Lucid Dreaming | Haven't had a lucid dream for a few weeks.........

I have been doing various methods and nothing is happening.I am remembering my dreams more, though.

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ESP32 Makes for World’s Worst Radio Station

We can say one thing for [bitluni]: the BOMs for his projects, like this ESP32 AM radio transmitter, are always on the low side. That’s because he leverages software to do jobs traditionally accomplished with hardware, always with instructive results.

In this case, the job at hand is creating an RF oscillator in the broadcast AM band and modulating some audio onto it. From his previous experience using an ESP32 to watch video on an oscilloscope, [bitluni] knew that the microcontroller’s DACs were up to the task of producing an 800-kHz signal, and he managed to produce a more-or-less sine wave carrier with some clever code. His sketch takes data from a header file, modulates it onto the carrier, and sends it out over the ether using a short stub of wire for an antenna. The range is severely limited, but for what it is, it gets the job done and shows the basics. And as a bonus, [bitluni] included a bit of JavaScript that turns an audio file into a header file that’s ready to go out over the airwaves for all your trolling needs.

If you’re looking for a little more range for your low power transmitter and you’re a licensed amateur operator, you might want to explore the world of QRP radio.

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Lucid Dreaming | Meditation + MILD Challenge for 8 weeks(56 days)

Hi everybody after a long time without Lucid dream, I decided to try Meditation + MILD Challenge for 8 weeks.

So every day,
-I will meditated for 15 minutes
-I will MILD before I sleep
-Wake up at 4:00a.m and do MILD and go back to sleep

So I will update you with the results.

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Packing For The Wilderness – What To Take

by Jesse

Unless you are already experienced at travelling in the wilderness you might be surprised to learn that hypothermia is actually the most common cause of death.

It might seem difficult to believe but a beautiful hot day can quickly turn into a very cold night. This is why it is essential to think carefully before you pack for your wilderness trip.

It is also important to consider how much you can comfortably carry. Filling your car boot is one thing but you are unlikely to be able to carry everything!

To give you an idea of how dangerous any wilderness can be you should consider the fact that 250 hikers are rescued every year when hiking down and back up the Grand Canyon. This is a place where there is a set route and plenty of help; imagine how much worse it could be in the real wilderness!

These are the most important items you need when packing for the wilderness:

Clothing

Food and water are essential, but you’ll find that shelter is even more important.

You can survive approximately 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water but just 3 hours without shelter!

The reason why is simple, as the chill sinks in your judgment will be affected and you’ll be unable to make rational decisions which could save your life.

Clothing must be the first thing you pack. The best idea is to pack many layers this will ensure you can regulate your body temperature easily.

It is important to include a good quality hat in your clothing, 80% of your body heat is lost through your head, and a hat will help you to keep most of it.

Shelter

If you are heading into the wilderness the best idea is to take a tent with you. Most modern tents are integrated with the ground sheet which will help to prevent bugs and water getting into your tent.

However, to stay warm and ensure you sleep well you will also need a sleeping bag and a ground mat.

The ground mat lifts you off the floor; preventing your body heat from soaking into the ground. You might be surprised at just how cold the ground can be!

Water

Of course water is an essential part of your wilderness packing.

However, unless you are only going for a few days then it is extremely unlikely that you will be able to carry enough water to keep you healthy.

The most important ingredients to ensure you can remain hydrated are at least two water containers and purification tablets. This means that you’ll be able to pick up fresh water or stream water and purify it, making it safe to drink.

Purification tablets should always be carried, even if you think you have enough water to last your trip.

Food

You can take biscuits and snack bars but these will take a surprising amount of room and will not be as satisfying as a proper meal.

The best option is to purchase a mess kit; this combines two or three pots with your basic cutlery.

You’ll also need a camping stove and then dehydrated meals which can be easily cooked with water. You do need to choose things you enjoy eating!

Protection

Mist people will tell you that you need a good knife to go into the wilderness. It can help you create a make shift shelter and even help you do a spot of fishing or offer some protection against wild animals.

However, if you encounter problems and your food supplies run low you’re going to need to think about hunting.

Unless you’re a seasoned hunter you will make a lot of noise crashing through the wilderness looking for potential prey. It will be long gone before you even see it.

The best alternative is to invest in a good rifle. Then use this buyers guide to add a quality scope to it. With just a little practice you’ll be able to wait for the animal and shoot it before it even knows you’re there.

This will dramatically increase your chances of surviving if food is running low.

It is worth noting that a knife is a valuable piece of equipment as well, but you should consider carrying both.

First Aid

There are many different obstacles facing you in the wilderness but even something as simple as a tree root can lead to serious issues.

One trip can result in a deep gash or even broken bones.

This can affect your ability to get to civilization and can even cause serious health issues if a wound becomes infected.

It is, therefore, vital that you have a first aid kit with plasters, bandages, painkillers, bit relief, antiseptic cream, gloves and anything else you think you might need.

You should always carry any personal medication with you as well.

Navigation

You might think you know a specific piece of the wilderness like the back of your hand but it can surprise you!

Landscapes can change after a storm or even one tree falling down.

To make sure you don’t encounter unnecessary problems you should carry a map and compass with you. You also need to know how to use them!

This will ensure you can find your way back from the wilderness when needed to.

Rubbish Bags

There’s a simple rule when you go into the wilderness; anything you take in you need to bring back.

This means you’ll have to carry all the rubbish from your cooking and other activities. Rubbish bags will help you to protect your clothes and can even be placed away from camp to avoid attracting wild animals.

A black bag can also be used to create a small makeshift tent if necessary or used as a poncho to keep you dry in a rainstorm. It can even go over your backpack to protect it from the elements.

One roll of black bags takes up no space but can be an extremely valuable addition.

Torch

If you’re in the wilderness it will get dark. The idea is to have finished and sleep while it is dark.

But, if you adopt this theory you might find that there are times when you are still moving as darkness falls or that you are unable to check what the source of a specific noise was.

You need to carry a good quality, preferably waterproof torch and a set of spare batteries.

Communication

If the worst does happen and you are either injured or lost in the wilderness it is important to consider how you will get help.

Your cell phone might work, but it might not. Even if you have signal you might not have enough charge after a few days in the wilderness.

This is why it is essential to carry a good quality 2 way radio; it will allow you to contact others to alert them of your situation.

Basic communication, such as a whistle or even a flare can also help to show where you are if you need rescuing.

Fire Starter

Staying warm must be a priority. The best way to do this is to light a fire. You’ll need some tinder; dry grass is excellent for this. Wood will burn once you’ve got the fire going; just start small and build it up.

You should be able to locate those bits near where you are camping but the easiest way to start the fire is with a lighter. Make sure you are carrying one with plenty of lighter fluid in.

You can then carry spare lighter fluid of a spare lighter to ensure creating a fire is not an issue.

Rope

One of the easiest ways to carry rope is actually by having a paracord bracelet.

Paracord is made up of a number of strands which are very strong. The paracord can be used as a whole or as individual strands. One bracelet can provide you with many meters of rope.

You can find instructions online to create your own paracord bracelet, knife holder or even belt. This will ensure you always have rope with you.

A Friend

If possible when planning a wilderness trip you should take someone else with you. This will help you to deal with any issues you face along the way and make the trip more enjoyable.

Perhaps more importantly a friend can offer protection and find food if you are injured.

If you are unable to take someone with you then at least let someone know where you are going and when you intend to be back; they will then know when to start worrying!

It is important to remember that everything you intend to take with you must fit inside your chosen backpack and you must be comfortable carrying it for extended periods of time.

This is why it is so important to include the essentials on this list and not carry unnecessary weight.

However, if you are going into the wilderness you may appreciate a pack of cards; they can help you pass the time if you are ever waiting to be rescued. This can help to ensure you stay positive, no matter what happens.

