"Preparedness is the key that unlocks the door to safety"
For the most part one can only hope in a world like this that we can go through most days unscathed, but what happens when you no longer can or the inevitable happens to you or your family? What if your vacation suddenly took a turn for the worst and you found yourself stranded without shelter, or any of the other four life essentials. Today we look at 7 preps you can take that provide you with four of the five life sustaining needs that you can carry on Vacation.
Solar Power bank: With today's cellular and other battery powered devices that add the “modern convenience of communications and information at a fingers touch is the fact that these devices require a constant stream of electricity to keep things charged even if you don't have cellular signal. A solar power bank such as the one below can provide a steady stream of solar power to charge and easily fits in your pocket. Look for one with a built in Flashlight like the one pictured below and it does double duty providing a bright crucial light in addition to charging your devices.
Compass and Map Reader: This is another must take along and learning how to fully use this and having maps of the area pays dividends however make sure he one you have is lie the one pictured below and doesn't have a knife built in that will get it confiscated.
Tact Bivy: Having the Survival Grog Tact Bivy and sleeping bag can provide you the necessary shelter from the elements and with the paracord that you packed (coming up on the list) you can provide yourself and your family the necessary means to stay out of the elements.
Glow Lights: Having some Calyume glow sticks on hand is great and you should have these in your kit at home as well providing a non toxic temporary light source these sticks can burn up to 16 ours, provide you with a way of signaling help at night (finding location). They come in a Myriad of colors and are relatively cheap so pick up a case and keep a few on hand.
The final three: on our list I decided to leave out the pictures of but watch our video below to see two more items we chose to do:
Para cord: Having 100ft of paracord and yes that seems like a lot but add in making a shelter, using some as a fire starter, and other needs it can be used up quite quickly. Properly wrapped 100ft could fit in your pocket or even in a small bag.
LifeStraw or water filter: Having a clean water filter can mean life or death and packing one only makes sense especially if you are traveling where water is scarce or not readily available.
Signal Mirror: Having a signal mirror allows you to signal for help from passing vehicles or people during daylight hours and like the compass they often contain a magnifying glass that can ne used as a fire starter with the sun
(Bonus)Ham Radio: If you have the license take your radio along as well we had permission and it was fun to do plan ahead and you won't be sorry
Watch our Fireplace Friday below as we discuss and show off some of the items we discussed above and as always Stay healthy and Stay blessed
Setting up a home emergency operations center is something that is fluid and in this series I will be discussing theory, placement and planning along with construction pics of my operation center(s) and how each one plays out. Why would one want a communications center in the first place when we have our ham shacks? Well the main difference between a shack and operations center is being able to operate 24/7 whether or not you do so is your choice. The second one is that you can plan to help and assist your local EMA and groups with disasters in your area or surrounding town. Finally you can communicate with other hams and family members in the event of a full scale black autumn event. Now with that out of the way we can dive into a little history of Hams helping others and some of the groups that make up today's emergency communicators..
A Little History: Dating back to WW2 ham radio operators have assisted neighbors, government and country though ham radio. I got it's start through the old Civil defense during the start of the nuclear era and lasted until the mid 80's where the Civil Defense was decommissioned in the mid 80's. In early 2000's the FEMA/EMA era began to take shape and of course ham radio operators were there ready and willing to provide back up communications. Now we flourish with different groups such as A.R.E.S. (Amateur Radio Emergency Services), Skywarn, R.A.C.E.S (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency services) and Auxcomm Here is a little background into the groups as they would operate or be Deployed.
Skywarn: This group of hams operates mostly during severe weather and are trained by the National Weather Service to provide ground truth data in real time during severe weather threats such as tornadoes. hurricanes, and other mass weather events including blizzards. They offer also assistance to the EMA post event should more weather possibly hamper rescue operations.
A.R.E.S: This group of hams are called up by the EMA to assist in providing emergency communications, help find victims, and help provide damage reports coordinating clean up efforts. This group also provides communications with shelters, the Red Cross. hospitals and the EMA should the communications grid go down or be destroyed. As a side note this is another reason to have a home EOC as you can provide help to others and be close to your family.
R.A.C.E.S: A carry over from the Civil Defense there are some groups still out there operating but there are no new RACES licenses being handed out and most still operate under the EMA or even the ARES coordinator.
