS drove his Pacific Arts production company into bankruptcy.
“Tapeheads” has what is possibly the best final line of any 80s movie. “Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyKzdvZU3pg
According to Google Maps, it’s less than 1,000 miles round trip between our houses. And Greenfield is less than 50 miles (mostly east) from here. But still an impractical trip.
Yeah, the guy in the linked vid functions as an estate manager for the landowner where he’s living. and he sells ebooks about his experience for cash.
What strikes me in all the off grid youtube vids is what an enormous amount of land is need to sustain just a few people. There’s a reason for our current systems, and it’s called feeding the population. There isn’t enough game in the country to support all the people who think they’re gonna ‘bug out’ and live by bushcraft in the national forests.
n
All three of those movies are eminently quotable too.
“Ordinary fucking people, I hate ’em.” Harry Dean Stanton in Repo Man.
“I blame society…”
“Shut up Archie, you’re nothing but a white suburban punk.” Emilio Estevez IBID
n
Yeah, my memory failed me. I looked up the distance from Sparta to Indianapolis months ago for some reason, and I had the figure 800 miles in my mind, rather than the actual 500.
It’s not that hard to read the book and learn it. I read the book before taking the practice exams. Read a chapter a day in the throne room, and you’ll probably have the whole book done before the next exam date. If you just pass the exam without learning it, will you ever go back and learn it?
BTW, wrt ham radio, no morse requirement at any level any more. Many people “cheat” and use senders and readers with morse (or CW as it’s known.)
n
@ MrAtoz,
“I may bite the bullet and memorize the ARRL questions, pop over to Nellis and take the tests. Better to have the license and learn, than to procrastinate.”
About a dozen years ago, or so, my 4WD friends and I made trip around Area 51. Lunch at the L’Ale’Inn.
http://littlealeinn.com/
Then dinner and overnight at the old Tonapah Station.
http://www.tonopahstation.com/
All three of those movies are eminently quotable too.
“Why is that toy on your head?”
“Because if I wear it any place else it chafes.”
Life still imitates art in that flick 30 years later.
Since I’ve been in grad school, I’ve learned that “Jerrys” (“Real Genius”) are the rule rather than the exception among faculty advisors. After I left Washington State without a degree, my advisor was more or less frog marched off campus mid-semester for doing something no one will talk about, but I can only assume was sexual in nature.
If you just pass the exam without learning it, will you ever go back and learn it?
Twenty years blabbing on FM/VHF/UHF/secure/etc radios of all types. I shouldn’t have any trouble as a “user”. We used to get a pass for the basic operator level required for private pilot license at the time. Milspec experience got you a waiver and you got a little card saying you were good to go in the civilian world. I don’t have a lot of experience with antennas, but did get some training on various types (including sat) in the Army. I’ll be no more than a “user” so reading the books will be enough.
I did get some recommended antennas for the Pofung’s I have (off Ebay). Just haven’t tried them out. Using the ones that came with the radios.
@dave, yes.
A lot of it makes MUCH more sense once you actually start operation, don’t you think? And whether you memorize the info in the book or the answers to just the pool questions, you’re still just memorizing.
I can only truly speak for myself, but I did learn the content of the books afterwards, long afterwards when I’d already decided that I like the idea of ham radio as a hobby and not just a tool.
Most preppers only want to communicate. Most hams want to keep others from playing with their toys until they’ve been vetted and acculturated. The tests and the traditional process of getting an Elmer and learning everything, then confirming the knowledge with the test is a HUGE barrier for someone who isn’t looking for a hobby or a club or a culture, but is looking to communicate legally in the service of something else.
Let’s also look at the relevance of the testing questions to operating and communicating. ‘Identify the resistor in the following figure.’ ??? NO relevance. A lot of the questions are like that too. I was surprised by the LACK of actual operation and regulation questions. Had to watch youtube to get a repeater offset and PL code entered. Had to listen to figure out the etiquette of net operation, and had to go online to get even the foggiest notion of what all the internet linking modes are all about, and yet that is the single biggest thing on UHF and VHF, where the Techs can operate.