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Drink Lots Of Beer To Raise Your Monopole

When we published a piece about an ADS-B antenna using a Coke can as a groundplane, Hackaday reader [2ftg] got in contact with us about something with a bit more… stature.

A monopole groundplane antenna is a single vertical conductor mounted on an insulator and rising up above a conductive groundplane. In radio terms the groundplane is supposed to look as something of a mirror, to provide a reflection of what would come from the other half of a dipole were there to be two conductors. You can use anything conductive as your monopole, a piece of wire, (in radio amateur humour) a piece of wet string, or even beer cans. “Beer cans?” you ask incredulously, expecting this to be another joke. Yes, beer cans, and [2ftg] has been good enough to supply us with a few examples. The first is a 57-foot stack of them welded together in the 1950s for use on the 80 metre band ( we suspect steel cans may have been more common than aluminum back then), the second is a more modest erection for the 2 metre band, and the final one consists of photographs only of an HF version that looks a little wavy and whose cans are a little less beery.

The reporting in the 1950s piece is rather cheesy, but does give a reasonable description of it requiring welding rods as reinforcement. It also gives evidence of the antenna’s effectiveness, showing that it could work the world. Hardly surprising, given that a decent monopole is a decent monopole no matter how many pints of ale you have dispatched in its making.

The Coke can ADSB can be seen in all its glory here, and if all this amateur radio business sounds interesting, here’s an introduction.

Beer cans picture: Visitor7 [CC BY-SA 3.0].

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10 Must Bring Camping Essentials

by Contributing Author

There are two ways of going camping successfully; the comfortable one and the not so comfortable option!

Camping often conjures up images of a tent, a clear but starry sky and the glow of the campfire.

Of course, this is one option, but it’s no longer the only one. Camping in your RV is becoming increasingly popular, providing the relative freedom of the open road with many of the home comforts. Potentially this is the best of both worlds!

Caravans and yurts are also options to give you feeling of freedom and being at one with nature. The choice is entirely yours, depending on which one you prefer.

Beds

One of the biggest differences is the bed you’ll be sleeping in. The traditional option for a tent is the airbed or even just a ground mat. These can be comfortable although they are unlikely to be as good as the bed you have at home.

Caravans and RV’s will often have a bed the same size as your home one. This means with a little research you can choose a really comfortable bed to help you sleep every night. Take a look at these online reviews at The Sleep Judge to help you decide.

It doesn’t matter which option you choose for your camping trip, the following 10 items are essential for all types of camping:

1. Bedding

If you’re in a RV then you’re going to need the traditional duvet and sheets to keep you snug and comfortable all night. However, if you’re looking to sleep under canvas then an airbed is an excellent choice.

You could use a camp bed but both options are best suited to a sleeping bag and perhaps a blanket if you feel the nights will be cold.

Lifting your body off the floor will help you to stay warm overnight.

2. Food

Camping requires you to have a camping stove, pots and pans and a plentiful supply of food.

The easiest food to cook in any if these circumstances is dehydrated or dried foods, such as pasta and rice.

Your decision as to which is best for you will depend upon your taste buds and your camping methods.

You can have an extensive menu if you are camping with your vehicle but if you are on foot and carrying all your camping gear then the available space for food will be much more limited. In this instance it is better for you to opt for dehydrated options and cook them with plenty of water.

3. Water

The average adult needs 5 liters of water a day for drinking, cooking and washing. This is a lot to carry, especially if you are hiking with your camping gear.

Even if you are in an RV your water tank is limited and you will need to top up regularly.

Generally you can get water from any site you are on; all you need is a suitable container.

However, if you are intending to head offsite and explore the wilderness you might find yourself out of range of conventional water supplies.

In these situations it is imperative that you have a good sized water container or two and purification pills. This will allow you to collect water virtually anywhere and safely drink it.

4. Knife

Every camper needs to carry a knife with them. They are incredibly useful whether you need to cut rope, attempt fishing without any tools or even mark a trail through the woods.

In fact, your knife will be used in many more ways than you might think possible; until you have been camping!

Folding knives are the easiest and safest to carry as they cannot be accidentally opened. They can also be attached to a keychain or belt loop to ensure they are always handy.

A knife can also double as a handy can opener if you forget this essential item.

5. First Aid Kit

In a perfect world you should carry a first aid kit wherever you go but it is an essential when you go camping.

A simple trip can result in a nasty wound or even a broken bone. Your first aid kit must have plasters, bandages, anti-septic cream, bite relief, gloves and even eye wash.

Other items are discretionary depending on where you are going and what you think you might need. It is important to keep additional quantities of any prescription medications you are taking; just in case you become stuck somewhere.

Remember that the greater the number of people camping the larger your first aid kit will need to be.

6. Clothing

This might seem like an obvious statement but when you are camping it is surprisingly easy to get cold.

While it is important to bring something to start a fire, this will not help when you are cold but moving round, trying to get things done.

In this situation you’ll find the best clothing is that which allows you to add or remove layers. A vest can be covered by a t-shirt, then a shirt, and then a jumper and a fleece before you even consider a coat. This will ensure you can adjust your body temperature to suit!

7. Lights

It doesn’t matter which form of camping you adopt, there will be a time when it gets dark and you need to see what you’re doing.

A torch is the best source of light, whether relaxing in your tent or trekking along a path. Without one you’re likely to trip over a root or stone and need the first aid kit; which you fortunately included in your supplies!

A torch can also be a useful way of signaling for help if you have got into trouble while camping or hiking.

It is advisable to bring at least two torches or a torch and a lantern, plus spare batteries.

You might also like to consider a headlamp as they can allow you to see what you’re doing while keeping your hands free.

8. Sun Protection

The sun can be exceptionally powerful and quickly burn your skin if unprotected. This can lead to a range of issues from sun burn to heat stroke. Any of these will affect your ability to enjoy your camping trip and may even cause health issues, especially if you have become most and are wandering in the wilderness.

It is important to bring sunglasses, a hat and sun screen. This will help to ensure the sun does not do any damage to your skin or your health.

9. Maps

If you’re driving you might choose to use a GPS. In fact, a handheld unit is an option if you’re hiking.

However, it is also essential to have a map and compass with you and know how to use them. If you are separated from your GPS or its batteries fail you will still be able to work out where you are and which direction you should be moving in.

This is particularly relevant if you are off the beaten track; your GPS might not be able to get a signal and will be useless to you.

Of course, if you carry a map and compass it is important to know exactly how to use them!

10. Camera

A camera is more important than you might think on a camping trip.

Of course you’ll want to record your experiences and take pictures of the stunning views you can find. However, a camera also has other uses:

The lens on the camera can be used to magnify the sun’s rays and help to start a fire. A camera can also be used as an emergency flashlight.

But, perhaps most importantly, a camera can be used to record a picture of any insect which has bitten you or your fellow campers.

This will help medical personnel to give you the right treatment when you return to civilization.

These are the ten most essential items you need to take with you when camping but there are other things that you should remember to take with you. They will make your camping experience much more enjoyable:

• 2 way radio – this will allow you to call for help if your cell phone has no signal.
• Mirror – If you get into trouble this can be used to signal for help by reflecting the sun’s rays.
• Area Specific – For example, if you’re going into a snowy part of the country or world then take extra warm gear to deal with the temperatures you’ll be facing.
• Black bags, these can be used to store rubbish, as a waterproof poncho or even as a makeshift tent, if necessary. A roll is also very easy to carry.
• Cards or games – these can help to pass the time when you’re stuck inside due to inclement weather; it can actually be fun!

The Bottom Line

Camping can be great fun, you simply need to pack these essentials and consider carefully where you are going and what else you might need.

