So, I've started delving into the world of supplements to enhance my lucid dreaming progress. So far, I've been using Galantamine and Choline Bitartrate 1-2 times a week, over the past 3 weeks, with some great success (I only had one instance that it didn't do much for me).
I'm wanting to work with supplements for awhile to help give me enough of a boost to give me a chance to develop some of the lucidity skills I've been struggling to develop. I intend to start phasing out the supplements after awhile, but I'm not sure when yet. However, I am worried about developing a resistance to a single supplement, and have been wondering if it would be worth it to buy a "backup" supplement in the form of Huperzine-A to switch out with the Galantamine now and again.
Obviously, I wouldn't take them together and at the same time, but has anyone tried this method? I've been digging around online but haven't found anything about whether it would be safe/effective to do. I'm thinking of using 1 supplement 2, maybe sometimes 3 times during 1 week, the other supplement on the next week, etc, to give them a chance to clear out of my system before continuing.
Edit: I just realized I should have put this in the Lucid Aids sub-forum. Apologies!
via Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Attaining Lucidity http://ift.tt/2CgDcVn
SpaceX just concluded 2017 by launching 10 Iridium NEXT satellites. A footnote on the launch was the “hosted payload” on board each of the satellites: a small box of equipment from Aireon. They will track every aircraft around the world in real-time, something that has been technically possible but nobody claimed they could do it economically until now.
Challenge one: avoid adding cost to aircraft. Instead of using expensive satcom or adding dedicated gear, Aireon listen to ADS-B equipment already installed as part of international air traffic control modernization. But since ADS-B was designed for aircraft-to-aircraft and aircraft-to-ground, Aireon had some challenges to overcome. Like the fact ADS-B antenna is commonly mounted on the belly of an aircraft blocking direct path to satellite.
Challenge two: hear ADS-B everywhere and do it for less. Today we can track aircraft when they are flying over land, but out in the middle of the ocean, there are no receivers in range except possibly other aircraft. Aireon needed a lot of low-orbit satellites to ensure you are in range no matter where you are. Piggybacking on Iridium gives them coverage at a fraction of the cost of building their own satellites.
These Iridium launches also create exactEarth, a maritime counterpart to Aireon that track ships via their AIS broadcast. The remaining Iridium NEXT satellites – and with them, these listening nodes – will launch next year to complete the network. Hopefully mysteries like Malaysia Airlines 370 will never happen again.
You don’t need a satellite network to join in the fun. You can listen to these data signals right where you are. We have a guide for receiving ADS-B sent by airplanes, and a guide for receiving AIS sent by ships.
Before cell phones, pagers were the way to communicate on the go. At first, they were almost a status symbol. Eventually, they became the mark of someone who couldn’t or wouldn’t carry a cell phone. However, apparently, there are still some users that clutch their pagers with a death grip, including medical professionals. In an art project called HolyPager, [Brannon Dorsey] intercepted all the pager messages in a city and printed them on a few old-style roll printers. The results were a little surprising. You can check out the video below.
Almost all the pages were medical and many of them had sensitive information. From a technical standpoint, [Brannon’s] page doesn’t shed much light, but an article about the project says that it and other art projects that show the hidden world or radio waves are using our old friend the RTL-SDR dongle.
Pagers use a protocol — POCSAG — that predates our modern (and well-founded) obsession with privacy and security. That isn’t surprising although the idea that private medical data is flying through the air like this is. Decoding POCSAG isn’t hard. GNU Radio, for example, can easily handle the task.
We’ve looked at pager hacking in the past. You can even run your own pager network, but don’t blame us if you get fined.
It is a staple of spy movies. The hero — or sometimes the bad guy — sticks a device never any bigger than an Alka Seltzer to a vehicle or a person and then tracks it anywhere it goes in the world. Real world physics makes it hard to imagine a device like that for a lot of reasons. Tiny power supplies mean tiny lifetime and low power. Tiny antennas and low power probably add up to short range. However, [Tom’s] Hackaday.io project maybe as close as you can get to a James Bond-style tracker. You can see a video of the device, below.
The little transmitter is smaller than a thumbnail — not counting the antenna and the battery — and draws very little current (180 uA). As you might expect, the range is not great, but [Tom] says with a Yagi and an RTL-SDR he can track the transmitter on 915 MHz for about 400 meters.
As you might expect, the circuit is simple. A low frequency oscillator (about a half hertz) triggers an RF oscillator with a SAW resonator. A bipolar transistor drives a simple whip antenna. The schematic and some more details are over on Instructables.
Thanks to the half-hertz timing, you get a beep about every two seconds which is probably good for battery life and sufficient for tracking. Just don’t expect a GPS coordinate tracker that you can receive from your secret lair a half a world away and you’ll be fine.
If you have more space and power, you can get a little closer to the spy’s dream tracker, but only a little. If you want to track something with a live USB port, you can always see how much you can jam into a USB drive casing.
When the SHTF, information will become a very powerful commodity. Initially, the breaking news about the doomsday disaster will likely blare from the television screen, radio, the internet in general and social media platforms in particular. But, those high tech methods of communications so many people currently take for granted, will almost assuredly cease within possibly hours to days after the apocalyptic event began.
There really isn’t a single SHTF scenario that will not, sooner or later, impact or completely take down the power grid. Whether the disaster is natural or man-made, or even a pandemic, at some point, workers will be unable to too fearful, to return to their place of employment.
After the initial stages of the doomsday disaster, local news is going to probably become far more important and critical to your survival than national news. If we are in the midst of a Red Dawn type World War 3 scenario, you will want to know how the battle is going everywhere on American soil, but learning about hostilities occurring in or near your neck of the woods, will be an immediate and ongoing necessity.
Whether your are bugging in or bugging out, knowing what is going on around you should be a priority. The news you collect will guide you to making informed decisions that will impact both the immediate and long-term survival of your family or mutual assistance group.
If modern communications systems go down immediately after a SHTF scenario, a communications plan – and a low tech backup, should be practiced and in place. The odds of you and your loved ones being all together or at home when the apocalypse hits are at the very best, 50 percent.
Concerns about children, especially young children, being away from home at school for the bulk of each day has prompted a growing number of preppers to educate their offspring at home. Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, but some states have a multitude of obstacles parents seeking to take control of their childrens’ education, must hurdle before opening up a home classroom.
2 Meter and 10 Meter 2-Way Radios
Purchasing quality long-range 2-way radios will allow you to pick up the communications of others in your area, public alerts, (as long as they are still broadcasting) keep in touch with loved ones as they make their way to either your bugging in location or to a meeting point before journeying to the bu gout location.
The 2-way radios will also be extremely useful when monitoring the perimeter or your survival retreat and when part of the family or group is off-site to hunt, fish, or go scavenging. The radio must be stored properly in a Faraday cage to harden them against an EMP doomsday disaster and a multitude of batteries and/or chargers also stored properly and a means of re-charging the radios – solar generator, etc.
A private family or mutual group channels switching system and communications code should also be developed to keep your location and conversations as covert as possible when necessary. Once you garner a list of frequencies (both national and local are highly recommended) you should be able to hear all public services “traffic” – meaning communications, by police, firefighters, EMS, and emergency alerts filtered through a county law enforcement dispatch service.
FRS/GMRS Radios
The Family Radio Service was created in the mid-1990s. The same frequencies are now commonly used by retail stores and other commercial facilities or communication between workers. They radios are basically an upgraded walkie talkie and utilize channelized frequencies. Both General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) and FRS radios use UHF, or high frequency channels.