Some parts of HF are as bad as CB back in the day with the same group of angry old farts sitting on the freq all night talking trash, being jammed, swearing at each other, and generally being nuisances.
If it weren’t for the prepping aspects I wouldn’t even recommend the General Class, but if you want to get out of your neighborhood when SHTF, you need HF. In order to actually use it, you need the antennas, radio, tuner, power supplies, and all the other crap, and you need to have actually used it.
The additional learning for General is slight and you should absolutely get there as quickly as possible.
The additional for Extra is HUGE and if you can’t or won’t memorize all the answers (and there are a lot more to make this more difficult than learning and understanding the material) you are going to have to study. Extra is truly an achievement and something to be proud of, but is completely unneeded for most hams.
n
@MrAtoz – those included antennas are widely regarded as junk. For just a couple of bucks you will get much better performance with a Nagoya aftermarket.
In the vehicle, a $40 mag mount dual band and the SMA adapter will make a world of difference. Or use it at home on a cookie sheet or on top of a file cabinet. Just don’t have it too close to your head…..
n
Mr. Nick that’s why I got some recommended:
DELUXE MODEL ROLL UP 2M/70CM ROLL UP J-POLE/SLIM JIM
ANTENNA WITH 10FTCOAX (190898779511) and adapters.
Authentic Genuine Nagoya NA-771 15.6-Inch Whip VHF/UHF (144/430Mhz) Antenna SMA-Female for AnyTone, BaoFeng, and Yaesu
Two each for the two Pofung’s
“Nine years later, Greece is still in a debt crisis…”
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/nine-years-later-greece-is-still-in-a-debt-crisis-21202/
“On one side of the Atlantic, we have the United States of America, which triggered yet another debt ceiling disaster last Thursday when the US government’s maximum allowable debt reset to just over $20 trillion.”
“Greece has had nine different governments since 2009. At least thirteen austerity measures. Multiple bailouts. Severe capital controls. And a full-out debt restructuring in which creditors accepted a 50% loss.”
“Yet despite all these measures GREECE IS STILL IN A DEBT CRISIS.”
Good analysis of the USA and Greece.
On my UV5 I’ve got the nagoya NA 626, which is flexible and extends for 2 m use.
On the pickup, I’ve got the radio shack mag mount dual bander.
On the house I’ve got the radio shack dual band 1/4 wave ground plane antenna.
I’ve also got a RS discone on the house for the scanners.
I’m adding a 440 ‘eggbeater’ style for satellite receiving as soon as I can actually get on the roof again.
And I’ve got big verticals for my base station HF (cushcraft R8) and one that I haven’t put up for 2M (Ringo). I’m gonna string a longwire from the house to the trees for shortwave (to replace the longwire that runs in a C shape along the top of my fence) and possibly an inverted L for HF. Gotta be somewhat stealthy for the stuff in the front yard though.
n
I haven’t taken the ham test yet, but I may if I get around to it. Just for giggles, I took the sample tests without any preparation and passed Technician easily, as expected. I was a ham operator, albeit 50 years ago. Other than administrative stuff, nothing much has changed.
My perspective differs from Nick’s. I think it’s worthwhile having the gear even if you don’t have the license. Many people aren’t aware that no license is required to operate any radio transmitter on any frequency if there’s an emergency.
Operating a modern HF rig is really no different from operating an old CB radio. Pick a channel, push-to-talk, and that’s about it. You can figure it out as you go. Also, I think Nick has a very unhealthy intention to transmit on HF frequencies. Why? If you need to talk to someone, it’s going to be someone reasonably local, so 2 meters and higher is just fine and doesn’t let people all over the place hear what you’re saying. There’s all kinds of 2m and 70cm gear out there cheap. For that matter, FRS/GMRS stuff is even cheaper and will do the job you need to do: local tactical comms.
Repo Man is one of the flicks I watch every year.
“The life of a repo man is intense.”
My favorite part of that flick is when the black repo guy takes Otto along on a repo and as Otto is hot-wiring the target car, a guy starts firing at them from the house. Otto goes into panic mode and tries to get back in the repo guy’s car and he locks the doors and yells at Otto to get that fucking car.
Never heard of Tapeheads, though.