This will ensure that you are prepared for every eventuality and that your camping trip is a success, no matter what situation you find yourself in.

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An ADS-B Antenna Built From Actual Garbage

With the advent of low-cost software defined radio (SDR), anyone who’s interested can surf the airwaves from the FM band all the way up to the gigahertz frequencies used by geosynchronous satellites for about $20 USD. It’s difficult to overstate the impact this has had on the world of radio hacking. It used to be only the Wizened Ham Graybeards could command the airwaves from the front panels of their $1K+ radios, but now even those who identify as software hackers can get their foot in the door for a little more than the cost of a pizza.

But as many new SDR explorers find out, having a receiver is only half the battle: you need an antenna as well. A length of wire stuck in the antenna jack of your SDR will let you pick up some low hanging fruit, but if you’re looking to extend your range or get into the higher frequencies, your antenna needs to be carefully designed and constructed. But as [Akos Czermann] shows on his blog, that doesn’t mean it has to be expensive. He shows how you can construct a very capable ADS-B antenna out of little more than an empty soda can and a bit of wire.

He makes it clear that the idea of using an old soda can as an antenna is not new, another radio hacker who goes by the handle [abcd567] popularized their own version of the “cantenna” some time ago. But [Akos] has made some tweaks to the design to drive the bar even lower, which he has dubbed the “coketenna”.

The primary advantages of his design is that you no longer need to solder anything or even use any special connectors. In fact, you can assemble this antenna with nothing more than a pocket knife.

You start by cutting the can down to around 68 mm in length, and cutting an “X” into the bottom. Then strip a piece of coax, and push it through the X. The plastic-coated center conductor of the coax should emerge through the bottom of the can, while the braided copper insulation will bunch up on the other side. If you want to make it really fancy, [Akos] suggests cutting a plastic drink bottle in half and using that as a cover to keep water out of the “coketenna”.

How well does it work? He reports performance being very similar to his commercial ADS-B antenna which set him back $45 USD. Not bad for some parts of out the trash.

We’ve covered the math of creating an ADS-B antenna in the past if you’d like to know more about the science of how it all works. But if you just want an easy way of picking up some signals, this “coketenna” and an RTL-SDR dongle will get you started in no time.

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Shmoocon: Delightful Doppler Direction Finding With Software Defined Radio

When it comes to finding what direction a radio signal is coming from, the best and cheapest way to accomplish the task is usually a Yagi and getting dizzy. There are other methods, and at Shmoocon this last weekend, [Michael Ossmann] and [Schuyler St. Leger] demonstrated pseudo-doppler direction finding using cheap, off-the-shelf software defined radio hardware.

The hardware for this build is, of course, the HackRF, but this pseudo-doppler requires antenna switching. That means length-matched antennas, and switching antennas without interrupts or other CPU delays. This required an add-on board for the HackRF dubbed the Opera Cake. This board is effectively an eight-input antenna switcher using the state configurable timer found in the LPC43xx found on the HackRF.

The key technique for pseudo-doppler is basically switching between an array of antennas mounted in a circle. By switching through these antennas very, very quickly — on the order of hundreds of thousands of times per second — you can measure the Doppler shift of a transmitter.

However, teasing out a distinct signal from a bunch of antennas virtually whizzing about isn’t exactly easy. If you look at what the HackRF an Opera Cake receive on a waterfall display, you’ll find a big peak around where you expect, and copies of that signal trailing off, separated by whatever your antenna switching frequency is. This was initially a problem for [Schuyler] and [Ossmann]’s experiments. Spinning the antennas at 20 kHz meant there was only 20 kHz difference in these copies, resulting in a mess that can’t be decoded. The solution was to virtually spin these antennas much faster, resulting in more separation, and a clean signal.

There are significant challenges when it comes to finding the direction of modern radio targets. Internet of Things things sometimes have very short packet duration, modulation interferes with antenna rotation, and packet detection must maintain the phase. That said, is this technique actually able to find the direction of IoT garbage devices? Yes, the demo on stage was simply finding the direction of one of the wireless microphones for the talk. It mostly worked, but the guys have some ideas for the future that would make this technique work a little better. They’re going to try phase demodulation instead of only frequency-based demodulation. They’re also going to try asymmetric antenna arrays and pseudorandom antenna switching. With any luck, this is going to become an easy and cheap way to do pseudo-doppler direction finding, all enabled by a few dollars in hardware and a laser-cut jig to hold a few antennas.

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7 Livestock Breeds for Preppers

by Tara

When the SHTF, the power grid will ultimately fail, regardless of the long term disaster incident. We have prepared to live without a lot of things when readying for a doomsday disaster: electricity, running water, emergency responder services, and using the dollar bill as currency. One thing we will not be able to live without is protein.

Going to a grocery store to replenish our long term storage food stockpiles when they run out, will obviously not be an option. Once the masses grasp the SHTF, the store shelves will empty in hours, and not days, as FEMA so often predicts.

Nearly all preppers have purchased copious amounts of long term storage food and plan on growing some type of a garden to supplement the food needs of their families and/or mutual assistance groups. But unfortunately, far too few of our prepper brothers and sisters have delved deeply enough into the keeping of livestock in an effort to develop both a secure protein and dairy supply.

Whether you are living on what will be your survival retreat now, planning on bugging out to a predetermined location, or will be bugging in inside your urban, suburban, small town, or rural home, there ARE livestock breeds you can and should be keeping.

OPSEC priorities should not deter you from keeping livestock – you just have to make smart choices when choosing both types and breeds of livestock and when making location decisions concerning their housing and feeding areas.

Stock up on commercial bags of feed, hay, straw, and dehydrated produce from your own garden to winter over your breeding pairs and to ensure the animals are well fed if they have to be penned, stalled, or moved indoors for OPSEC reasons.

Top 7 Livestock Breeds Preppers Should Be Keeping

1. Chickens

This is a superb choice for a prepper living on a small survival compound or planning on bugging in anywhere but an urban setting. Some chicken breeds are decidedly more quiet keepers than others. Roosters are the noisy part of the flock, and you really only need two to ensure the long term viability of your flock – it is always best to have a backup rooster in case the lead rooster is killed – the prepping redundancy concept should always apply to your livestock as well.

To prevent roosters from fighting each other as much as possible, raise them together as hatchlings, this ALMOST always works. Bantam roosters are not large and are far more quiet than most other breeds of roosters. Chicken are capable of doubling their numbers in just a single year – providing your both an ongoing source of meat and eggs.

They area low maintenance variety of small livestock that can be easily moved into your garage to live inside a coup with a small run after the SHTF, for OPSEC reasons. The chickens will help create great composting material to cultivate a bountiful harvest and can be placed inside a “chicken tractor” and run up and down the rows of the garden to eat non-beneficial bug to protect the crops being grown to feed the family.

Allow the chickens to free range until the SHTF so they feed themselves the bulk of their diet and rid your yard of bugs at the same time. Because the chickens will not be staying in their chicken run overnight, it does not need to be a secure as the coop, making it very inexpensive to construct.

Build as large of a run as both space and budget allow so the birds can be house inside during a doomsday disaster, and still be able to feed themselves as much as possible. Put a compost pile inside the run and toss kitchen and garden scraps into it to entice the birds to walk about and feed themselves while placing the nutrient-rich droppings in the soil.

2. Rabbits

This is another great choice for preppers on a small compound or who are bugging in inside a traditional home. They are as inexpensive to purchase as chickens, take up very little space, and reproduce rapidly. Neither rabbits nor chickens require advanced butchering knowledge or expensive tools too skin or cut.

Rabbits are more quiet than chickens and can also be moved indoors (even live inside an apartment pen!) when the SHTF. Oddly enough, rabbits that have been solely housed inside a pen and never been fed grass, often become ill and even die, if allowed to have a ground level run.