Typically, models of both radios come with DCS CTSS squelch codes. The squelch function allows the user to eliminate unwanted traffic. Most FRS radios have a one-fourth to 1 and a half mile usage range. GMR radios can transmit a little further, but the surrounding terrain will impact their signal capabilities.
FRS and GMRS Frequencies
• Channels 1 through 7 are reserve for both GMRS and FRS radio transmissions.
• Channels 8 through 14 are designate FRS frequencies only.
• Channels 15 through 22 require a license issued by the FCC to utilize and are reserved exclusively for GMRS radios.
• Cellphones – The cellular phone system cannot be relied upon as a primary or sole means of communication during a SHTF disaster. We can all remember how jammed the system became after the 9/11 terror attack – even though the power grid was not impacted.
But, using the phones to attempt a phone call or a text message, should still be a part of the overall prepping communications plan. There are also several free apps that turn a cellphone into a decent short-range (about 2 to 3 miles) 2-way radio.
To ensure you can use your cellphones as a means of high tech communication as long as possible, store them in a small and portable Faraday cage when they are not in use, purchase extra charging cords, car adapter ends, and portable chargers – the type that can be powered either by batteries or via plugging into a USB port on a computer or charger adapter. The portable chargers should all be stored in a Faraday cage at home, the car, in a purse, briefcase, or backpack, and at work.
• Citizens Band (CB) Radios – These 1970s popular devices are still around and do not contain the same degree of sensitive components that modern 2-way radios and cellphones do. Still, they should be stored properly, along with repair parts, in a Faraday cage until needed.
• Weather Radios – NOAA broadcasts share both weather and emergency alerts. There are about 425 NOAA transmitters in the United States and our territories. NOAA operates on seven different frequencies and often use local HAM radio operators as weather spotters and to share early warning alerts during disasters.
• Satellite Phones – These pricey pieces of modern communications technology will probably work longer than cellphones during a SHTF scenario, but would be damaged by a solar flare or EMP as well, if not stored properly in a Faraday cage.
• Drones – These popular toys for children and adults can now be purchased for anywhere between $50 to $500 – with models possessing a decent range, typically available for around $100 each. Expensive drones come equipped with a camera, but more affordable models have a carriage to hold a smart phone that can be used to view and record photos and videos via an app. Flying the drone away from your bug out location or prepping retreat will give you valuable insight about any approaching threats and general activity outside of your immediate vicinity.
• HAM Radio – The network of HAM radio operators both around the country and the world, will likely offer the most valuable and in-depth intelligence concerning the broader scope and fallout of the SHTF disaster. The typical and nominally priced 5-watt HAM radio has the capability to transmit approximately 10 to 15 miles over relatively flat ground. When a HAM radio is operating using a communications repeater tower, its signal can sometimes travel halfway across the United States.
Operating a HAM radio requires training and a license – at least in a pre-SHTF world. Taking the time to garner the training will allow you to network with other operators and establish a friendly relations now that will hopefully translate into a reliable information relay resource after disaster strikes.
• Listening or Viewing Only Devices – “Bugs” placed in on your mailbox or other structure near a road could alert you to conversations by potential attackers. Trail cameras and home surveillance systems could also be your eyes and in some cases, even your ears, around the perimeter of your survival retreat.
CB Radios Operation Tips and Frequencies
• The “squelch” serves as the control mechanism for incoming communications. You can set the squelch to off when not in use to eliminate radio static noise. The squelch can also be set to constantly receive any frequency signals in range – or the strongest signals.
• A CB radio can be used in either a vehicle or the home. Most radios come complete with a mounting bracket, microphone, and power cord.
• An antenna is required for a citizens band radio to function. The better and bigger the antenna, the more likely you are to get access to strong signals.
• A SWR meter is also a necessary component for CB radio and is usually sold separately. The SWR meter allows you to properly adjust and tune the radio antenna. If you do not tune the antenna properly, you will not only receive poor performance, but could also damage the CB radio.
• Many varieties of citizens band radio models also boast a public address system mode. An external public address horn must be purchased and attached to the vehicle (or home) in order for the loud speaker function to work via a weatherproof speaker. For OPSEC reasons, you would not use a CB public address horn on any type of regular basis, but in an emergency situation you could use to reach neighbors and members of the family and mutual assistance group who are experiencing 2-way radio problems.
CB Channels Preppers Should Monitor
CB Channel Frequency Details
• Channel 3 26.985 MHz Prepper CB Network (AM)
• Channel 4 27.005 MHz American Pepper’s Network
• Channel 9 27.065 MHz REACT Channel for emergency citizens band radio usage
• Channel 13 27.115 MHz Boaters, RV fans, and campers often chat on this channel.
• Channel 14 27.125 MHz Federal Motor Coach Association channel
• Channel 15 27.135 MHz Popular with California truck drivers
• Channel 16 27.155 MHz ATV clubs often use this channel
• Channel 17 27.165 MHz Channel popular with truck drivers
• Channel 19 27.185 MHz Channels popular with truckers nationwide
• Channel 37 27.375 MHz Prepper 37 channel
• QRL – This code has a dual purpose, to ask if the frequency is busy and also to alert others that the frequency is in use and not to interfere with the traffic at that time.
• QRM – The code is used to indicate there is interference from other radio signals.
• QRN – This code is used to indicate static is occurring on the frequency from either a natural or man-made source.
• QRO – A HAM radio operator uses this code to alert others to an increase in power or to request a power increase.
• QRP – An operator uses this code to request a decrease in power or to alert others to a power decrease.
• QRQ – A code to ask another user to share information more quickly.
• QRS – This code is used to request a slower exchange of information.
• QRT – A HAM radio operator uses this code to ask if someone has stopped transmitting information or to request they do so.
• QRU – This code is used as a both a question or response to about the availability of additional information.
• QRV – This code can mean either the user is ready for information to be sent or asking if the other uses is ready to receive information.
• QRX – This code requests another operator to standby.
• QRZ – This is a request for the operator sending information to identify themselves.
• QSL – This means the information sent was both received and understood.
• QSB – A HAM operator uses this code to notify others that the signal is fading.
• QST – This is the “all code” to alert HAM operators a message or alert is about to be sent.
• QSX – This is used to notify operators of a frequency change and is followed by the channel which will be used to share more information.
• QTH – A HAM operator uses this code as an alert before revealing a location or a request for another operator to share his or her location.