WRT to the ham licenses; I think I’ll read the Tech and Gen books on the can, although I doubt I’m in there long enough for a chapter per sitting. But I’ll also work the online practice exams.
Ah, mostly listening on HF, but if talking needs to be done, NVIS on HF is about the only way to get regional coverage. It sure would be good to hear what’s going on a city away.
Lots of good digital modes, very low power, on HF too, and winmail as an internet workaround.
WRSA has a fictional scenario up at the moment, and the comm challenge could be met with EME or meteor scatter modes. Very hard to DF but requires a lot of coordination.
Things get REALLY sporty and you could do a line of sight to a remote transmitter.
Spread spectrum like the ham mesh network project is also a very diffuse method.
n
“Find one in every car.”
“Put it on a plate dear, it’ll taste better.”
n
BTW, I’m actually an advocate of having gear you don’t know how to use. Someone else might, you can learn, etc.
What many many people have pointed out is that ham comms is not at all ‘plug and play’ esp on HF. You need grid up practice to get the knowledge skill and gear all working together.
n
ADDED- not to mention there are LOTS of scenarios short of a total collapse where there is little need for stealth, and lots of need to communicate within a region, and outside of the region, most notably for me, hurricanes.
_Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 2 – The Search (Volume 2)_ by Jeff Motes
https://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-Apocalypse-Book-Search/dp/1946321052/
Book number two of a two book post apocalyptic series. I read the POD (print on demand) trade paperback version which has excellent paper and fonts. Also note that this is an self-published series. I highly suspect that the series will continue and I look forward to reading book number three.
The first book was unusual in the fact that it was written in the second person. The author apparently received so many complaints that he rewrote the first book in the first person. I have not read that version nor do I plan to do so at this time. The second book is written in first person with the person identified at the top of each chapter.
https://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-Apocalypse-Journey-Revised-ebook/dp/B01N1RKPP3/
This book is written in parallel with the first book. The first book was about two people getting home after the EMP. This book is written about the home situation deteriorating rapidly after the EMP.
The author, an degreed Electrical Engineer and a licensed Professional Engineer, takes the point that an EMP over the USA will be so destructive that all computers in phones, control systems, and cars will be destroyed. He even thinks that LED light bulbs will have their inner circuit boards destroyed. I think that this thinking is a little extreme as car computers live in a horribly noisy and hazardous environment. Should the USA get EMP’d, I think that car computers will get locked up but a simple reboot (restarting) will clear the fault. But, I could be totally wrong !
BTW, there are frequent mentions of Christianity in the book via prayers and such. At least once per chapter and sometimes several times per chapter. I have an acquaintance who is an atheist who was offended by the amount of prayers in the book. I am a Christian so I appreciate the amount but others might not.
The author also has an military coup in the USA and nobody notices due to the severity of having all of our little electrical helpers gone. That is quite the idea. A very sobering idea.
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (67 reviews)
Hey Nick: Any new albums from the Hong Kong Cavaliers lately?
I miss their style.
Hey Nick: Any new albums from the Hong Kong Cavaliers lately?
I miss their style.
Before the credits roll on “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou”, Wes Anderson conducts a curtain call of the major characters similar to the re-introduction of the Hong Kong Cavaliers at the end of “Buckaroo Banzai”.
Not exactly new Hong Kong Cavalier material, but as close as we’re ever going to get to seeing their style on screen again. The script the studio optioned for the “Buckaroo Banzai” sequel became “Big Trouble in Little China”.
“WRSA has a fictional scenario up at the moment, and the comm challenge could be met with EME or meteor scatter modes. Very hard to DF but requires a lot of coordination.”
If it’s the same one I saw via Brushbeater, yeah, it’s a bitch of a scenario. Someone would need not only the genuine learning pursuant to the licenses, but also hands-on in the field for a while. He’s escalated the difficulties of these scenarios and this one was Number Three.
I wonder if we used one of our new laser weapons from orbit ?
Didn’t Boeing mount a laser in the nose of a 747 within the last decade?
Back during our Vantucky sentence -er- tenure, I remember seeing a Boeing video about the airborne laser linked from the local paper. One test looked like the engineers pulled the scene right out of “Real Genius”.