Build a ground level run onto your pen when purchasing young rabbits to become breeders so they are introduced to a natural feed from day one. The rabbits can be placed inside the chicken tractor and moved about to dine on available grass to ensure they will always have access to sustainable (and free!) feed after the SHTF.

Build a compost bin beneath the rabbit hutches to cultivate even more nutrient rich soil. Growing food in containers, inside a greenhouse, and in your home will vastly increase the amount of crops you can produce and prolong the growing season – rich compost will help the seeds and plant reach their full potential.

3. Pigs

Hogs (the label hog and pig are both used to describe swine) will eat just about anything and root around non-stop on low quality ground to find their own food – one of the reasons they will make awesome SHTF livestock.

Pigs might grow to be extremely large, but they do not need a pasture, or even a big pen. You need to build a sturdy, very sturdy, pen large enough to humanely house the hogs, but you do not want them roaming about a vast area and losing their bulk.

If you purchase a “weaner” a young pig or piglet, during the spring, it will reach butcher weight (about 25 pounds) by the fall. Ideally, you should only winter over your breeding pair to reduce the feeding and housing burden. One bore and two sows, three if you have space, is good breeding pair ratio.

Butchering a pig is a lot of work and does require some means of hoisting the hog into the air while the cutting is completed and/or the pig is scalded. All the hard work does not come without a savory reward.

Nearly every single inch of a pig is edible – even the skin! One hog could supply a family of four with enough meat to last almost all winter – when the entire animals is used for its meat, head cheese, tongue loaf, and stock. If a 225 pound hog was roasted, and only conventional meat cuts were consumed, it would provide about 275 entree servings.

4. Ducks

Like chickens, ducks are a source of both meat and eggs. Domesticated duck breeds, like Pekin, do not fly away during the winter months, or really have the ability to fly more than a foot in the air and for a few feet at a single stretch, away from their starting.

You can house your chicken and duck flocks together – some folks staunchly maintain this is impossible, that roosters will kill the ducks, but I have been engaging in this practice for years and only had a slight problem one time. My big, mean-to-everyone-but-me leghorn rooster that I refer to as Flock Leader, tried to mildly attack a new duckling, so I hit him broadside with a board to prevent him from harming the duckling further, and never had an attack issue again.

I hatch my chickens and ducks at the same time and keep them in the same brooder from day 1, this habit, I believe, makes all the harmonious living inside the same coop, possible. My flocks free range all day and still choose to hang out together in the barn for shade and at the pond – with the ducks swimming and the chicken and roosters getting drinks and pecking for bugs nearby. If the ducks were moved indoors, a baby pool would need to be provided for them so swim in on a regular basis.

Duck eggs are larger and richer than a chicken egg and are excellent in cooking and baking recipes.

5. Guineas

Now, these are definitely NOT quiet birds. There is absolutely no quiet breed of guinea – but you still might want a few. Guineas are natural foragers and once they are taught their boundaries, will never venture too far away if allowed to roam in the woods and roost in the trees at night

They are the junk yard dog of the poultry world, they will let out a high pitched sound anytime they sense a threat is near and will guard your chicken and duck flocks – to the death if necessary, when battling mink, snakes, raccoons, and other small predators.

There is almost no chance an unwanted guest on either two legs or four, will get near your barnyard or home if a flock of guineas are out on patrol. They also will alert the free ranging poultry flock if a hawk or other bird of prey is lurking nearby.

Guineas are often referred to as the poor man’s pheasant. They might not provide a lot of meat, or even especially tasty meat, but the protein the birds can provide will help fuel the bodies of your loved ones and mutual assistance group members, if necessary.

6. Small Goats

Pygmy goats and Nigerian dwarf goats are excellent foragers and “browsers” and can feed themselves even on even mediocre and wooded land. Billy goats can be noisy, but not excessively, except when a doe is in heat.

While both goat breeds can be used for meat and dairy, the Nigerian Dwarf goat is most often regarded as a dairy goat and the pygmy goat as a meat goat breed. After kidding (having a baby goat) once, a doe is likely to produce two or three kids with each following litter – increasing the amount of meat and milk available on the prepper compound. If you have a large garage or pole barn, the goats could relocate inside with the flocks during times of threat or at night for safe keeping during a SHTF scenario.

They will eat just about anything they can find, and that includes anything inside the garage they can get their mouths near – clean the garage area accordingly before converting it to temporary livestock living quarters.

7. Dexter Cattle

This miniature breed of cattle is easy to handle and does not require a large pasture to roam or to feed themselves. You will not garner as much meat and milk from a Dexter cow as you would a standard bovine, but they cost a lot less to feed, require far less space, and can be placed inside a garage at night to protect them from would be thieves. Dexter cows and bulls can range anywhere from a large dog up to a small Jersey cow. Dexters are a bovine heritage breed and are extremely winter hardy animals. Depending upon the quality and age of the cow, you can expect to get 1 to 2 gallons of raw milk from a Dexter.

Horses are not a meat animal, at least not in the United States, but they too can have value on a prepper compound or survival retreat. Once the power grid goes down, horses will once again become not only the primary mode of transportation, they will also be used extensively in farming operations.

During the reconstruction phase after a SHTF disaster, a horse and wagon will help you get to the marketplace which will surely develop, and allow you to trade and barter your crop and wares with other survivors. If hauling a wagon, a plow, or pulling timber sounds like a good option for your post-apocalypse career, invest in a pair of Halflingers or small draft horses – and learn how to trim their hooves and shoe them yourself!

American pioneers survived without electricity, running water, and grocery stores – and we can too. Before purchasing survival livestock, learn as much as you can about common illnesses in the animals, how to detect the illnesses and injuries, and how to care for them naturally. Keeping your animals healthy and their living areas clean is essential if you want to consume their meat and eggs!

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A Modern Take on the Crystal Radio

We’ll admit that [3DSage] has a pretty standard design for a crystal radio. What we liked, though, was the 3D printed chassis with solderless connections. Of course, the working pieces aren’t 3D printed — you need an earphone, a diode, and some wire too. You can see the build and the finished product in the video below.

Winding the coil is going to take awhile, and the tuning is done with the coil and capacitance built into the tuning arrangement so you won’t have to find a variable capacitor for this build. There is a picture of the radio using a razor blade point contact with a pencil lead, so if you want to really scrimp on the diode, that works too, and you can see how at the end of the video.

We did like the use of cord ends from a sewing and craft supply store to serve as solderless springs. This would be a great item to print off a few dozen copies and use it for a school or youth group activity. You might want to pair it with an AM transmitter, though so the kids won’t be dismayed at what is playing on AM in most markets. [3DSage] uses a sink for ground — literally a kitchen sink. However, if you try this, make sure all the pipes are metal or you won’t get a

We’d like to get some of those springs and make some other kind of starter projects with them like the kits many of us had as kids. This reminded us of the old foxhole radios, found during World War II.

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Long-Range RFID Leaflets

Pick a card, any card. [Andrew Quitmeyer] and [Madeline Schwartzman] make sure that any card you pick will match their NYC art installation. “Replantment” is an interactive art installation which invites guests to view full-size leaf molds from around the world.

A receipt file with leaf images is kept out of range in this art installation. When a viewer selects one, and carries it to the viewing area, an RFID reader tells an Arduino which tag has been detected. Solid-state relays control two recycled clothing conveyors draped with clear curtains. The simple units used to be back-and-forth control but through dead-reckoning, they can present any leaf mold front-and-center.

Clothing conveyors from the last century weren’t this smart before, and it begs the question about inventory automation in small businesses or businesses with limited space.

We haven’t seen much long-range RFID, probably because of cost. Ordinary tags have been read at a distance with this portable reader though, and NFC has been transmitted across a room, sort of.