HAM Radio Frequencies Preppers Should Monitor
FREQ MODE LOCATION
03845.0 LSB Gulf Coast West Hurricane
03862.5 LSB Mississippi Section Traffic
03865.0 LSB West Virginia Emergency
03872.5 LSB Mercury Amateur Radio – hurricane emergency channel
03873.0 LSB West Gulf ARES Emergency (primarily night usage)
03873.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane Emergency
03910.0 LSB Central Texas Emergency
03915.0 LSB South Carolina SSB NTS
03923.0 LSB Mississippi and North Carolina Emergency
03925.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane Emergency
03927.0 LSB North Carolina Emergency
03940.0 LSB Southern Florida Emergency
03944.0 LSB West Gulf Emergency
03950.0 LSB Hurricane Watch Northern Florida Emergency.
03955.0 LSB South Texas Emergency
03960.0 LSB North East Coast Hurricane
03965.0 LSB Alabama Emergency
03975.0 LSB Georgia and Texas Emergency
03993.5 LSB Gulf Coast Health and Welfare
03993.5 LSB South Carolina Emergency
07145.0 LSB Bermuda Emergency
07165.0 LSB Antigua/Antilles Emergency
07235.0 LSB Louisiana Emergency
07240.0 LSB Red Cross United States Gulf Coast Disaster, Texas Emergency
07242.0 LSB Southern Florida Emergency
07243.0 LSB Alabama Emergency and South Carolina Emergency
07245.0 LSB Southern Louisiana Emergency
07247.5 LSB Northern Florida Emergency
07248.0 LSB Texas Emergency
07250.0 LSB Texas Emergency
07254.0 LSB Northern Florida Emergency
07264.0 LSB Gulf Coast Health and Welfare
07265.0 LSB Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio
07273.0 LSB Texas Emergency
07275.0 LSB Georgia Emergency
07280.0 LSB NTS Region 5, Louisiana Emergency
07285.0 LSB Mississippi an Texas ARES Emergency
340.20 USB Navy Aviators Channel
07290.0 LSB Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi Emergency
14185.0 USB Caribbean Emergency
319.40 USB Air Force Channel
14222.0 USB Health and Welfare
138.225 USB FEMA Emergency Channel
14268.0 USB Amateur Radio Readiness Group
14275.0 USB Bermuda and International HAM Radio
14300.0 USB Intercontinental Traffic
409.625 USB United States Department of State national communication channel
14303.0 USB International Assistance
14313.0 USB Intercontinental Traffic and Maritime
14316.0 USB Health and Welfare
14320.0 USB Health and Welfare
14325.0 USB Hurricane Watch
34.96.0 USB Inter-agency communication channels for both state and local police departments
34.90.0 USB National Guard Emergency Frequency
14265.0 USB Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio
14340.0 USB Louisiana Emergency
168.55.0 USB Civilian agencies that work with the federal government emergency channel
243.00 USB Military aviation emergency channel
164.50.0 USB Department of Housing and Urban Development Channel
Radios, cellphones, and even the internet (satellites) all operate off of repeaters. The repeaters, which are basically massive antennas built into a tower, are designed to operate on generator power in the case of a blackout or other power grid down type emergency disaster.
If the apocalyptic event was due to a solar flare or man-made EMP attack, the power may never come back on – and quite possibly damaging the repeaters beyond repair. If the SHTF even had nothing to do with an EMP yet the power grid still failed, most high tech modes of communication would only remain operational while the generators supporting them kept on humming.
Low Tech Intelligence Acquisition Systems
Just like with all things prepping, extensive planning of a low tech communications system needs to occur, and be practiced so it will function properly during a SHTF and enhance the chances of survival. Going into pre-programmed mode without hesitation will require training, especially if dealing with children, but is necessary to avoid panic when typical lines of communication fail during a disaster situation.
Communication System Planning Tips
1. Each member of the family or mutual assistance group must learn what is expected of them during a doomsday disaster. Who do they contact, what methods should they use and in what order, and how long are they supposed to wait for a response before moving on, are just some of the questions your loved ones must know the answer to before being placed in harm’s way.
2. When and how to defy authority must also be addressed if you have school age children or grandchildren who are not educated at home. The odds of a school allowing a child to simply leave the building without an adult, even if an older sibling is walking with them, are slim to none. A child must know how long to wait for mom or dad to show up and how to alert parents that might be coming after they flee the school that they have left on their own and what route they are traveling to reach safety.
3. Rendezvous points might be compromised or unreachable. Each member of the family must know where a backup meeting point is located and how to leave a message for loved ones who will come behind that no one else will understand.
Low Tech Messaging Tips
• Spray Paint – Leaving messages, either using code words or symbols, can easily and quickly be accomplished by spraying paint onto a roadway, building, or other pre-determined or large landmark. Mini spray paint cans or paint pens are small enough to carry in a child’s backpack, men’s pocket, or woman’s purse.
• Colored Bandanas – This is a simply and light weight form of low tech and non-verbal method of communication. A color-coded key the family carries with them – or better yet, memorizes, can relay a simple message when tied to a tree, hidden under or by a landmark, or tied to a sign. Bandanas are cheap and can be purchased by color in bulk online. Colored bed linens can be cut into strips and used to communicate a message to loved ones as well.
• Emergency Caches – PVC pipe filled with messaging material (pen and paper, colored bandanas, spray paint, etc.) and some basic survival supplies can be buried in a shallow trench along routes frequently traveled by the family members. Coded notes can be left inside the cache or in a pre-determined spot for loved ones who may be following or searching for a missing member of the family.
When the older of us think of radio, we think of dialing in an FM or AM station. Giant broadcast towers strewn throughout the countryside radiated electromagnetic waves modulated with music, talk and sports across our great land. Youngsters out there might be surprised that such primitive technology still exists. Though the static of an untuned AM receiver might be equivalent to the dial tone of a 56K modem, it’s still a major part of our society.
Like all technology, radio has transitioned to faster and better ways of sending information. Today we have digital radio stations – one of the most popular being iHeartRadio. And because it’s digital, it can also send along info other than audio, such as weather and traffic information.
The guys over at [KYDronePilot] have made use of this to display real-time weather and traffic maps with an SDR and a little Python. They’re new to Python, so be sure to check out their GitHub, grab a copy of the code, and let them know if you see room for improvement.
This hack is based on recent work decoding the digital data, which is worth checking out if you’re interested in SDR, DSP, or any other radio-related acronyms.
We’re not sure what to make of this one. With the variety of smartwatches and fitness trackers out there, we can’t be surprised by what sort of hardware ends up strapped to wrists these days. So a watch with an RPN calculator isn’t too much of a stretch. But adding a hex editor? And a disassembler? Oh, and while you’re at it, a transceiver for the 70cm ham band? Now that’s something you don’t see every day.
The mind boggles at not only the technical prowess needed to pull off what [Travis Goodspeed (KK4VCZ)] calls the GoodWatch, but at the thought process that led to all these features being packed into the case of a Casio calculator watch. But a lot of hacking is more about the “Why not?” than the “Why?”, and when you start looking at the feature set of the CC430F6137 microcontroller [Travis] chose, things start to make sense. The chip has a built-in RF subsystem, intended no doubt to enable wireless sensor designs. The GoodWatch20 puts the transceiver to work in the 430-MHz band, implementing a simple low-power (QRP) beacon. But the real story here is in the hacks [Travis] used to pull this off, like using flecks of Post-It notes to probe the LCD connections, and that he managed to stay within the confines of the original case.
There’s some real skill here, and it makes for an interesting read. And since the GoodWatch is powered by a coin cell, we think it’d be a great entry for our Coin Cell Challenge contest.
Gathering together with friends and family during Christmas time can be a prime opportunity to introduce preparedness into their lives – or expand on a small interest in survival and the skills they already possess.
We can do far more than simply hand our loved ones an Alice packed filled with gear that costs us a small fortune and they won’t know how to use, anyway. Giving a gift, no matter how nice and well-intended, will not help save the lives of those we care about if it is simply tossed into a closet to gather dust.
Sure, they might recalled where the bag or similar item, was tossed a few years back, but grabbing the gear when in the midst of panic because the SHTF, is definitely not the time to open it up and try to figure out how to use all the survival supplies still packed carefully inside.