I am fairly sure that even the norks would have noticed a 747 flying around their missile site. And they do have interceptors. My 94 year old friend got close and personal with the first MIGs in North Korea back in 1950 with a B-24 bomber. He made it back to South Korea. Half of his squadron was shot down that day.
Sitting at the airport. My backpack got flagged because I had a laptop AND and iPad in it. The horror. The bag got swabbed for boom-boom material. I carry all kinds of cables and gadgets with me. Splayed out on the table for all to see.
Well there’s your mistake right there.
Unbelievable! We try and try to learn this boy something and there he is! At an airport! You might think he needed to fly because of his job!
@MrAtoz; did they make you boot the laptop? If it runs Winblows then you’re probably still there waiting…
And a pile of cables and gadgets, too. Wow. You like to live dangerously, don’t you.
I am fairly sure that even the norks would have noticed a 747 flying around their missile site.
The “North Korean” air force in 1950 was actually the Chinese.
There are lots of 747s flying around in that part of the world. It isn’t an unusual aircraft to be near North Korea, but the distance would have to be close enough to allow line of sight targeting by a laser.
Maybe Thor is operational on the X37B. The guide on the Kennedy tour last week talked about the possibility of the Shuttle runway being reopened for use by the space plane to allow rapid turnaround after landing. Rearming?
Cool, fast turnaround, gee, whatever for?
And from the Department of Harsh:
http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=9881
I’ve thought this for a long time; it happened from the 1960s on and I saw it in the colleges and universities. John Silber (former president of Boston University) called the English department there “a damned matriarchy.”
That’s now spread through the Western institutions, including corporations. And after feminization, comes infantization. One look at how young males in the West dress and their main activity shows us the whole sorry progression.
Now they just swab for boom-boom.
My titanium spork makes it through again! Yay! Use the shit out of it traveling.
I think the 2nd Amendment gives you the absolute right to keep and bear sporks.
CMG (Chipotle Mexican Grill) should give out sporks instead of forks.
https://chipotle.com/
“I think the 2nd Amendment gives you the absolute right to keep and bear sporks.”
Yeah, but we have to keep them organized and make them take regular training.
So now Sears is gone, and Walmart is trying hard to avoid the same fate. At least they’re smart enough to realize that the retail environment has undergone a sea change and that on-line has become critical. They’re trying hard, but they’re going to have to do better.
I remember driving into Houston in 1971 ??? to the downtown Sears from Lake Jackson so that Mom could get me and my two brothers new jeans. This was back when we lived with my grandparents for a couple of years.
Walmart has definitely converted from a growth stock to an income stock. I just don’t think that they are going away, after all, people have got to have somewhere to spend their cash. I can’t tell you how many times that I have seen someone max out their Lone Star Card (welfare), max out their credit card, and pay the rest with cash. I find it fascinating watching these transactions. They always have enough cash to close the deal. Makes one wonder about these cashless society advocates.
““Big Trouble in Little China”.”
Another classic, though I haven’t seen it nearly as often or as recently. I did pick up the DVD at Goodwill in the last couple of months.
BB end credits–
Man, I can hear the sound of that credit sequence in my mind right now.
Wherever you go, there you are…
(love the drummer with the mac 10)
BB: Give her your coat.
Perfect Tommy: Why me?
BB: Because you’re perfect.
Perfect Tommy: [grunts ascent]
There’s a lot of drama involved with the BB movie. The reason there was no reissue, the producer hated the film, thought it was horrible, did everything to suppress it, while it was obviously a labor of love for director and cast, who GOT IT. Nowadays, they would have done three sequels.
n
From the Department of Wikileaks:
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/844682344992792576
Huge surprise. Really huge. Shocking. I am gobsmacked.
Sitting at the airport. My backpack got flagged
When I travel with my cameras I always receive extra attention. Carry on with the camera gear, four lenses, two flashes and some accessories. Another shoulder bag with batteries, chargers, cables, USB adapters, etc. Generally pulled aside, searched, patted, swabbed, really annoying. Except one time at Chattanooga Airport. TSA agent photographed himself and we had a good chat while I showed him my stuff. There was no one in line, plenty of time to catch the plane, so it worked out.