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Lucid Dreaming | Any ideas?

Iv come to realise that atleast 50% of my dreams are at places iv never seen before....so of course I haveto make a habit to ask where am I? Whilst in a dream.
I don't want to constantly ask myself throughout the day..where am I? Because I don't really go many places....If I asked myself 10-20 timetimss a day then it would be me saying 'at home' 15 times and maybe 'walking the Dogs around my area' 5 times a day.
Is there a better way or more fun way of doing this? Thanks =D

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Recreating the Radio from Portal

If you’ve played Valve’s masterpiece Portal, there’s probably plenty of details that stick in your mind even a decade after its release. The song at the end, GLaDOS, “The cake is a lie”, and so on. Part of the reason people are still talking about Portal after all these years is because of the imaginative world building that went into it. One of these little nuggets of creativity has stuck with [Alexander Isakov] long enough that it became his personal mission to bring it into the real world. No, it wasn’t the iconic “portal gun” or even one of the oft-quoted robotic turrets. It’s that little clock that plays a jingle when you first start the game.

Alright, so perhaps it isn’t the part of the game that we would be obsessed with turning into a real-life object. But for whatever reason, [Alexander] simply had to have that radio. Of course, being the 21st century and all his version isn’t actually a radio, it’s a Bluetooth speaker. Though he did go through the trouble of adding a fake display showing the same frequency as the one in-game was tuned to.

The model he created of the Portal radio in Fusion 360 is very well done, and available on MyMiniFactory for anyone who might wish to create their own Aperture Science-themed home decor. Though fair warning, due to its size it does consume around 1 kg of plastic for all of the printed parts.

For the internal Bluetooth speaker, [Alexander] used a model which he got for free after eating three packages of potato chips. That sounds about the best possible way to source your components, and if anyone knows other ways we can eat snack food and have electronics sent to our door, please let us know. Even if you don’t have the same eat-for-gear promotion running in your neck of the woods, it looks like adapting the model to a different speaker shouldn’t be too difficult. There’s certainly enough space inside, at least.

Over the years we’ve seen some very impressive Portal builds, going all the way back to the infamous levitating portal gun [Caleb Kraft] built in 2012. Yes, we’ve even seen somebody do the radio before. At this point it’s probably safe to say that Valve can add “Create cultural touchstone” to their one-sheet.

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Confessions Of A Reformed Frequency Standard Nut

Lucid Dreaming | The Dream Transformation theory

so this induced dream form is to act if your already sleeping and integrate your past dream form In

your newly awaken dream states we all had those dream where we wake up and get a jist of what we


were doing when I eyes were closed this is to interphase your dream and persona in a whole as you

close your eyes you have to forget your reflection your mirror and everything you are darkness as you

dream like this you find out that you are in fact your own universe as if becoming your own alternate universe in your own mind and dreams as you sleep the dream become very contagious wanting to know if you were dreaming or just trying to think outside the box so when you dream this is what you do you use your dream journal as a future reference write out a dream that you want to have then try to attain this as a form as a sleep paralysis every five minutes your eyes are closed open them in then induce the

blinking stare effects over and over as you start blinking you have to make your eyes close in a heavier

position over and over as if your taking drugs the mind is a drugs so act if your a drug attic and the dream drug is your fix as you get into this awareness your mind will start playing tricks on your dream world and when you start to dream you have your own dream universe that no one ever been to but yourself and your attained dreams as you start transforming your dream will become a mirror and reflection of your self doubt and when your have this doubt you be able to attain anything to flying with dragons granting wishes with genies and partying with gypsy

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Lucid Dreaming | The "secret" to having vivid dreams: live a vivid waking life!

As evidenced by the frequent posts here, many people are searching for the "secret" to having (more) vivid dreams. And for good reason -- vivid dreams are one of the most awesome experiences one can have! Vivid dreams are the gateway to lucid dreams: vivid dreams (especially those with presence) + intent/memory to get lucid = lucid dreams. Especially those vivid dreams where you feel a strong sense of "presence," like it is your full waking self, with awareness of who you are.

People frequently ask which pills to take, what foods to eat (cheese? peanut butter? bananas? apple juice? protein powder? mugwort/wormwood? etc.), whether they should live "nofap," and so on. While some substances do have a significant effect upon consciousness and brain chemistry that can affect dreams, I believe these approaches miss the mark. Because I believe the most fundamental ingredient to having vivid dreams is the practice of paying purposeful attention to all conscious experience.

What is a vivid dream? Most people would say that a vivid dream is a dream that we remember extremely clearly, with a lot of detail, both with regards to the senses and to emotions / awareness that we have during the experience. A dream where we remember the feeling of having lived through the experience, with a high degree of presence (the feeling that "I was really there").

Vivid dreams can be practically indistinguishable from vivid waking experiences: we feel a sense of self, we interact with the environment and "others," and we remember the experience quite well, even long after the experience has passed. I like to talk not about "dreams" and "reality," but instead about "waking and dreaming experiences --" in my mind, they are really more or less the same thing, two sides of the same coin. Once you have enough vivid dreams written up in your dream journal, examine those memories and compare them to your memories of your waking experiences. I bet you'll find that the quality of those waking memories are nearly identical to dreaming memories a lot of the time.

I believe that holding dreaming and waking experiences separate from one another is counter-productive. We are who we are (more or less), waking or dreaming. If we live one way and approach our interactions with experience one way during the day (either autopilot, "zoned out," zombie-mode, mindless; or mindful, attentive, aware, lucid), it is extremely likely that we will have exactly the same sort of dreaming experiences at night. Dreaming experiences are not identical of course to waking experiences, because of the physiological changes in the brain that take place in the dream state: our awareness feels like it has been placed under a blanket of fog/haze, and our access to memory is impaired. So our dreaming self is sort of a "muted" version of our waking self. This leads to the argument that we must strive to build a very bright, active, lucid mind, in order to have a chance of having similar bright, vivid experiences in dreams. In addition to the difficulty of becoming suddenly lucid during the more mentally challenging dream state, we are setting up a disharmony: living one way while awake, and wishing to live another way in dreams. This disharmony IMO leads to internal conflict, stress, and anxiety -- and stress and anxiety are well-known enemies of dream recall, vividness, and lucidity.

So now that we understand that all experience (waking, dreaming) can be considered as more or less the same thing, how do we have vivid experiences? Again, a vivid experience is one where we feel like we're really there, and remember it very well. This means that we need to bring along that sense of presence into our experiences: take a moment (as many as you can) to really feel your sense of self, pay attention, on purpose, to what you are doing, what is going on, what you're thinking, how you're reacting to your experiences. Many people will probably recognize this as classical mindfulness, and indeed it is.

We remember best that to which we pay active attention. This is easy to experiment with during the day to prove to yourself. Throughout your day, pick a few moments that you specifically wish to remember in the evening. Pay a lot of close attention to these moments to fix them well in your memory. Then in the evening before bed, hold a "day review" of these memories and see how many of them you can recall, and how vivid those memories are. I think you'll find that the memories of those experiences will be bright and clear, as opposed to other parts of your day where you sort of sailed through mindlessly. Paying attention, on purpose, to your experiences is another aspect of mindfulness.

Our brains are amazing constructs: they adapt to get better and better (by building and widening neural pathways) at the things we do. The more one lives a mindless life, the better one gets at being mindless and the easier it is to get through your day mindlessly. And likewise, the more one lives a mindful life, the better and easier it gets over time to be mindful. This process is not instant. It can take years of study and practice to gain expert status in most disciplines/activities. This is why it takes time for people to start having lucid dreams: it takes time for the brain to react to the new way of being that you're trying to create with lucid dreaming practice. But the initial benefits can start to be seen more or less right away. And with consistent practice, the experiences just keep getting better and better!