Top Ways To Give the Gift of Preparedness This Christmas
Give Multi-Purpose Gifts
Instead of wrapping up a gas mask to give a non-prepping loved one, buy or make a gift that is an essential part of living a prepared life, but does not necessarily wreak “SURVIVALIST.” Teaching those folks we want to live through a doomsday disaster how to do it will require baby steps, if they are not at all currently inclined to embrace our self-reliance mindset.
• Car emergency kit in a caddy you make or buy. This is a perfect preparedness gift for a teenage driver, an adult child going off to college, or someone who has a lengthy commute to work, or drives long distances for vacation.
Several years ago my husband bought white 5-gallon buckets, painted a red cross on them, and carefully packed a bunch of emergency car items inside, for all of the teenagers and young adults in the family. They all loved the gift, and enjoyed digging through their buckets and asking questions about all of the treasures they found inside.
He included a small amount of silver so they could barter for gas or other essentials during an emergency situation.
• Bread machines also make great preparedness gifts. Learning how to make bread, even if using electricity to do it, will help enhance the self-reliance skill set of a loved one. You can buy or make (printed recipes placed in a binder) a bread making cookbook that is filled with pioneer style recipes that also offer instructions on how to make bread and baked goods the old-fashioned way, without the aid of modern technology.
• Buy a sewing machine and some basic supplies, including a binder full of free patterns downloaded from the internet. Learning how to sew using modern technology will still teach the basic skills needed to sew by hand or using a manual machine. I recently scored one at an auction for a cheap price, parts are still available for them and they are really a lot easier to use than I thought.
• Build or buy a small forge to introduce the basics of blacksmithing to a loved one.
• If the loved one lives on property that has ample firewood available, yet the person does not have a fireplace, buy or build an attractive fire ring or self-contained patio version of the same and a nice ax (decorate the ax by adding an engraved or wood burnt design on the handle) to start introducing outdoor skills to the loved one.
• Solar charger that can handle powering a cellphone, emergency radio, or similar electronics.
• A gardening kit in a bucket. Sew a tool caddy onto the bucket and put some seed packets, a gardening book (printout in binder) and some planting hand tools inside. The introduction to growing your own groceries could inspire the loved one to expand their gardening skills further.
• Give the loved one a chicken – ok, maybe not to take home with them, but buy or hatch a chick that belongs to them – and so will all the eggs the hen produces. Give a photo of the chick to the love one to keep and email or text photos and videos of the chick as it grows. Hopefully, the love one will be intrigued by their gift and start coming over to your homestead/prepper retreat to spend time with the chicken and collect their own eggs. Present the gift with some of your own farm fresh eggs inside an attractive egg-collecting basket.
• Make a target or an entire target range, for friends and family who enjoy shooting guns and bows. You can paint a deer onto a piece of plywood, make hanging and moving targets out of painted tin cans and milk jugs. Paint interesting targets on an old sheet, cut them apart, and secure them to a bale of straw for a cheap and fun bow target.
• Forage some seasonal goodies from the woods and put them in an attractive container along with a field guide the loved one can use to find their own free food. If possible, make a delicious smelling soup, stew, or meat rub using the forage food to include with the gift.
• Make a batch of mead or wine in your still and give it along with either a complete still or directions on how to make one, to a love one you want to inspire to become more self-reliant.
• Using an old pallet, make a vertical herb garden and gift it to a non-prepping loved one.
• Build a cold frame out of scrap wood an an old window and gift it along with a bucket of compost and seeds to a gardening fan who would enjoy learning how to start their own seeds or expand their growing season.
• Need a big gift for an adult child or their entire family? Dig them a pond and stock it with fish. Present a homemade gift card for the stocked pond along with a fishing pole or cookbook designed for anglers.
• Buy a tent and or camping supplies and give it along with a gift card for a nearby state park.
• Have a loved one that already enjoys gardening but doesn’t can their harvest? Get them started with a basic set of canning tools and a cookbook filled with recipes – or a printout of your own recipes placed inside of a binder.
• Build a bench, cabinet, or piece of outdoor furniture and present it to the loved one with a gift card for free woodworking training sessions.
• Put a compass, binoculars, emergency whistle, a homemade walking stick and handmade map inside of an Alice pack. The map will lead the loved one to the rest of their gift that you have hidden in the woods.
• Make an attractive wood crate and fill it with canned and dehydrated goodies from your garden. Present it with a photo of an outlined patch of dirt with the loved one’s name spray painted on the grass to mark the area you are gifting them during the next growing season.
• During your annual Christmas party, feed the guests only long-term storage food to eat. Give each loved one their own packet of long-term storage food to take home with them.
• Give a sampler of essential oils and spices in an attractive basket or wood box along with a printed guide of how to use them to make natural home remedies.
• Make a health and beauty kit filled with homemade toothpaste, shampoo, household cleaners, skin care items, chap stick, and similar items along with directions for how to make the natural care and cleaning items themselves.
• Hand tools, like a manually-powered drill, pocket augers, etc. for the men on your Christmas list that love tools, but only know how to use the kind that plug into the wall.
• A set of cast iron cookware and a cookbook on how to use and season their indoor/outdoor cookware.
• Attractive composting pail with a lid and a printout of how to cultivate quality soil, how to test the soil, and the best items to compost.
• A grinding mill with a cookbook full of recipes to use when making your own wheat flour, cornmeal, and acorn flour – along with a delicious fresh out of the oven bread you made after grinding your own flour. Present the gift with an attractive bag of dried corn, wheat berries, or acorns.
• Oil lamps. Fill them with colorful oil, put a pretty lamp cover on them, and include a printout that details how to make lamp oil using olive oil, vegetable oil, and how to make your own wicks.
• A miniature fruit tree or non-native dwarf fruit tree in a container that can be moved indoors during the winter.
Cut starts from your own native fruit trees and berry bushes and present them with an attractive wood sign that can be staked into the ground. Put a catchy phrase, the loved one’s name, or other personal message on the sign that will be placed at the entrance to the fruit grove. If only a single tree or a few bushes can be planted due to the smallness of the loved one’s yard, that is fine too, and still worthy of an attractive sign as part of the gift.
• Give a fermentation crock along with a cookbook of recipes that can be made using the crock.
• Expand the knowledge of an avid canner in your family by giving them a cookbook that will teach them Amish or off grid methods of food preservation – along with some extra Mason jars or lids, can’t ever have too many of those!
• Fill a bucket or basket with homemade fire starters for the folks on your list who have a wood burner or fireplace, or already enjoy camping. Give a printout with directions on how to make your own fire starters.
• Give a squeeZo food mill along with a cookbook teaching them how to make their own jams, jellies, and tomato juice.
• Expand upon the woodworking or wood cutting outdoors skills a loved one already has and buy them a portable sawmill attachment for his or her chainsaw so they cut their own boards.
• Have a loved one that already keeps chickens? Spend just a few dollars to purchase plans detailing how to build their own egg incubator – add a gift card for the supplies required if it fits your budget.
• Give a dinner and a movie – a survival movie and a complete meal comprise only of long-term storage food, including a powdered drink and ice cream or some other sweet dessert.
Arts and Craft Survival Skill Building Kits
While having fun making something cool, any man,woman, or child who receives these kits will be learning a new skill that can come in handy after the SHTF.
• Leather craft kit
• Knife making kit
• Pottery wheel
• Bow making kit – you can make a recurve or even a compound bow, out of PVC pipe and a few other easy to find and cheap materials.
