In the movie "Independence Day" those were no-code aliens.




de RadioRay ..._ ._

WINMOR can be used ham2-ham for error FREE transfer of anything that you can send over internet.  More useful is that it also allows you to send/receive 'normal' e-mail through about three dozen e-mail/radio servers located around the US and Canada.  This means that if you lose internet at your location or are on the move and have none at the present time, you CAN send/receive e-mail with those who still have it.  These e-mail/radio ground stations or ANY WINMOR ham station can also be used as an on-the-air mail box - very similar to the old dial-up BBSs during the pre-internet days to hand-off messages directly from one ham to the other when they log into that intermediary station.

In short - yes - e-mail over radio is and has been around for a couple of decades and it's esier , more effective and less expensive than it's ever been. When you are busy 'survivin' you might not be able to make your skeds that require same freq/same time, but e-mail over radio is as handy as 'normal' e-mail.



>de RadioRay ..._ ._

Those who are familiar with the Peltier effect, know that you can use power into it to produce a temperature difference betweentwo sides ofa single device OR induce a temperature differene to produce electricity, at fairly hefty current.  Well, here is a mini-ducted fan camp stove that is VERY efficient on fuel AND recharges USB devices.  I have never used this unit, but have worked with Peltier devices before for heating/cooling of metalic plates.

http://shop.biolitestove.com/BioLite-CampStove_p_15.html


I can imagine a coffee shop on Stattan Island using Hurricane debris & these for hot java/soup while recharging phones without infrastructure.


>de RadioRay ..._ ._

Now I'm hungry for . . . CAKE !      Mooooo-ha-ha-ha!

I've spent most of my life prepped and on the edge of one wilderness or other - unless I was working overseas, and even then, I had at least three plans in place.  Now that things are actually closing in, I'm no longer young & strong and am in fact injured. While I do live in a great location in my immediate county or two, I am far from where I used to live - in the mountains of Idaho.  My preps are probably at the worst point in thirty years, but slowly crawling forward again.  An advantage is the land that we live on is very good, and location - brilliant! surrounded by farm land and forest on a semi-isolated peninsula. The weather is generally mild with 40's considered to be cold and only rarely below freezing. Being 70 air miles from Washington D.C. is somewhat prejudicial . . .    :P

As for the almost 'humming' numbness - I do sense that here and on other boards.  I think that many are reconsidering their preps , the much more obvious need for them and wondering how little time we have before the talking heads on the TV begin to use phrases like 'dollar devaluation' , 'civil unrest in major cities',  (read: unrestricted rioting, raping and murder by the usual suspects) 'gun-collection' for food, and lock-down  of sub-urban & rural areas by law enforcement and military (foreign?) where 'right wing racists' are taking the law into their own hands (Translated: normal people are defending themselves.) .  I think that if anything, this latest propaganda exercise is making Prepper's transition from a theoretical 'some-day' exercise to an actual time-line, and beginning to wonder just how far we are behind the time-curve.

Who knows - maybe in ten years this will all prove to be nothing, but I think that many of us are now living on the edge of dread, understanding like we never have before and THEY are in control - not us.  Whether 'blue or red', I think that many people understand that this was a political farce.  An exercise in controlled opposition and that we're increasingly being pointed toward the slaughter house door with fewer options and at ever increasing speed. A few 'handy' 9/11 type events and we can be whipped into a full gallop, carried along by the herd into the chute to the slaughter house door.  We have the power to shut this down, but we do not have the direction to resist effectively - yet.  // Personally - I believe that direction is going to be from God. //


Now back to Yahoo! to see what those Khardasian sisters are wearing . . . and why that sweaty football player has his arms around those pretty college co-eds, Lindsay LowBrow in her new movie & other "IMPORTANT" stuff designed to distract and numb me . If only I owned a TV - then everything would be OK!   ::)



73 de RadioRay ..._ ._

Guilty & guilty-er . . .