There’s a lot of drama involved with the BB movie. The reason there was no reissue, the producer hated the film, thought it was horrible, did everything to suppress it, while it was obviously a labor of love for director and cast, who GOT IT. Nowadays, they would have done three sequels.
A lot of 80s movies had pre-release drama, even the flicks which were wildly successful.
If you are a fan of that movie era, find a copy of the “Back in Time” documentary. The film is specifically about “Back to the Future”, but it does provide a glimpse into the studio thinking of that decade.
For a long time Lafayette LA didn’t have xray machines. EVERY bag got hand searched right in front of the check in counter. I spent 9 months flying in and out every week. Had some interesting conversations with the screeners. There were a surprising number of them. I didn’t even learn all their names in that time.
They’ve got machines now, and they always had them at the boarding area…
Small little airport…
n
The era of the “teen sex comedy” with full frontal nudity for young girls. Anyone REALLY doubt the rumors of pedophilia in Holly weird after watching the ’80s? Esp given documented cases like roman polanski?
It’s the era of my young adulthood, dating, cars, and making out. OF COURSE I love the 80s. Especially after the depressing nihilism of the 70’s cinema verite’.
nick
Eighties, schmaties…
Get your Seventies groove on right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiTn4Vv7Qmk
Reefer Madness was the height of cinema, if you ask me. It had everything: Drama, comedy, dancing, romance, and a firm moral message. We need more movies like Reefer Madness to restore good, solid American culture.
Hmmm, Revenge of the Nerds, Porky’s, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, all the Brat Pack, 16 Candles……
VS. The Omega Man, Soylent Green, Taxi Driver (more pedo), Silent Running, Vanishing Point fer f’s sake…… Trial of Billy Jack, hell, tons that were good, but oh man, you wanted to slit your wrists.
n
“… restore good, solid American culture.”
Good point.
I recommend Roman Polanski’s MacBeth, Bob Guccioni’s Caligula, and Ralph Bakshi’s Fritz the Cat, and Wizards.
And throw in the film version of Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip.
@ofd – Get your Seventies groove on right here:
Oh Angie!
You’re beautiful!
And from the Law Enforcement Department:
http://zerogov.com/?p=5043
I agree with the author that there will be some kind of tipping point. Not sure when or what, but it’s coming.
Enjoy with your morning coffee or tea, or:
“I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE32pvvaDT8
Woodpile Department:
http://woodpilereport.com/html/index-470.htm
Pax vobiscum, fratres
Brad wrote:
“Unless you have some other source of money, country living is damned hard.”
Dairy farmers in Oz are finding that out. Almost none of them are making a profit. I don’t know why they just don’t give up. A relative had a 180 acre dairy farm south of Adelaide, used to work very very hard, and the cows want to be miked twice a day, rain or shine.
“…I had the figure 800 miles in my mind, rather than the actual 500.”
Perhaps you read 500 miles, automatically converted to 800 km, and then forgot the unit.
Don’t mess with Indi!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-23/police-dog-almost-drowned-in-the-line-of-duty/8381604
I was aware of that. Before I had confirmation of the switch to digital communications for emergency services, I was thinking of programming my two meter equipment to work on county emergency frequencies. So if I couldn’t call 911, I could radio the dispatcher.
I encourage everyone to read the ARRL study guides and take the exams. At least the Technician exam. I’d say the exams are easy, but you’re probably not interested in the opinion of an Electrical Engineer who hasn’t done anything with analog electronics since college.
You need to get the license and practice using the stuff. I’ve learned important things since getting my license. RACES and ARES are sources of useful information. I now know things that I wish I didn’t. From a RACES meeting I found out that our county had to take the digital repeaters offline for two hours of planned maintenance. The only way emergency personnel could communicate was with personal cell phones. There was chaos. What happens if a tornado takes out the digital repeater and one or more cell phone towers? Then the only people with comms will be amateur radio operators.
Update: This was for a PLANNED two hour outage.
The local RACES leader suggested a mag mount antenna on top of the refrigerator.
“The local RACES leader suggested a mag mount antenna on top of the refrigerator.”