• Buy a reloading kit for the guy and gals that already like to target shoot and hunt. Help them take their skills to the next level by learning how to make their own ammo.
• Cheese making kit
• Soap making kit
• Candle making kit
• Basket making kit
• Weaving kit
• Herbal salve making kit
• A tabletop butter churn and related supplies.
• Rope making kit
• Knot tying kit
• Lap loom kit
• Chap stick making kit
• Sling shot making kit and target
• Solar cell making kit
• Solar mechanics kit
• Weather station kit
• Soldering iron with mini projects kit
• Moccasins making kit
• Make your own knife sheath kit
• Make your own wallet kit
• Make your own gun holster kit
• Build your own transistor radio kit
• Build your own tool belt kit
• Build your own picnic table kit – hardware but wood not included with the kit, add a gift card to the local hardware store.
• Build your own solar light kit
• Make your own fishing lures kit
• Make your own cat condo or tower kit for the feline lovers on your Christmas list.
• Sew your own dog bed or dog car seat cover kit for the canine lovers on your shopping list.
Self-Reliance Gifts Especially For Kids
While none of these gifts are likely on the top of the Christmas list for the children in your life because they are not advertised during cartoon television shows, they will inspire and intrigue the little ones and quite possible become one of their most memorable presents. You can find these toys, or the supplies to make them, from a vast array of both brick-and-mortar and online retailers. I chose specific titles for each toy that matched the ones used on most big box store websites, including Amazon.
• Build an off road car kit – for kids
• Build your own fairy house or dollhouse kit – get the girls in the family interested in woodworking and using tools.
• Tin can microphone kit – teach children how to communicate without the use of technology and how sound travels.
• Build your own engine play set for kits – for ages 10 and below about $25
• Build your own V8 engine kit – less than $60 from most retailers
• Build your own internal combustion kit – less than $50 from most retailers
• Build your own robot kit
• Simple machines making kit
• Child’s sewing machine with kits or free downloaded patterns for making their own doll clothes, pillows, and other simple beginner projects.
• Make your own catapult kit
• Build your own car kit
• Make a no-sew blanket kit
• Make a metal detector robot kit
• Water science kit
• Build a power air rocket launcher
• Build your own guitar kit
• Child gardening kit – make this yourself and save a lot of money while providing a much larger gift. After purchasing the standard gardening tools and gloves available at most farm and garden stores, add a whimsical tool caddy to a small bucket and fill it with items similar to the ones used in the adult version. You could also include small clay pots and art supplies so the child can decorate their own gardening containers to put outside or in a windowsill.
• Build your own blue tooth speaker
• Take apart car or motorcycle kit
• Fishing pole and tackle box
• Homemade coupon book for learning sessions or field trips designed to get them outdoors and learning.
• Child appropriate shooting range to go along with a BB gun, Nerf gun, bow with suction cup arrows, or even a squirt gun. I made a kiddo shooting range on our prepper retreat and it is a hit with kids of all ages. When using squirt guns, I fill the guns with colored water so the children can track who hits what target and where.
• Glow in the dark paracord bracelets kit
• Barbie and similar dolls with outdoor and hunting accessories – these only became readily available last year. Tractor Supply and Rural King are a great place to find these type of non-traditional dolls for little girls.
• Make an obstacle course out of wood, tree stumps, rope, old tires for your children or grandchildren. The children will be building strong bodies and learning how to overcome obstacles while competing against each other or their own previous completion times.
• Built a wood playhouse or clubhouse WITH your children or grandchildren. They children can learn how to use tools safely, how to design a simple structure. How to sand wood, sew curtains, make simple furniture to go into the playhouse or clubhouse, and how to “power” their play structure using solar lights. Print off a photo of a one or more of the many playhouse or cubby houses, and use it as part of a homemade gift card to unwrap when presenting the gift.
• Purchase make-believe camping gear – cook stoves, lanterns, and even glowing campfires complete with wood that can be “chopped” with a toy ax, are available online. You can also make your own pretend fire, logs, and an ax – as well as play camping food, out of felt.
After looking at the high price for felt pretend camping and food items online, I decided to make my own, and they were (and still are) a huge hit with the grandchildren. I used toilet paper and paper towel rolls to give shape and weight to the stuffed ax and knife that I made out of felt. I also made a fishing pole (same type of handle crafting) with a magnetic end, felt fish with magnets inside, and a fold out pond themed play mat to introduce fishing skills to the toddlers and preschool age children who frequent the playroom at our house – and for rainy day fun for children of all ages.
Survival Related Games
Ok, so these gifts will shout “PREPPER!” in the minds of the recipient, but the box coverings are enticing enough that even someone who mocks your self-reliant lifestyle won’t be able to resist opening it up and playing just once. That one time will likely get them hooked, even if they don’t want to admit it.
The preparedness game recipient will start to learn about survival skills from inside the comfort of their own homes. Playing the games will surely get your love ones thinking about how they would handle the situations they are presented with and leave them pondering the many possible types of disaster scenarios and responses that, being non-preppers, they really hadn’t paid any mind to before.
Doom and Bloom Survival – This is my absolute favorite survival board game, and not simply because its creators, Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy, are acquaintances of mine. The medical professionals created one of the most in-depth, realistic, and exciting survival games on the market.
In Doom and Bloom Survival, a SuperFlu has gone global and your character is one of the lucky survivors. The marauding hordes have ravaged the wilderness, leaving no readily available resources. You can find the essentials needed to survive, but only if you overcome the obstacles required to acquire and keep them. The supplies will definitely give you and edge in your quest to survive.
You must find the few settlements left to give your group a temporary safe haven, after scouting the camps carefully first. The survival board game is designed to be played by 2 to 4 players, but can be adapted to be played either alone or by up to 6 players. It takes about half an hour to 2 hours to play, depending upon the chosen scenario.
City of Horror – Game players have to battle a marauding horde of zombies that are invading their city. This game not only touches upon the technical aspects of survival related to the presented scenario, but the mental and emotional ones as well. To win…survive, you may have to choose to forge partnerships you would prefer not to enter into or betray your friends.
Players can control more than one City of Horror game character at one time and capitalize on their respective abilities. During the game, which typically takes about an hour and a half to play, participants search for a zombie vaccine, while scavenging for supplies, as they attempt to reach an evacuation helicopter before becoming a snack for the walking dead. This survival board game is designed for three to six players.
Wildcraft! An Herbal Adventure Game – This cooperative fun for the whole family preparedness board game teaches players about 25 of the most important medicinal and edible plants they will find in the woods. Players connect icon on the challenge and “trouble” cards with the appropriate plant card.
The players must use strategy during the drama-filled game if they are going to make it up the mountain safely and reach Huckleberry Patch – and then get back to grandma’s house, before darkness falls. If the you don’t make it back on time, you will still survive, because grandma is a loving soul and will go out into the wilderness to find you.
The storytelling aspect of the game should entertain both children and adults. Wildcraft! An Herbal Adventure Game is designed for 1 to 4 players and comes complete with a story download that enhances the board game experience.
Oh No… Zombies! – In this competitive game, your character is trapped inside a building that is surrounded by zombies . Modern conveniences, such as cellphones and landlines, are no longer worker. If you get bit while trying to escape, you turn into zombie and attempt to attack the other players. If you get out of the building, you must try to make your way to a store and find available supplies, which include a gun and a radio. The game takes about 30 minutes to play and is designed for 2 to 4 players.