I once had a brand-new, shiney engineer challenge me, whether I knew Pi off the top of my head;  I said "Sure!  3.579".  He looked at me oddly - thinking   :o  Then I realized that as a HAM RADIO GUY, I had rattled-off the frequency of the T.V. color burst crystal I had scrounged for my 80 meter QRP rig, not Pi.  The funny thing is that I said it so confidently, that he never challenged me as to whether it was correct or not!


Yes - Ham radio is mildly contageous but once it is in your system, a cure is unlikely.


>de RadioRay ..._ ._

It never ceases to amaze me, the reactions of people to the idea of prepping.  I was wading through a media-hyped Prepper story on Yahoo (I know - whyyyy bother???) and the number of dolts who criticise having basic preps like water, food and firearms, in light of the ongoing tragedy in Nj/Ny is simply amazing.   It broke down into a few catagories:

How stupid - what if a giant meteor came down on your house, how would this help?

How stupid - what are the odds of your ever needing water and food?

How stupid - I'll come there with my "gun" and kill you and take your food.

How stupid - the government will come there with black helicopers and take your food.

How smart - I need to do more of that.


New Jersey and New York are still in the news, with all that entails and this is the general response?  It simply amazes me how ignorant people can be.  A disaster might just be a 'correction' in the gene pool.



Your Thoughts?



de RadioRay ..._ ._

Ps. Somewhere, there's a cow looking at the pasture gate -vs- the door to the slaughter house and wondering . . .

The More People Change, the more they stay the same. We do the same silly things that were in style 2 millenia ago.

I was reading through a bit about the life of Cicero in ancient Rome. At the time, there was a list of the enemies of the Emperor. Here's the deal:

#2.  Put that 'somebody's' name on the list.  (Evidence not required)
#3.  Receive YOUR reward which is taken from part of their property, or get it ALL for an amazingly low price.

You ask 'Where is #1?" .  Oh, that's the easy part:

#1. Find somebody with 'stuff' nicer than yours. It's helpful but not essential to not like them and sometimes better for YOU if you DO like them, because it's all the more convincing.

Now, Cicero was brilliant, well liked by the people, upwardly mobile and feared by many in the political elite. He ALSO had a great family farm in an upscale neighborhood and lot's of other 'cool stuff'. Wonder what Cicero was concerned about happening to him?  Yes - The List - - -

Politicians have not changed one iota - except maybe that they don't need to be nearly as intelligent or careful. At least in Cicero's day, even an Emporer could find himself torn apart by a mob, or stabbed to death on the way to work by a bunch of other politicians during the ides of March.  Today - politicians have it WAY too easy!


Et Tu Brute?


>de RadioRay ..._ ._

The reason that be have a million obscure "laws" is so that everyone is guilty of something.  It makes tyrany so much easier.

Until 2007 when I moved aboard my little sailboat, these were my ride in the garage area at work. Oh - and these models are automonous >>> Not a Standard Stryker. 



I remember reading on one survival board the question of how to get home from work in an SHTF situation.  With what we had at work - everyone was going home with no troubles at all. Nothing outside of military anti-armor weapons inventory as going to stop these.

These days - I'm an ageing ex-engineer who pretty-much either drives a little Toyota or trys to walk . . .


It was fun while it lasted.
de RadioRay ..._ ._

 ... begins when we realize that we have so much to learn and that we cannot learn it all in this phase of our existance.


I look forward to eternity.



>Ray

Yes!  That's some good schtuph!

Many years ago (shortly after the Earth's crust cooled) I took a fancy to the Danner Ft. Lewis boot. In it's day, that was hot stuff and many of the Army Ranger types liked them as well (probably where the name came from). 

