Emergency Prep Info for 09/17/2013

=== Mag Mount Antenna ===
Here is an example of the mag mount antennas that we discussed on the net last week.  Very Handy!
http://tinyurl.com/pe6fv8l

=== FEMA And Your Food Supply ===
=== UPDATE 09/18/2013 - See Below ===
There is a rumor going around that a recently signed executive order directs FEMA to enter the homes of private citizens in a disaster (with or without permission) and take ALL their emergency food and water.  For the "Common Good".  

If someone can verify/refute this rumor please let us know.  In the meantime, some folks are selling preparedness info on how to avoid this starvation fate.  The fact that they are selling the info makes their motives and claims a little suspicious.  However, here is a link to the info and you can decide for yourself if it is worthwhile.  Don't waste time watching the video, click to leave the page and you will get the entire presentation as a text file.  You can read the text file in 1/10th the time the video takes.  You also get a BIG discount because you were about to leave the page.  It is here.

http://www.backyardliberty.com/vsl/

UPDATE 09/18/2013 - I have read the entire executive order.  I believe that the story about FEMA planning to take your food supply is pure malarky.  The executive order does give various agencies the power (in a declared NATIONAL emergency) to take over the means of food PRODUCTION.  This would be farms and factories.  This makes sense.  Going door to door to grab privately owned food would really not secure much food.  (Only a very small fraction of the US population have ANY food storage)  Taking over entire farms and factories and making sure they continue to operate at full capacity would produce a LOT more food.  

I therefore think the hydroponic "solution" is interesting but may not be practical in Utah where we get very cold, snowy winters.  Plus, I do not have a problem with the way the executive order is worded since it only relates to officially declared national disasters and only affects those involved in large scale food production.

Here is what SNOPES has to say about all this:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/ndrp.asp

The actual executive order is contained here in its entirety.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness

=== Emergency Supplies Under $5 each ===
There are LOTS of emergency supplies available for less than $5 each.  You can read about that here.  

http://www.survivallife.com/2013/09/16/71-survival-items-under-5-00/

Also check out the link on the right side of the page about raising chickens for meat and eggs.  I know a few people in SLC that are doing this now.

=== Saturday Morning Emergency Drill ===
Remember that at 8AM on Saturday the 21st, we will be having our annual Foothill Stake Emergency Drill.  Ham Radio Volunteers are still needed.

-N7OZH-

WD40 and Negative Panic and How To Scare Off Bad Guys

13+ Amazing Uses for WD-40

WD-40 has far more uses than just on squeaky hinges. Find out the amazing ways this garage staple can make your life easier.

http://www.rd.com/slideshows/13-amazing-uses-for-wd-40



===== Scare Off The Bad Guys =====

Do you know what is the safest, cheapest, and easiest way to scare off just about any home burglar?

It's not a gun. Or a taser. It's actually much, much safer and simpler than that...

The source of this technique is a guy named Jack MacLean.

You see, Jack MacLean went to jail for stealing more than $130 million worth of jewels. And during his time in jail, he interviewed more than 300 fellow burglars.

What he found was that the #1 thing that would scare off every single one of these 300 burglars was not an alarm system... a dog... or light timers... but rather a really loud horn.

Yes, you heard that correctly... a very loud horn.

Every one of these burglars said if they entered a home and were greeted immediately with an extremely loud horn, they would flee immediately... even if they'd already cut the phone lines.

And here's the best part: You can buy two incredibly loud air horns for about $20. Just go to any place that sells boating supplies and check out their small air horns. They have a small gas cannister attached to a small air horn and you might want to be wearing hearing protectors when you set it off. Especially inside a building!

===== Lightning Protection =====

We are getting lots of little rain storms lately and I hope everyone is practicing lightning safety.  If you have an outdoor antenna, you want to disconnect it and ground it anytime there are high winds or lightning within 15 miles.

===== NEGATIVE PANIC =====

Consider a plane crash, for example, such as the one that occurred some years ago at a Canary Islands airport, when a KLM plane and a Pan Am aircraft collided on the runway.

A psychologist interviewed many of the Pan Am survivors, including a Dallas couple in their 70s, named Jim and Delores McKenzie.

When the disaster occurred, it was a fiery mess of mangled metal. To anyone watching from the outside, it was obvious that anyone inside should evacuate immediately.

But as Delores McKenzie reported in her follow-up interview, she didn't panic in the normal sense. And she certainly didn't rush to get out of the plane.

Instead, she simply sat in her seat... stunned.

She thought she was going to die. But she was not afraid. Though religious, she did not pray.

Luckily for Delores, a few moments later, her husband Jim got up from his seat and yelled at his wife to follow him. If he hadn't done this, Delores McKenzie says she would have died that day.

And here's the amazing thing...

As Delores McKenzie made her way to the exit that day, following her husband's orders, she remembers passing the couple they were traveling with. They weren't obviously hurt. But they weren't moving either.