My tagline is "Pay attention, reflect, recall" -- I believe these are the foundations of having amazing experiences and memories of those experiences. Practice attention/awareness/mindfulness actively to all conscious experience. Reflect on your experiences (more important for lucidity in dreams, not necessary really for general vividness -- ask yourself "is this dream-like?", discussed more here: FryingMan's Unified Theory of Lucid Dreaming: Pay Attention, Reflect, Recall -- Both Day and Night), and practice recalling your experiences (an evening review of your day before bed, like how we recall dreams in the morning). As you do these things on a regular basis, your brain will adapt and get better and better at doing them. Once I started focusing on being mindful, I noticed that gradually over time my dreams got more and more vivid on a regular basis. It got to the point where after about half a year, I noticed I was having epic (long, detailed, vivid, fascinating, amazing) non-lucid dreams frequently, sometimes every night, and getting lucid more and more (lucidity is another story for another post -- it requires additional strong intent to be lucid in dreams).

So stop looking for short-cuts, and start living mindfully -- I promise your life (both waking and dreaming experiences) "will change in extraordinary ways"[*].

* The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep

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You’ll Really Want An “Undo” Button When You Accidentally Send A Ballistic Missile Warning

Hawaiians started their weekend with quite a fright, waking up Saturday morning to a ballistic missile alert that turned out to be a false alarm. In between the public anger, profuse apologies from officials, and geopolitical commentary, it might be hard to find some information for the more technical-minded. For this audience, The Atlantic has compiled a brief history of infrastructure behind emergency alerts.

As a system intended to announce life-critical information when seconds count, all information on the system is prepared ahead of time for immediate delivery. As a large hodgepodge linking together multiple government IT systems, there’s no surprise it is unwieldy to use. These two aspects collided Saturday morning: there was no prepared “Sorry, false alarm” retraction message so one had to be built from scratch using specialized equipment, uploaded across systems, and broadcast 38 minutes after the initial false alarm. In the context of government bureaucracy, that was really fast and must have required hacking through red tape behind the scenes.

However, a single person’s mistake causing such chaos and requiring that much time to correct is unacceptable. This episode has already prompted a lot of questions whose answers will hopefully improve the alert system for everyone’s benefit. At the very least, a retraction is now part of the list of prepared messages. But we’ve also attracted attention of malicious hackers to this system with obvious problems in design, in implementation, and also has access to emergency broadcast channels. The system needs to be fixed before any more chaotic false alarms – either accidental or malicious – erode its credibility.

We’ve covered both the cold-war era CONELRAD and the more recent Emergency Broadcast System. We’ve also seen Dallas’ tornado siren warning system hacked. They weren’t the first, they won’t be the last.

(Image: Test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM via US Air Force.)

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Dust Off Those AM Radios, There’s Something Good On!

If you are into vintage electronics or restoring antique radio equipment you may be very disappointed with the content offerings on AM broadcast radio these days. Fortunately there is a way to get around this: build your own short-range AM broadcast station and transmit curated content to your radios (and possibly your neighbors). There are several options for creating your own short-range AM broadcast station, and this gives you something fun to tune into with your vintage radio gear.

Antique Radios See Daily Use Once More

We see a ton of antique radios turned into Internet radios. Perhaps this is fine if the internals are beyond saving, but what about great old AM radios which still work? Pull them out and try your hand at vintage repair because you’re about to start your own broadcasts that make them relevant once more.

 

The Hard (But Fun) Way: Build Your Own Tube Transmitter

For many audiophiles, you can do no better than a tube amp, so why not take the same stand on your AM transmitter build. You can build your own from scratch using some go-to home AM transmitter designs that have been around for the last 60 or 70 years.

We like Evan’s AM transmitter design which traces its lineage all the way back to a 1939 Zenith model S-7000 Wireless Record Player transmitter. After building the circuit as recommended, he began tweaking the design and ended up with the project box seen above that works with three different tubes.

Phil’s transmitter design, called the Li’l 7, is one you should consider as well. It has extensive documentation, including Bill of Materials (and where to source them!) and assembly instructions. The image we included above is particularly fun; it’s not one of Phil’s but a breadboard version built by a fan of the design.

For a more advanced single-tube AM transmitter you have to check out Robert Weaver’s design which uses a compactron. The compactron is basically 3 tubes crammed into one envelope. These were popularly used as cost-saving devices in later-model vacuum tube television sets.

The Easy Way: Buy an AM Transmitter.

As for me, I have two young children, a demanding job, and not as much time as I used to. I wanted something that would work straight out of the box. I also wanted decent quality modulation so I didn’t want to use a grid modulated AM transmitter. Given these requirements I settled on the Spitfire.

Spitfire’s output is only 100mW into a very short inefficient antenna. I’ve found that by adding more wire you can significantly increase the range. I’m sure that if a really long wire were used you could cover your entire block, but not much further.

You need not be limited to my suggestion, other AM transmitter options include the SSTRAN, and the ‘talking house‘. Grab an old phone, iPod, or even a reel to reel as your music source; anything with a headphone jack that plays audio will do. I looked around and found this inexpensive bare-board MP3 player on eBay and simply glued it to the top of the box.

Be the DJ

Most of the fun in this is actually locating and loading up unique content, putting it in the right sequence — you know, being an AM radio DJ!

My preference is for pre-1950’s jazz and swing music, so I loaded my playlist accordingly. But this wasn’t enough, after some digging I found numerous WW2 news bulletins from the front as well as recordings of music programs.  I also found these vintage commercials which can be fun to sprinkle into your playlist.

There are also some excellent recordings of pirate AM broadcasts available online. One called ‘Grosse Pointe Gardens’ is my favorite. It is basically an entire quasi-live jazz concert broadcast by someone out of his basement from a suburb of Detroit. The quality and creativity are absolutely amazing. It sounds as if a pre-war radio program bounced off a large cloud of interstellar dust back to earth many light years later. You can have a listen here and even download the file to add to your short-range AM radio station’s playlist.

Dust Off Those AM Radios, There’s Something Good On!

Below is a demo of my short-range AM transmitter operating a pre-war battery set, a mid-century Telefunken tabletop radio, and two WW2 military radios. I didn’t build my own transmitter, but I’m having a lot of fun and I may take on one of those transmitter designs as a future project. For now, I’m happy to tune into something that I want to hear on myAM dial!

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Survival Shelter Lighting Options

by Tara

Building a survival shelter to protect your family, or the entire community during a disaster, is a monumental task. Build and stock it wrong, and it will be the last chore you will ever do. Long term lighting is one of the vital elements you must consider when designing and building a survival shelter of any dimension.

During a nuclear disaster or any type of long term SHTF scenario, the power grid will surely fail in a relatively short amount of time. Simply flipping a switch will not provide light to the otherwise pitch dark survival shelter.

Low Cost Survival Shelter Lighting Options

Stocking up on batteries to power lanterns, flashlights, and similar camping light sources is yet another option, but should not be solely relied upon. Even the deepest of battery stockpiles will run out eventually. If space is at a premium in a personal survival shelter, the batteries will take up a substantial amount of real estate in an already cramped space.

If your private or community survival shelter is not below ground, and it is at least relatively safe to go outside, you have a plethora of low cost lighting options that do not require extensive battery storage.