Harvest Time – This family game teachers how important it is to work together to complete an important task. All of the players have to do their part to harvest all the crops out of the garden before the weather turns col enough to frost and ruins all of their food. Harvest Time is designed for 2 to 4 players who are ages 3 to 7 – and the adults who love them. Players work together to complete the harvest before winter comes
The Appalachian Trail Game Backpacking Edition – Players must learn how to identify both plants and animals, garner the concepts of camping skills, basic first aid, in order to make it off the trail successfully and safely. The game is appropriate for at least middle elementary school age children, but remains an engaging learning experience for adults, as well. Players learn about the history of the Appalachian Trail while playing the game. To win the game, you must use all the gear in your backpack to make it from one end of the trail to the other.
Let’s Go Hiking – This is another cooperative family style game where all players work together to overcome obstacles. The playing group enters the woods with only minimal equipment and most track as many animals as possible. If the characters are too loud or are not camouflaged enough, they will not be able to find the players and “take their picture.”
The players can become injured while in the woods and require first aid. The game, which is designed for 2 to 6 players, takes about 30 minutes to play and also educates about various aspects of life in the woods, including plant life.
Outdoor Survival – This cooperate game is an ideal way to introduce the concepts of preparedness to older children and non-prepping adults. The group of players are lost way out in the middle of a vast wilderness. They must battle the elements, wild animals, find potable water, and food, in order to survive. It takes about 40 minutes to play Outdoor Survival. The game is designed for 1 to 4 players.
Conflicted – If your family and friends are more into card games than board games, check out the Conflicted – all of which inspire thought-provoking learning and fun
Each scenario in the various decks presume the SHTF and the world is in the midst of complete chaos.
The cards are dealt to each player and they take turns reading a question to the person sitting next to them. The player has only 3 minutes to explain how he or she would deal with and survive the situation presented. The other players rank their response and the person with the most points at the end of the game, wins.
SHTF Books Non-Preppers Should Receive for Christmas
Many survival book designed to teach or expand preparedness skills overall or on a specific topic exist and are worthy of our hard-earned money. But, for a non-prepper gift, a scenario driven SHTF book will be a better fit.
The reader will learn from the survival action successes and failures of the characters – but will not be subjected to material that is over their heads, could be essential buy rather dry reading, or would immediately turn them off and convince them to close the book and toss it back up on the shelf…forever.
Survival books, especially Dr. William R. Forstchen’s One Second After, also make excellent gifts for non-prepping friends and family. This book, the one that caused Forstchen to be dubbed the “Father of the Prepping Movement,” teaches awareness, in an often heart wrenching way through the scenarios the heroes and villains, and a folks in between, go through in order to survive and hold onto power.
One Second After begins just shortly before disaster strikes and allows the reader to become fully immersed in the life of the main character, his family, and small town community as the full impact of life post-apocalypse unfolds.
Even non-preppers should find the book almost impossible to put down. Thankfully for folks coming to One Second After more than a decade after it was written, there are now equally great sequels that bring more thought provoking scenarios to ponder about what happens post-SHTF once “order” is restored to at least some parts of America. The book is also available in audio book format.
Lights Out Saga is another excellent scenario driven book. The storytelling focuses on what life is like as the doomsday disaster is happening. The confusion that something really bad is actually going and the desire to remain stationary and wait for the government show up to help, by the general populace, should inspire non-preppers to become more self-reliant after they finish the book – likely before they get to chapter 3!
David Crawford’s characters are extremely easy to relate to for both preppers and non-preppers.
If you make or buy any of the gifts for non-preppers on this list, whether for Christmas or another gift giving occasions, please share their initial reaction and any future preparedness actions that ultimately resulted from your inspiration gift, in the comments section below.
So, to give some background, I only found out about inducing lucidity 2 days ago. 2 nights ago, I attempted FILD and was successful. I even managed to change my surroundings. However, as I have noticed is common in beginners, the dream only lasted a short time (felt ~1 minute). I tried again last night, but didn't sleep well which resulted in me never really being tired enough to attempt FILD. Normally I sleep fine, so I am going to ignore this as an anomaly. Now, on to the questions:
I have read that, along with keeping a dream journal, doing various RCs throughout the day to get in the practice is vital. Various posts have said to do this whenever you question reality. However, I almost never question reality (though as I continue to have more lucid dreams I am sure I will start). So, my first question is, when, more specifically, should I practice RCs? I thought today to do it whenever I noticed myself on "auto-pilot". That is, whenever I notice I have been doing a task for a while without directly thinking about it, whether that be walking, or stacking boxes, etc. Is this a good start?
Next question. As I am sure many of you know far more about sleep patterns and what not than I, would practicing FILD (which includes waking up 3-4 hours after going to sleep) adversely affect my waking health? If so, is FILD considered a stepping stone to better practices? Which ones should I be practicing?
Last question. Are there any good books/movies/resources you would recommend I, as a beginner, take a look at to improve?
Thanks for your time.
via Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Attaining Lucidity http://ift.tt/2BBqL9s
Software-defined radios are great tools for the amateur radio operator, allowing visualization of large swaths of spectrum and letting hams quickly home in on faint signals with the click of a mouse. High-end ham radios often have this function built in, but by tapping into the RF stage of a transceiver with an SDR, even budget-conscious hams can enjoy high-end features.
With both a rugged and reliable Yaesu FT-450D and the versatile SDRPlay in his shack, UK ham [Dave (G7IYK)] looked for the best way to link the two devices. Using two separate antennas was possible but inelegant, and switching the RF path between the two devices seemed clumsy. So he settled on tapping into the RF stage of the transceiver with a high-impedance low-noise amplifier (LNA) and feeding the output to the SDRPlay. The simple LNA was built on a milled PCB. A little sleuthing with the Yaesu manual — ham radio gear almost always includes schematics — led him to the right tap point in the RF path, just before the bandpass filter network. This lets the SDRPlay see the signal before the IF stage. He also identified likely points to source power for the LNA only when the radio is not transmitting. With the LNA inside the radio and the SDRPlay outside, he now has a waterfall display and thanks to Omni-Rig remote control software, he can tune the Yaesu at the click of a mouse.
In the event of a social collapse, it will become everyone for themselves. Those who have prepared for that moment may feel like they are sitting pretty, but that does not mean their initial preparations will be sufficient forever. All it takes is one unaccountable factor to throw your plans down the drain.
In this instance, you may not struggle to survive–depending on your knowledge of survival–but you will still be doing without. Moreover, the natural progression of time will ultimately cause your stores of rarer items to diminish as well. As such, you will want to be able to acquire various goods and items no matter the quality of your preparations. But once society collapses, so too does the economy–or does it.
Without a government to ensure the value of a currency, people will naturally return to a barter system. Of course, disaster will place certain goods and services above all others, but that is where a bit of thought and further preparation can lead to security and even profit.
Gold
It is a fairly well-known fact that valuable metals have a tendency to maintain their value even through the harshest of conditions. Even thousands of years ago who many people were still struggling to scrabble out a consistent means of living, the luster of gold still pulled strongly at the desires of people.
As such, when disaster strikes and the current paper fiat money is considered worthless except as kindling and toilet paper, it will be a good idea to have some non-functional item that can still be reliably bartered with value. If you have been prepping for any length of time, then you have likely already stumbled across numerous people and posts suggesting that you purchase gold.