Instead they simply sat in their seats, hands folded in their laps, staring straight ahead.

And it wasn't just Delores McKenzie's friends who sat still, stunned... unable to move, because of "negative panic."

As the McKenzie's calmly walked towards the exit, they saw many other passengers doing the exact same thing... just sitting there... frozen by "negative panic."

Today, Delores McKenzie believes that if she had simply yelled at her friends and the other passengers, many more might have made it out of the plane alive.

But Delores McKenzie was not thinking rationally. It simply never occurred to her to do anything but follow her husband's order.

This is a classic example of the disastrous effects of "Negative Panic."

Something similar occurred after the recent Boston Marathon bombings...

A Florida runner told his local newspaper, after returning home from the disaster, that: "We heard something and everyone froze wherever they were, even in the street. No one knew what was going on. It took about a half hour before news reports began filtering in."

Again, this is the essence of "Negative Panic."

It causes people to basically freeze... even in the face of incredible risk and danger.

And here's the important point...

Most people think they know how they'll respond in a crisis.

But in reality, most people react very differently than they expect. And the problem is, understanding how your body and your brain will react in a crisis situation is absolutely critical to your survival.

#1. To understand how your mind and body react in a crisis, and how to master control of both of those things... and:

#2. To know exactly what steps you must take. In other words to have a plan.

The first thing you must do is recognize that in almost any crisis you may have to deal with "Negative Panic" and the corresponding "Disbelief" stage. Simply recognizing that these stages exist will make you more likely to be able to move past them, to deal with the situation.

It's a very simple strategy, used by the Green Berets, the FBI, and police officers around the country... and it's called "Combat Breathing" in some circles... and "Tactical Breathing" in others.

Here's how to do it.

First, breathe in for a regular count of four.

Next, hold your breath for a count for four.

Then, exhale for a count of four.

And finally, count to four before starting the sequence over again.

That's it.

I know, it sounds incredibly simple, but the next time you feel highly stressed... or even the slightest bit panicked, give it a shot for just a minute.

"It keeps you very calm. You don't start to hyperventilate or panic. Everything just kind of goes in slow motion for you. You say, OK, here's what's going on, I can handle this... it's not that bad." 

Amanda Ripley did an excellent job of reporting on this in her crisis survival book, called The Unthinkable.

=====

Until next time,

73 from N7OZH

MARA 09-04-2013 Ham Radio Emergency Communications Training Course - 200+ page PDF manual for FREE!

ICE - In Case of Emergency - Have you put a contact in your phone for ICE?  If you are injured in an accident or disaster, emergency responders will check your phone for an ICE entry to check on your medications and to find out your emergency contact info.

ARPSE - Please check ARPSE.NET.  There are a large number of events coming up in September that are in need of Ham Radio operators to help with communications.

BATTERY CHECK/CHARGE SCHEDULE - It is a good idea to establish a regular schedule for checking your batteries and charging your batteries.  There is nothing worse than having discharged batteries when you suddenly need to use the device that has the bad batteries.

CYALUME LIGHT STICKS - It is also a good idea to check the expiration dates on your stored light sticks.  They generally are good for full power for about 4 years and then they begin to give less than full light for less than the advertised time.  The expiration date is usually on the wrapper around the stick.

The ones from Emergency Essentials are NOT toxic.  The little bracelet/necklace ones that show up at parties, concerts and specialty stores around Halloween often ARE toxic.  Most of those are made in China and ARE toxic.

LIGHTNING PROTECTION - We have been getting surprise storms lately.  Be sure to disconnect your outside antennas and be sure all your lightning protection is in place.

HARBOR FREIGHT - One of the ongoing Harbor Freight sales features the following two products which are VERY handy in an emergency when there is no power:
  Butane Pencil Torch $7.99
  Butane Micro Torch $8.99

CENTRAL LOCATION - Our stake has been experimenting with finding a central location from which a mobile rig could communicate with all the hams in the stake.  The current "best spot" just also happens to be the highest location in the Stake.

This is a very good thing to know BEFORE the disaster hits.  Experiments with FRS radios from the same location have not been as successful.

SEPTEMBER is national Emergency Preparedness Month.  A good time to check your supplies and plans and update where necessary.  Also a good time to get extended family members and neighbors involved.  Better to have them do their own emergency preperations rather than to have to feed and take care of them later.

Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Training Course - There is a 200+ page PDF document on Ham Radio Emergency communications.  It is free and can be downloaded from the site listed below.  It is an amazing document and parts of it will be used for MARA training for some time to come.  It covers just about everything imaginable about ham radio and emergencies including calculations for how long your emergency battery will last with various radios at various power settings.  VERY INFORMATIVE!

I highly recommend this free manual to anyone who is involved in ham radio.  It is located at:  
www.fresnoares.com/downloads/Emergency_Com_Training_Course.pdf

That is it until next week.  

-N7OZH-