You're absolutely on the right track.  My reff against the flexi-runner type 'trail walkers' for wilderness work, is more for those who might read here for general ideas about gear. Those shoes are advertised so heavily as being for backpacker's, but my experience iwth those types has been "OK-feels nice" upfront, but barely adequate protection & very poor retention of structual integrity/support over time . As I am certain that you know, there is a world of difference between trail walking -v- humping a ruck when your life depends upon it and you have NO logistics chain to keep you in footgear.

de RadioRay ..._ ._

Wilderness tip (from an ex-mountainman)

I know that you know this, but I'll mention it anyway. Get the BEST boots that you can afford.  If your feet fail - you are in a world of trouble! For bounding down a well packed, yuppie-friendly trail while munching a Cliff bar or slurping an energy goo; low, lite flexi-shoes are fine.  However, for the real world off trail, heavy, tough and supportive are more important.  Match the boot to the environment.  Form me in the mountains of the west I exclusively work Meindl boots from Germany.  They cost a fortune, but in harsh, rocky, up/down carrying heavy loads - excellent.  Down in the Florida ticky-boonies, you may have some other boot type that works best, perhaps with features like Panama soles for shedding mud & etc. Nobody likes to do ten miles with 20 pounds of mud on each foot !  ha ha

Forget jungle boots, unless you're living IN the water.  If you step in one or two puddles a day, those water exit valves in the arch only make for unnecessarily wet socks. If you're wading through swamps, then consider them water shoes on steroids and make certain that you've had a ton of vaccinations for all the microscopic crap in swampy water.    :o
  I happen to LOVE jungle boots, for wearing in light duty, temperate environments,  so I RTV the vent holes.


Sheath knife - Hood Punk.  or similar.


As for the secondary useage of the head net - we weren't even near any mosquitoes, but it gave me a smile when later I was.   ;)



73 de RadioRay ..._ ._

My pleasure Gil.  It was good to listen for your signal and frankly, I much prefer the receiver in the K2, to the one in the EOC 746PRO for CW.  I have their equipment at the house for some work that I'm doing for them.

-...-
You did well!  CW is a superb mode for EMCOMM and you & I passed specific sentances in a maner VERY siilar to passing radio traffic: 'fills' in the form of repeates & etc.   In time, we can work on how to streamline that. During this recent Hurricane Sandy, I had a relatively short message to pass to Richmond, Va.  Unfortunately, though we had an excellent voice link, passing traffic in voice is a pain, inefficient of time & etc.  I had to send it to the guy three times. In Morse it would have taken about 1-2 minutes for the message and maybe another 2 minutes for the fill - if he were not a professional at traffic handling.  As it was, is sounded like
"... Ocran Road - I Spell OSCAR, CHARLIE, ROMEO ALPHA, ROMEO . . . ".  iN mORSE MESSAGE HANDLING, IT'S ALWAYS "SPEED THROUGH ACCURACY.". Better 14 words per minute accurately, than 20 words per minute, filled with errors and fills.
-...-
Yes - 100 Watts   :-[   I have sinned and not even in those FUN ways which I much prefer.   ;)    However, I thought that the extra 1.5 S-units might be noticed by you.  ha ha   Really the difference between the 15 Watts'ish from you and 100 W from me does not amount to much difference on receive. If we took the time to find the best hour between us for that band, we'd likely have roaring strong sigs - not that it matters.  Once we were reliably readable in code, it was all gravy from there, especially for your mosquitoes.    :o
-...-


de RadioRay ..._ ._

Ps. My 3 day kit had full-mil DEET and even my survival knife sheath pouch contains a mosquito head net.  Works fine with a boonie hat and I remember this delightful Sweetie from Texas wearing it and ONLY it around one evening, like some sort of Tactical Victoria's Secret nightie while I was packing my gear.  Aaaaah, Texas ladies are something special.

When I owned an FT-817 I kept it and accessories inside of a Maxpedition FatBoy.  It fit the radio well and had just enough room for the little LDG autocoupler, wire for antennas and a few other sundry items.   They come in 'fashion' colors to match any post-TEOTWAKI look you may be going for and has that fashionable, not mearly 'trendy' off-the-shoulder-look, because accessories make the outfit.   ;D  Even a survivor should look cool. // ha ha ah ah //



>de RadioRay ..._ ._