This is a great investment in a survival economy as gold will retain a fairly high value while remaining durable and resistant to the elements. Just make sure that the gold is stored safely away in a secure location, preferably one that is not in or next to your bug out location.
Because of its durability, gold can be burrowed away pretty much anywhere and suffer little to no damage beyond some minor tarnishing that can be easily cleaned. Also, do not get bullion. It may be “efficient,” but people will not often be able to trade with it at value, and bullion can be difficult lugging around.
Alcohol
Alcohol has existed since the Stone Age, and there is no reason to suggest that demand for the intoxicating elixir would do anything but rise should society and the economy collapse. It has been well-documented even in relatively modern times that when the world struggles or seems to be going mad, people often retire to the comforts of drunkenness to ease their worries.
Of course, alcohol can come in handy for other reasons as well. Isopropyl alcohol, or rubbing alcohol, will only last for so long. After that, people will have to once again return to ethanol alcohol to disinfect open wounds to prevent infection and tissue corruption. In this instance, alcohol will be able to provide value even to people who do not want to drink it.
One thing to keep in mind is that you will want to stockpile hard liquor over wine or beers. For beer the reasons are manifold in that once the beer can no longer be kept refrigerated, it will quickly sour. However, for both wine and beer, the relatively low alcohol content of both will decrease their overall trade value.
As such, any alcohol you stockpile for trading purposes should be at least 80 proof, or 40 percent alcohol by volume. For one, weaker alcohols will not work effectively as a disinfectant, but it also comes down to economics. Stronger alcohol will be worth more and can even be traded in smaller amounts.
Cigarettes
Much like alcohol, tobacco is another item that is generally seen as a vice which can maintain a high degree of value once the economy collapses. Moreover, cigarettes have the additional advantage of creating a physiological addiction in smokers, making them far more likely to engage in barter or trade for them–potentially to your advantage.
Beyond serving as a simple product of vice, tobacco can also be used for a number of genuine survival applications as well–something we cover in my extended bug out guide. This makes cigarettes similar to alcohol in regards to providing value and appeal to non-smokers as well–though you may need to explain this to them.
One issue that tobacco presents that alcohol does not is a limited shelf life. In fact, compared to alcohol, cigarettes are downright fragile, though they will last for up to five years if properly stored. Beyond that, the tobacco will begin to break down, though, by that point, smokers will likely still be willing to trade just to take what they can get.
When selecting cigarettes for stockpiling purposes, do not get menthol varieties. For one, not everyone who smokes prefers menthols, but all smokers will smoke non-menthol cigarettes. Also, menthol cigarettes get their minty quality not from mentholated eucalyptus or some other plant but from fiberglass. This can reduce its survival effectiveness in other areas.
Social Skills
As noted previously, one should not underestimate the value of strong social skills when disaster strikes. Aside from the fact that it will aid your own party in communicating, your interactions with other people will carry with them a much heavier weight than they do today. As such, ensuring that those interactions occur as much in your favor as possible is a vital resource.
For one, you may very well need to explain to people why your trade goods are worth the value you assign them. For alcohol, many people are likely to know that it can serve as a disinfectant. However, the therapeutic effects of tobacco may not be nearly as well represented. Being able to effectively and convincingly explain this and other qualities can go a long way in not only ensuring you receive a fair value for your goods but in brokering a deal in the first place.
One thing to keep in mind, you will not want to present yourself as the holder of the goods you are trading. This simply makes you a target for other people who might use the prospect of trading to find people to loot. Instead, position yourself as the “middle man” of your own goods. That way, even if the potential traders would otherwise intend to steal the goods, they may think twice before burning such a resourceful “contact.”
Following the principle of using social skills to explain the value of items to those who may not be as well versed in survival preparation, survival skills, in general, can be equally as valuable as a trade when it comes to a post-collapse economy. Remember, chances are the overwhelming majority of the population will not possess these skills.
Instead, people will simply revert to a scavenger system for as long as supplies last. Once those supplies are gone through, then people will be desperate. Being able to trade with survival skills can actually work to your benefit in two ways. First, you are able to provide a service that costs you little more than time and elbow grease. Second, you may help ensure that a scavenger does not feel the need to become a looter making you and your party safer.
Another great benefit of survival skills in a barter system is that you do not necessarily need to teach your trading partners the skill. Instead, you can simply perform the skill while retaining the knowledge. This will ensure a steady demand for your services and make you indispensable as a resource not to be abused. Conversely, you can teach some skills, like fire making, which will be necessary more when you are not present than when you are, at a higher trade value.
Performance Skills
Rounding out our list of tradable services for a barter economy, performance skills can be deceptively valuable. Keep in mind, you will definitely only be able to play this kind of trade if you are above average in the performative skill, but if you are, it can serve as a lucrative service which will similarly be in short supply.
Keep in mind, when society collapses, people will likely be far too focused on survival to worry much about entertainment. However, this does not mean that their need for entertainment and a break from the struggles of survival will simply fade away. In this regard, performative skills can serve similarly to alcohol except their supply never exhausts.
Granted, you are unlikely to command a significant value for performance skills–even at a master level–in a disaster scenario, but being able to acquire some rare food or another type of supply for five to ten minutes of light labor is no small task. Of course, identifying the performative skill will be the trick.
Music is an excellent option here. If you know how to play an instrument that can easily be carried, make it a point to practice and maintain or improve your skills. Storytellers can also ply their trade, though this one will be a bit more difficult to barter with. Regardless, performances of any sort at a high enough skill level can serve well for low-value trade that costs you little to nothing.
Entertainment
Following the performance skill premise, people will still want to be entertained even when you are not nearby–which will likely be most of the time. In this instance, they are liable to turn to items that can be easily carried and still provide an extended and enduring form of entertainment. Chances are, you have already prepped for such a need.
In this regard, entertainment items can provide a high value, especially if they are kept in good condition. Arguably the most easily tradable entertainment item will be a deck of cards. With hundreds of possible games all easily held in a compact and light form, cards can provide limitless entertainment and be easily carried for trading purposes. Remember, most people are liable to ignore this need at first, and by the time they get around to it, playing cards may be in short supply.
Another decent, though by no means as efficient, entertainment item is a book. Because they have a lengthy investment, they can serve adequately for this purpose. However, books have a fairly low repeat value–depending on the genre. Moreover, books are also much bulkier and heavier than playing cards. As such, this potential trading item is more suited for barter once you have already settled into your bug out shelter than when you are still bugging out.
Hygiene
This is another category that is liable to get lost in the shuffle by unprepared people–in the beginning at least. With the constant need for food, water, shelter, and clothing, hygiene is liable to fall precipitously down the list of priorities. For as much of a priority as it is in modern, civilized life, hygiene takes a back seat in a survival scenario.
That being said, even those struggling to survive will welcome the opportunity to wash the grime of the world off of their bodies. Even more, the ability to maintain your hygiene can also improve your survival chances, something most preppers already know. As such, hygiene items can be billed as both a vanity and necessity item. Just remind your potential trade partners of the various issues poor hygiene can present, and they will likely beg to trade with you. After all, no one wants to die because they did not have soap to wash up after removing a splinter.
In this instance, bars of soap, tubes of toothpaste, and toothbrushes are liable to be your most valuable hygiene items. Bars of soap are long-lasting and compact, making them great for travel. Toothpaste and toothbrushes may have a shorter shelf life–the former at least–but a reminder of how poor oral health can quickly lay them low should be all it takes to broker an exchange.