• Solar Power Landscaping Lights – These lights can be carried like torches or placed in holders and used like sconces on the walls, lanterns handing from a hook, or even grouped together to form a chandelier. The lights would need to be charged all day in either a window with ample sunlight, or placed outside and then brought back indoors at dusk. Any time a shelter inhabitant goes outside, they are placing themselves and everyone else at risk. Varying the time the lights are placed outdoors to charge may help deter an attack from covert and watchful marauders eager to find the right time to charge and get inside the shelter.
• Solar Powered Lightbulbs – The nominally priced gadgets are often sold to give light inside chicken coops. The lightbulb shaped solar lamps can be attached to a wall or the ceiling just inside a door and the small and lightweight solar charging panel hung outside to garner a constant charge without the need to move the light outside or near a winder to garner more juice from the sun.
• Solar Table Lights – These lights are larger than solar landscaping lights and have a flat back so they can sit on a patio table or stand to give a soft light for at least several hours, usually up to four.
• Hanging Tent Solar Lights – The camping lights often come as a fan combo with a hook so they can be hung inside the tent to provide hands-free light.
• Solar Lanterns – These lanterns largely resemble their propane counter parts and are capable off putting off enough light to brighten an entire room – giving you ample light to read by.
• Task Lights – The solar task lights or spot lights may be the brightest solar lighting option available. Each task lights is capable of producing about as much light as a 40-watt incandescent light bulb.

Manual Power Systems

A manual power generator of some type is a great idea for a survival shelter, but only as a backup to a fully functioning automatic power system.

Manual air blowers and power systems could work well during a short term disaster, as long as enough able bodies were present inside the shelter to keep them going.

Hank crank generators sell for anywhere from $100 to $3,0000. The Crank-a-Watt Emergency Hand Crank Generator Deluxe Liberty model is one of the best manual generator options on the market.

It may be powerful enough to power a coffee maker, a microwave, and even a deep water well pump! The 1600 watt version of the hand crank generator boasts an EMP proof alternator system that includes 2 stage high output alternators. The Crank-a-Watt generator can begin churning out power at only 1 RPM. It takes only a moderate amount of effort to crank and has two cast iron fly wheels that help increase momentum.

The 750 watt DC to AC inverter has a USB power. The unit also comes complete with two 50 amp heavy duty drive belts and rectifiers and one exterior power connection. The system is fairly lightweight, weighing less than 90 pounds without the batteries inside, and runs silently. The Crank-a-Watt generator comes in a case with wheels for easy storage and portability.

Shelter Power Systems

Power will be your life support system when living either underground or in an above ground sealed survival shelter. A large capacity power system should be second to only the quality of materials used to build the physical shelter structure on the priority list.

A shelter power system functions just like a home or public building power system. Water is transferred by an electrical or gas pump, air is both filtered and moved by the same power system pump, and lights and charging panels for C power, radios, and other equipment, run off the same system, as well.

Solar Power Systems and Panels

Solar generators and panels can add value to a private or public survival shelter. But, such systems are extremely vulnerable to EMP disasters, vandalism by the unprepared who are trying to force themselves inside, and by debris them will be cast about during natural disasters.

If considering a solar powered system to bring light to the survival shelter, invest in an EMP shielded enclosure designed to protect the solar panels or solar generator during the SHTF scenario that prompted you to run to the shelter for safety. How effective such enclosures would be against a mega Earth-directed solar flare, man-made EMP attack, or nuclear war, is not abundantly clear. We can only rely on simulated tests to predict how effective EMP enclosures for solar panels and solar generators could be during such a doomsday disaster.

Storing the solar panels inside the EMP enclosures in the EMP-proof survival shelter may be the best way to harden the power devices against an electromagnetic pulse event. The solar panels or generator must be taken outdoors and attached after the SHTF event has taken place, putting the installers potentially in harm’s way.

Fuel Generators

Conventional fuel generators are yet another options to bring power for lights and other essential air and water systems to the survival shelter. There are three major drawbacks to employing such a system to light the shelter – damage, theft and exposure.

Fuel generators must be run and resupplied with fuel outdoors. The fuel cans must be stored either inside the shelter – creating a potential health and safety problem and taking up valuable space.

The generator could quickly and easily be damaged or stolen while in operation outside of the survival shelter. If the shelter was a community safe space, placing the generator on top of the roof of the designated shelter building would help deter theft, but not to a substantial degree.

The individual tasked with venturing outdoors to put more fuel into the generator would be placed in significant danger from either the initiating disaster event if it involved a nuclear attack or a pandemic, or marauders who want to get inside the shelter and take what does not belong to them while finding a safe place of ride out the apocalypse.

The Norad Shelter System diesel generator carries a high price tag, but it is likely one of the most durable and accessible survival shelter power generator systems on the market. The generators run on diesel fuel, which is a far better option in a survival situation than gasoline. Diesel fuel has a far long shelf life, a higher ignition point, and generators which run on the fuel typically consumer 1/3 less fuel than gasoline when producing an equivalent amount of power.

The EMP shielded generator is contained inside an aluminum housing unit that allows air to enter through via an EMP shielded vent. The gaskets adjacent to the generator housing unit’s access door are also EMP shielded.

The Norad shelter systems come in various capacities. In a large family or mutual assistance group shelter designed to hold up to 60 people, the generator will run about three to six hours each day to charge a batter pack.

In larger community style shelters, the same efficient system will run all day and alternator between two different generators hooked up to the same system.

The 2kW Portable Mechron Power System military style diesel generator is another great option to provide light and power to a survival shelter. They typically can run on only about 1 pint of diesel fuel per how. The hardy brush type diesel generators may be a lot less vulnerable to an electromagnetic pulse than common commercial generators.

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Lucid Dreaming | Self Awareness + Senses Initiated LD - 1 Month Test

Hi,

First of all thank you for all the info you gave me by sharing your experience and knowledge.
I'm still in the process of learning to achieve lucidity.
I wanna start giving something back to the community by doing a 1 month test of what I think are the techniques most suited to me to gauge their effectiveness and finally start to obtain some consistent result. If I see some positive effects, I'll continue the test; otherwise I'll change the techniques used.

What I'll be doing:
- Daytime Self-Awareness
- Visualization practice during the day
- SSILD during night awakenings (active imagination or passive awareness according to level of wakefulness)
- Dream recall in the morning (writing down only LDs)

p.s. I'll try to achieve nightime awakenings without alarm, with auto-suggestion or with some meditation before sleep.

Every suggestion, question and criticism will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

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Fallen Radiosonde Reborn as Active L-band Antenna

If your hobby is chasing radiosondes across vast stretches of open country, and if you get good enough at it, you’ll eventually end up with a collection of the telemetry packages that once went up on weather balloons to record the conditions aloft. Once you’ve torn one or two down though, the novelty must wear off, which is where this radiosonde conversion to an active L-band antenna comes from.

As it happens, we recently discussed the details of radiosondes, so if you need a primer on these devices, check that out. But as Australian ham [Mark (VK5QI)] explains, radiosondes are a suite of weather instruments crammed into a lightweight package with a GPS receiver and a small transmitter. Lofted beneath a weather balloon into the stratosphere, a radiosonde transmits a wealth of data back to the ground before returning on a parachute after the balloon bursts. [Mark] had his eyes on the nice quadrifilar helical antenna used by the Vaisla R92 radiosonde’s GPS receiver, with the aim of repurposing them. He had a lot of components to remove while still retaining the low-noise amplifier (LNA), but in the end managed to get a working antenna with 40 dB gain in the L-band, and with the help of an RTL-SDR dongle he picked up solid signals from Iridium satellites.

Want to score your own radiosonde to play with? First, you have to know how to listen in so you can find them. Or, you know – there’s always eBay.

[via RTL-SDR.com]

Filed under: Radio Hacks

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Top 5 Bolt Action Hunting Rifles for Survival

by Nicholas

When assembling your survival armory, you will need to focus on buying guns that each fills a specific need. I recommend that at least one of those guns should be a bolt-action hunting rifle in a long-range caliber such as .308 or .30-06, fitted with a scope.