Also a good choice, metal ground plane, and a bit higher. Spousal approval is much harder to get than in your office though…
I think the Emergency Svcs learned the wrong lesson from 9/11. What they learned then was that they had no interoperability, and coordinating response to a major event is damn hard when no one can talk to anyone else.
So P25 digital comes along, and EVERYONE moves to digital trunked radio. Now you’ve got interop in spades, but everyone is on the same gear too. This is 100% dependent on towers, leased lines, radio relays, switches, and POWER. Unless individual radios are programmed with “talk around” there isn’t even a way for 2 radios 10 feet apart to talk if the repeater and network are down. This is a HUGE step backward in resilience and recover-ability.
In most places the plan is to depend on hams for msg traffic if it all goes in the pot. Cascadia Rising (huge MassEx) in the PacNW proved pretty conclusively that THIS WON’T WORK. Bits of it does. Parts were ok. But there are damn few hams compared to the traffic, they are by design amateurs with a mish-mash of gear, training, and attitude, and did I mention there are damn few compared to the need?
One of the takeaways from CR was that hams have been focusing closer to home with CERT teams, Red Cross, or Salvation Army, and there aren’t enough for ARES and RACES. There are also political reasons- ham radio is full of ‘personality’ and little groups get inbred…. ARES and RACES have been driving away volunteers in many areas for years.
Another takeaway from CR was that the scenarios assume everyone is fully staffed, AND THAT WASN’T ENOUGH. In reality, some people will be dead, some blocked from reporting, some will say “Fuck it, family comes first”, and staffing will be WAY under strength. It’s all fine to play first responder when your family is home safe and dry, much less fun when there is a tree branch in your living room, your wife and kids are scared, and the whole neighborhood is dark.
One bright spot is hams deploying digital modes in the field. It’s proven to be a huge advantage to be able to pass msg traffic as email, to pass pictures, and even in some cases video.
Hams and ordinary folks will undoubtedly step up in a disaster, they always have, but it isn’t gonna be smooth.
nick
(listening to the EMGT net checkin yesterday, it took over an hour just to do the ROLL CALL. That’s a LOT of folks on one system and one net.)
I saw this report on how “business friendly” some states are. I was amused to find our host’s home state and my home state are tied for number two. Also I made the mistake of reading the inane comments. Not all blogs are read by people as rational and intelligent as we are.
The comments were full of elitism and normalcy bias. Yes, California, New York and Illinois have a higher GDP than most of the business friendly states. They also have a much higher cost of living. I’ll happily stay in business friendly flyover country. I suspect that in the future GDP will grow faster in the business friendly states than it does in the non-business friendly states.
@dave, those comments were cogent and relevant compared to a lot of general sites 🙂
After all, no one called anyone Nazi or racist in the first 20 comments….
n
I would say operating a modern VHF rig is really no different from operating an old CB radio. HF is much less clear than VHF or an old CB. While I agree that VHF will suffice for 98% of communications. There are situations where HF will be useful if not essential. If you’re making the decision to bug out or not, your bug out location is probably not within VHF range. I understand that bugging out is a last resort. But HF could provide crucial information to inform a bug out decision. Receiving HF can provide useful information about how widespread a disaster is without transmitting.
If I were arranging an agreement to bug out with another prepper, I’d want to be able to contact them so that we don’t both decide to bug out to the other’s location. I’d probably prefer digital HF modes like WinLink for those short communications, and live with the risk of the communication being intercepted.
Keep in mind all this is coming from a General class licensee with only a handheld VHF rig.
Well, since Dave mentioned it, I’ll go back there…
“Operating a modern HF rig is really no different from operating an old CB radio. Pick a channel, push-to-talk, and that’s about it. You can figure it out as you go.”
I’d disagree strongly with this statement, with a very narrow caveat- it is simple compared to using an OLD rig, with tubes, plate and grid voltages, bandwidth selectors, crystals, that all needed setting and tuning.
There are no channels as such, it’s sometimes hard to even find anyone to talk to, and antennas and propagation are the biggest factor in success. Without some understanding of where and when to point your antenna, what type of antenna to use, what mode to use, even what frequency bands are likely to be open at any given time, etc, you’re just heating up the sky. This can all vary day to day, minute by minute, but has rules of thumb and actual operating experience is critical to success with this.