Food
This is where things can get a bit tricky. If you have already made all of the necessary preparations, food should not be much of an issue. Your stockpiles should be able to handle months to years worth of feeding your party. Moreover, you should likely have started some form of homesteading ahead of time and even some potential husbandry.
As such, this resource falls under the assumption that your own food needs are more than met with abundance. If this is the case, then food will likely be one of the highest value items that you can trade. Of course, as such a high-value item, food will also be coveted and one of the more likely to draw the attention of looters pretending to trade.
Regardless, it is important to balance your own needs with the potential value different foodstuffs offer. For instance, canned and other preserved food will fetch the highest value after a few months once all the stores have been scavenged. Of course, this holds true for you as well, so make sure you have a steady supply of fresh food while still ensuring you keep plenty of preserved food just in case.
Still, meat will easily be the most valuable food you can trade since most people will have difficulty obtaining it. Fishing, hunting, and traps can all serve as a reliable source of meat. If your bug out location has chickens or other egg-laying fowl, this too can fetch a high value for those who cannot otherwise get their hands on protein.
Water
Similarly to food, water is another resource that is extremely valuable. In fact, water will arguably be the most valuable resource in the event of societal collapse. That said, your ability to procure clean, fresh water for you and your party first becomes even more of a priority when considering water as a bartering tool.
If you do not have a source of clean, fresh water nearby, this may not be a viable option. Of course, once you settle into your bug out shelter, you can set up water farms. Solar stills, beach wells, and transpiration bags may help you survive in moderation, but if you can set up twenty or more, you can likely collect more water than you need to drink.
If your bug out shelter and location is large enough, you may be able to set up dozens of these water collectors. Depending on the size of your party and the necessary tasks for maintaining your shelter, this can actually become a bit of a cash crop–especially if you are located in an arid region.
That said, this is another situation where simply trading the resource can be risky. However as food may be valuable to a hungry person, water is far more valuable to someone who is dehydrated. As such, be careful when trading water, and definitely, make sure to present yourself as a middleman in this situation.
Conclusion
Some people might suggest that you should use ammunition as a bartering tool if society collapses. This is a trap. Ammunition will become one of the most important items after a collapse, and even if you have a large stockpile, it is not worth it. In fact, you should be the one trading for ammunition, even if you have crates of ammo.
Still, many of the items on our list are either extra, effort, or in excess should you properly prepare ahead of time. As such, all of the entries on our list are excellent bartering tools and should place you in a prime position to master the emergent economy after SHTF.
About Conrad:
Conrad Novak is a proud father of two children. His journey as a prepper began when Hurricane Katrina hit and he lost his job due to the 2008 economic crisis. That made him realize that everything can change for the worst in a very short time. This experience was the detonator for him to pursue learning and becoming better prepared to face the kind of unexpected disasters that may occur at any point in our lives. You can read more of his content at SurvivorsFortress.com.
The bill of materials for even the simplest IoT project is likely to include some kind of microcontroller with some kind of wireless module. But could the BOM for a useful IoT thing someday list only a single item? Quite possibly, if these electronics-less 3D-printed IoT devices are any indication.
While you may think that the silicon-free devices described in a paper (PDF link) by University of Washington students [Vikram Iyer] and [Justin Chan] stand no chance of getting online, they’ve actually built an array of useful IoT things, including an Amazon Dash-like button. The key to their system is backscatter, which modulates incident RF waves to encode data for a receiver. Some of the backscatter systems we’ve featured include a soil sensor network using commercial FM broadcasts and hybrid printable sensors using LoRa as the carrier. But both of these require at least some electronics, and consequently some kind of power. [Chan] and [Iyer] used conductive filament to print antennas that can be mechanically switched by rotating gears. Data can be encoded by the speed of the alternating reflection and absorption of the incident WiFi signals, or cams can encode data for buttons and similar widgets.
It’s a surprisingly simple system, and although the devices shown might need some mechanical tune-ups, the proof of concept has a lot of potential. Flowmeters, level sensors, alarm systems — what kind of sensors would you print? Sound off below.
The Soviet Union took the world by surprise when it sent its Sputnik satellite into low earth orbit way back in 1957. The event triggered a space race between the Soviets and the United States and ushered in technologies that would go on to touch the lives of every human on earth. Today, several nations have a space program. And one of the more useful things to put in orbit are weather satellites. In 2014, the Russians launched their Meteor N M-2 weather satellite into a polar orbit. The part that were most interested in is the fact that it transmits images at 137.1 MHz using the standard LRPT protocol.
Now, before you get your jumper wires in a bunch – we are well aware that receiving satellite images is nothing new. However, the newer Meteor N M-2 transmits images at twelve times the resolution of US NOAA satellites. No typo there – that’s twelve (12!) times. Have we got your attention now?
We shouldn’t have to tell you to jump on over to [phasenoise’s] blog which gives you everything you need to start grabbing some of these awesome images.
Originally intended as a way to stabilize sensitive instruments on ships during World War II, the Slinky is quite simply a helical spring with an unusually good sales pitch. But as millions of children have found out since the 1940’s, once you roll your Slinky down the stairs a few times, you’ve basically hit the wall in terms of entertainment value. So what if we told you there was yet another use for this classic toy that was also fun for a girl and a boy?
Before anyone gets out the pitchforks, admittedly this isn’t exactly a new idea. There are a few other write-ups online about people using a Slinky as a cheap antenna, such as this detailed analysis from a few years ago by [Frank Dörenberg]. There’s even rumors that soldiers used a Slinky from back home as a makeshift antenna during the Vietnam War. So this is something of an old school ham trick revived for the new generation of SDR enthusiasts.
Anyway, the setup is pretty simple. You simply solder the RF jack of your choice to two stretched out Slinkies: one to the center of the jack and one to outside. Then run a rope through them and stretch them out in opposite directions. The rope is required because the Slinky isn’t going to be strong enough when expanded to keep from laying on the ground.
One thing to keep in mind with a Slinky antenna is that these things are not exactly rated for outside use. Without some kind of treatment (like a spray on acrylic lacquer) , they’ll quickly corrode and fail. Though a better idea might simply to be to think of this as a temporary antenna that you put away when you’re done with. Thanks to the fact that the Slinky doesn’t get deformed even when stretching it out to maximum length, that’s relatively easy to accomplish.
now this lucidity and transformation is about being a super computer and having hyper dreams the technique scream as loud as you could in your mind and keep scream until you feel pain and anguish as you keep concentrating you have to ascend to a newer lucidity level in higher form of sleep and dream powers as you wake In this lucidity you have to control the darkness as if its universal energy wrap around your body and imprisoning you in space as you control this darkness you have to remember the shining light of moon energy as if you were staring at a full moon imprison in the nightshade as you control this form of intel you have to let your mind escape to a fantasy of Role playing games and virtual intel as you control this trance you have to transcend your power to god hood and devil worship as a being of light and darkness as you control this form you have to control your dream as if your always fighting and getting betrayed by friends as if they were your enemies in eternal struggle forever this is a afterlife ascension of how to control your dream in prep of self humiliation and self assurance his techniques is for people with a lot of dream friends and dream enemies are we really friends are your an accuser trying to betray me of our friendship theory and images hallucinations an dream lsd
via Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Attaining Lucidity http://ift.tt/2zIKMpP