While a bolt action rifle may not be the gun that you use the most (in fact, it might be the gun you use the least in a SHTF situation), no gun collection or survival armory is complete without one. Let’s go over the reasons why you should own one, and then talk about the top five models to consider.

WHY OWN A BOLT ACTION RIFLE?

To many, a scoped bolt action hunting rifle with a blued barrel and wooden stock is the archetypal American firearm. That being said, there are still many more reasons to own a bolt-action rifle beyond trying to fit in with fellow preppers:

Big Game Hunting

First and foremost, a long-range rifle in a larger caliber does something that a smaller rifle in an intermediate caliber (such as an AR or AK) cannot do. It can take down big game. Granted, people use AR-15s in 5.56 for deer hunting all the time, but a larger round such as .308 or .30-06 is still a better choice. Especially if you plan on going after even larger game such as elk, bear, or moose.

Long-Range Anti-Personnel Weapon

All the same, you can also use the old hunting rifle you keep in your closet as a long-range anti-personnel weapon if you have to as well. If your home or property is being attacked by opponents at distances that are too far away for your pistols, shotguns, or even your AR-15, a hunting rifle in a bigger caliber will do the job. Yes, it has a slow rate of fire and reloading times, but it will still accurately reach targets at distances that none of your other weapons can.

Using a rifle as an anti-personnel weapon at great distances can be tricky, but one fellow writer (Reaper) breaks it down in his article “How to Shoot Like a Sniper”. In that article, he describes various techniques you can use to accurately engage targets at long distances. Since we’re on the subject of bolt-action rifles that can reach out to greater distances, check it out.

Simplicity

These days, there are plenty of semi-automatic rifles such as AR-15s, AR-10s, and FALs that are chambered in .308 Winchester. You might question why you need a bolt rifle when you could go with a semi-auto. When it comes down to it though, a bolt action is simpler. There are less parts that could fail. Simply load the magazine and chamber with a new round by manually cycling the bolt. If you’re out hunting and desperate for food, you simply can’t afford for your hunting rifle to fail. This is one advantage that a bolt gun provides over a semi-automatic.

For these three reasons, you need to have at least one bolt action hunting rifle with a scope in your survival armory. Your choice of caliber is up to you, but most survivalists would recommend that you stick with .308 Winchester or .30-06 Springfield. Both will kill practically any game in the United States, and they’re easy to find. Nonetheless, other calibers you could consider as well include the .338 Winchester Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum, .270 Winchester, or 7mm Remington Magnum.

The next question then comes as to what specific manufacturer and model you should choose when looking for a traditional bolt hunting rifle. While there are a nearly limitless number of options, these five stand out above the rest:

REMINGTON 700 / OR REMINGTON 770

The Remington 700 earns a spot on this list simply because it’s the best-selling bolt action rifle of all time. Not only does that say a lot about its quality, it also means that spare parts and accessories for the rifle are incredibly easy to find.

The Remington 700 was originally introduced in 1962, with the first models chambered in Remington’s new 7mm Remington Magnum round. Since then though, the 700 has been made available for practically any major bolt action caliber you can think of.

When the 700 was first released, the Winchester Model 70 was the top selling rifle in North America. But the Model 70 had just one problem: it was expensive to make and, thus, expensive to buy. Hunters in need of a high-quality rifle for less money were naturally drawn to the new Model 700, and it became a huge success.

The Model 700 has gained a strong reputation for accuracy, ruggedness, and reliability. Subsequently, not only has it been used extensively by civilians, it’s also been adopted by a variety of military and police forces. It features a push feed action, single stage trigger, and a two-position safety, which differed from the Model 70.

Today, the Remington Model 700 is still an excellent all-around option for a hunting or a sniper rifle. They are produced in a countless number of variants with different lengths, finishes, and stock types available. It shouldn’t be the only rifle you consider, but it should at least be one of them.

The Remington Model 770 is very similar to the Model 700, but is a more basic model. The Model 770 is limited on its options compared to its counterpart (barrel size for instance), but is less expensive. Because of this, the Model 770 is a great option for preppers looking for a more inexpensive way to engage targets at longer distances.

RUGER AMERICAN

The Ruger American is the budget option on this list. Reasonably priced in the $300 to $400 range (sometimes with a scope combination), it certainly doesn’t offer the same level of eminence as a Remington 700 or a Winchester 70. But it does offer you the best quality for the price range.

The Ruger American is a unique rifle because it feeds from a rotary magazine, which can also be removed from the gun, so you can swap out magazines in a tactical fashion if you want to. Even though it’s fairly low-priced, Ruger still invested much time into making the American rifle as good as it can be.

To this end, the Ruger American is installed with a hammer forged barrel that has been coated in a rust resistant black oxide finish with a tang mounted safety that’s easy to use. It has a fully adjustable trigger and a composite stock that’s available in a variety of colors.

In short, if you need the best quality bolt rifle you can get for less than $500, the Ruger American should be your first choice.

RUGER GUNSITE SCOUT

Another option for a bolt action rifle from Ruger is the Gunsite Scout Rifle. This is a short, carbine length rifle with a detachable 5 or 10 round magazines, a rail for adding scopes, and chambered in the .308 Winchester round. While the Gunsite Scout doesn’t have quite the range as the other rifles on this list due to its shorter length, the trade-off is it will be more nimble in tight situations and better suited as a brush or truck gun.

The Gunsite Scout is today offered in a number of different configurations, including synthetic or wooden stocks, blued or stainless finishes, and right-handed or left-handed bolts. It’s also available in 5.56x45mm NATO. The .308 version is far better suited for big game hunting.

WINCHESTER MODEL 70

Also, known as the “Rifleman’s Rifle”, the Winchester Model 70 is perhaps the most iconic bolt action rifle of all times. The models made before 1964, also known as the “pre-64” variations, are considered by many to be the finest rifles ever produced in history.

Facing tough competition from the lesser priced Remington 700, Winchester lowered the price of the Model 70 after 1964, but they also changed the design to use a push feed operation rather than the Mauser-inspired claw extractor that the pre-64 used. This new Model 70 was regarded as lesser quality, so Winchester returned to producing the “pre-64” type action (only using CNC machining techniques) in the 1990s.

Winchester briefly went out of business in 2006, but in late 2007 it was announced that FN would be manufacturing new Model 70s under the Winchester name due to licensing agreements. Winchester Model 70s have been produced by FN ever since, and have sold well.

The Model 70 is today offered in practically any caliber and configuration you can think of. Not only are they very sleek looking and smooth in operation, they’re also very durable and accurate.  The Winchester Model 70 isn’t cheap by any means, but it truly offers the best you could ask for out of a production bolt rifle.

WEATHERBY MARK V

The last bolt action rifle that we will talk about is another highly influential design: the Weatherby Mark V. The Mark V was specifically designed to handle the biggest Magnum calibers there are. As a result, it uses a more durable receiver, bolt, and lugs. However, the Mark V is also available in more common calibers such as .300, .30-06, or .308.

Out of all the rifles on this list, the Mark V is easily the most prestigious and expensive. But you definitely get what you pay for, because the Mark V is specifically designed to last for many generations while also being able to handle the largest and hardest hitting calibers out there. If you want to find just the right blend between strength and luxury, and have the budget for it, the Mark V should be your top choice.

As with the other rifles on this list as well, the Mark V is available in wide variety of configurations, with different options for barrel lengths, stock types, and finishes.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, every survival armory needs to have at least one rifle that uses a bolt-action operation and has a scope. Such a rifle will be the best gun to use for long-range anti-personnel use or for big game hunting. It’s also important that you select a rifle that will last you a lifetime and will deliver optimal performance, something that any of the rifles in this article will do.

via Modern Survival Online http://ift.tt/2DYzEXL