Modern FM radios on VHF or UHF are straightforward to use, but even then, given the number of youtube videos, online guides, cheat sheets, simplified manuals, etc that have been made available, they are not EASY for a lot of people.
HF is a whole ‘nuther ball o wax with a much higher requirement in gear, knowledge, and effort.
n
Nick, a CB radio IS an HF rig, running on the 11-meter band. Yes, a 10-meter ham rig requires you to choose a frequency rather than a channel, but it’s basically the same otherwise.
Note that I’m talking primarily about mobile 10-meter rigs,which are not primarily intended for long-distance comms. For long-distance comms, I’m firmly in the listen-only school. If you think you need to talk long-distance, think again.
I’d actually be content with 2-meter mobile/portable rigs for local comms. As long as the repeaters remain up, they’re good for county-wide and beyond. But they are LOS, and 10-meter rigs buy you some ground-wave propagation.
And, yes, I’m from the old-school group that had to worry about plate voltages and so on. Back when I was working ham, most people other than doctors and lawyers built their own equipment because they couldn’t afford commercial transmitters and amplifiers. But for all but the most skilled, HF and maybe VHF was the limit for home-built. UHF required such short leads and picky soldering that it was beyond most hams. UHF bands didn’t really start to get popular until affordable commercial gear was available for them.
Yep, I get it that CB is HF, and I see a great deal of CB being used if SHTF. It’s still used today by truckers in material yards, and for some reason all the landscapers around here have CBs. It’s also popular with off-roaders, and there is the whole “free bander” thing that some ‘liberty minded’ folks seem to think is a secret miracle for liberty and militia types. Narcotrafficantes like it too. If you want official attention, 10 and 11 meters are certainly a place to be…
CB is primarily AM, except among afficionados and freebanders, while HF is mostly NOT AM voice anymore. (used in the sense that most HF is SSB, not full AM.)
10m mobile is not much of a thing anymore. There are multibanders that include it, but I can’t think of a stand alone new rig. (except the illegal imports favored by the freebanders) Anyway it’s not something I ever hear talked about…
And I’m comfortable that short of complete collapse or martial law, esp in the most likely scenarios for my area, there are good reasons why I might want to have comms out of the region.
nick
See, the thing is, there’ll always be a lot of guys like you and a lot of guys like me. If I don’t have two-way HF capability that won’t be a problem because someone else nearby will. No one can think of everything, do everything, and focus on everything. That’s why community would be so critically important if the SHTF.
“See, the thing is, there’ll always be a lot of guys like you and a lot of guys like me.”
Ah, and there it is. (Unless that guy is blowing your opsec…) we who HAVE taken steps to prepare will need to find each other, and combine at least in minimal ways, if not in more formal ways.
Depending on the scenario you envision, that might be REALLY hard. If the scenario is bad enough, anyone who makes it thru will likely have some common ground, but in lots of reasonable scenarios, your biggest risk is other people, local to you. The guy in Michigan isn’t a risk to me, if he can’t get here, but the guy at the end of the block who is starving is. So while acknowledging that ‘no man is an island’ and ‘lone wolves die alone’, I also have to try to be self sufficient and insulated. Difficult balance there.
I take opsec risks because I want MORE people to start prepping, with the idea that anyone who does is at least that much less likely to become a threat to me and others like me.
It goes to the age old question, how do I find LMIs? Maybe we need a secret handshake. Or maybe we have our own tells. I know I am conscious of several, and I wear them as a flag as well as for practicality.
Some, not all, and different at times
Clip knife, front pocket, strong hand. PROTIP- second knife for weak hand….
Dive or sports type watch. PROTIP- paracord band
Sturdy shoes or mid rise boots PROTIP- tacticals
Cargo Pants. PROTIP- 5.11, propper, under armor, or other tactical brand
Sturdy belt PROTIP- ‘instructor’ or rigger style
Visible or printing pistol PROTIP- WELL HOLSTERED! not mexican carry!
Cover garment PROTIP- NOT a ‘shoot me first’ vest!
Command presence- eh, maybe not, spot the Fed isn’t always a survival trait
Flashlight PROTIP- doubles as a weapon
Anything with a compass worn as an accessory
Codewords-
EDC
BOV
LTS
BOB
freeze drieds
mountain house
CAT
israeli bandage
blowout kit/trauma bag
fiat currency
PMs
Around the house-
food stored in buckets
food on industrial shelves
blue or white barrels
medical supplies
full pantry
cast iron cookware (can be a false signifier but a dutch oven is a pretty good bet )
food under the bed
antennas
Not good indicators-
security cams
garden
rainwater catchment
prius
Stay away until more reconn-
magpul sticker on vehicle
HK/glock/etc sticker on vehicle
zombie hunter permit on vehicle
political screed written on vehicle in marker or paint
open discussion of ‘fields of fire’ wrt house
mismatched military logos or mix of services clothing (navy hat, marines tshirt)
tacticals on fat guys
Did I miss any?
nick
Hmmm. None of those apply to me. I guess I’m grayer than shit.
But Bob, you rarely leave the house at all anymore…
And to be honest, I have a mental picture of you with a 1911 in a high belt holster and a vest, with your pipe in the upper left side pocket.
Don’t know why.
n
Actually, a custom Milt Sparks pancake that’s 40 years old. He made several to test, of which I got one, but decided he couldn’t produce them at a reasonable price.
My own “tells,” maybe:
Knives: none visible. I have a Hoffmann-Richter folder in my right front pocket, along with a Leatherman Micra and my house and mailbox key.
Watch: Yeah, a sporty Casio. No paracord.
Sturdy shoes/mid-rise boots: check. In summer, low-rise hikers.
Cargo pants, sturdy belt: check. It’s a very strong gun belt. (Beltman)
Pistol printing: with the S&W 9mm Shield not so much, unless under a summer t-shirt. Larger stuff like the CZ P09 and Glock G40 (10mm/long slide), yeah, unless under heavy winter coats. The Glock is turning out to be the bedside handgun, along with a Mossberg pistol-grip 20-gauge with a light attached. I took the light/laser gizmos off all the pistols and am going to tritium night sights.
No “shoot me first!” vests or jackets.
No “command presence,” per se, though I am aware of still giving off the hyper-vigilant cop vibes when I’m in public places. I sometimes spot other mofos doing that same thing and we occasionally make eye contact and leave it at that.
A Feenix PD35 flashlight in my left front pocket with a Bic lighter.
Heavy-duty gauze bandages in one cargo pocket, tourniquet in the other.
Food storage in the cellar is on industrial-type stainless steel shelving. Plenty of cast-iron cookware and enameled-iron cookware (La Creuset).
No “security cams” yet, but I do have solar motion-detector floods at various points. And our piddly little garden, mostly flowers that wife likes. And our crappy second-hand lumber raised beds and grow-bags. We’ll rehab this whole mess when the snow and mud clear off and I’ll be starting seeds in our windows this week and also looking around at garden centers that have plants that grow nicely in this particular climate.
I took off all the vet and gun stickers from my vehicle after I had to get rid of the Dodge Ram truck and now there’s just a couple of sportsfan stickers on there, you know, Patriots, Red Sox, Lake Monsters, Paw-Sox (the minor-league teams). Silver RAV4, I’m just a harmless old guy, wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Looking at various vehicle gun mounts and placement of same with my long legs and big feet and the advisability of keeping it low-profile. Hard to draw from a waist holster while seated.
Around the house and out and about I’m usually wearing them handy-dandy pants, a plaid flannel shirt, maybe some kinda sweatshirt, and a jacket depending on the temp on any given day. And a baseball-type hat worn with the bill facing straight forward and down on the top of my glasses. Usually a sportsfan thing, but for the vet group stuff we all wear different mil-spec stuff, mostly from the ‘Nam era. So around there, that’s a key “tell,” haha.
31 and sunny w/blue skies and temps in the high 30s and low 40s into next week. Gotta get cracking on starting some seeds, and work on as much chit as I can in and around the house, while also cramming for the Tech and General licenses and my FFL.