Auxcomm: This is still somewhat confusing to me Some have formed into groups and others just get the training and stay with the other groups but all I can say is it is worth the training to sharpen your radio skill set.
This concludes the first part of my series on setting up a home EOC and hopefully I inspired you to either join a local group or if you are part of one maybe consider setting up your shack to be able to provide 24/7 comms. In the next blog post I will cover the meat and potatoes of planning and designing your home EOC. Until next time remember God is in control, stay healthy and stay blessed.
Below I discuss some things and give you a tour of on part of my EOC
With today's modern cellular devices why on earth would you want anything else, and how is anything better than our modern cellular devices? As a modern society we get almost all of our information from cell phones and hey, why not you have the world in the palm of your hands. In this blog I will be going over the pros, cons, and options of communication devices in your vehicle.
The MPV (for example)
What the Pros use: Ask any professional communicator and they will tell you they have multiple communication setups and that you will have to find one that works for you. I have to say that I agree with them and for the purpose of this blog I will be using my 98 TJ above as a example. From left to right you will find beginning on the left or the passenger side a small cell phone booster next is the factory FM antenna and finally on the right or drivers side a ham radio antenna. One antenna I have planned for but not installed yet is my GMRS radio and that antenna will be on the same side as the cell phone booster. The reason for so many backups is should one fail (Cell phones for that matter) I have a back up to fall back on. And should the need arise that I have to abandon ship and walk I have options to be able to communicate my position and expedite mine or my families rescue. So enough of my rambling lets begin.
Cell Phones: I am not going to stay here long but we have one and all know that once out of a major hub that they can become spotty and not work very well. Another thing is if you are in a grid down or severe weather situation then they are not going to work very well either if at all. Basically put cell phone while our main option should not only be our only option......
Cell Phone Boosters: These extend the range of cell phones and usually run in the $100-$200 range. They are simple to install and greatly increase the range of the cell phone. I have one and it works great but once again if the cell network goes down then it becomes a brick.
CB Radio: From the 1970's and the Smokie and the Bandit days until now CB Radio is still in use but there are some good things and bad things about it. Let break it down breaker, breaker...
Pros: CB radio is easy to get doesn't require a license and is fairly easy to install, CB Radio also has dedicated emergency channels but there are a lot of drawbacks....
Cons: CB radio is used heavily by commercial tow companies, truckers and local yokels so while there is a chance you will be heard you have to cut through chatter to be heard and possibly be overpowered by a nearby radio or base station. Also CB radio has the lowest power ratio of all of the options today only a allowable 4 watts of transmit power.
Second thing about CB is it is not a family friendly radio a lot of truckers and other people talk on there and will teach your little ones to say things that will make Satan shudder and most likely get them kicked out of school for the rest of the year.
The final Con is there is a lot of dead space in the radio, meaning that they work really well up close but will skip an area and work farther away leaving you with dead zones that you will have to deal with and if you can't move or leave the vehicle then you have greater safety risk or at worst a longer wait time.
With this I say if you like or have a CB then use it, but it just isn't it for me.
GMRS/FRS: This is a great close range option that I use, The radios cost about $100-$250 and the license is about 80 bucks but if your like me and need close range coms between cars and people this is one of the most affordable. On a side note, I use this if we have multiple vehicles chasing storms and need to stay off ham radio to use it for Skywarn However the range can be between 50 Ft. and 2 miles max also it has a lot better power rating up to 40 watts, 10x the power of a CB Radio.
Ham Radio: I save the best for last, Ham radio is the most expensive but the most reliable, Radios can set you back $200-$500 dollars and you have to have a license which cost about 50 buck including the study book, and the other downside is you have to pass a 35 question test but hey it's worth it...The network of repeaters and simplex (radio to radio) is immense and it has a great hobby to go along with it. Plenty of hams are willing to help you get started, and a lot of them are first responder's as well. This provides you with a solid network and a solid community waiting to help if anything should go wrong. Another thing is you can get a handheld radio HT for about $200 and still have comms if you need to leave the vehicle
I would recommend is this option over all of the others, if you had to choose.
Satellite Communicators: I am just going to touch a little on these as the price range is astronomical. They are great portable option that keeps a track on your location and some you can send texts over but expect to shell out about $500-$600 for a decent one
This is one in the budget for later on for me...........
With this I hope I explained the options for vehicle communications and that I have inspired you to at least put a few in your vehicle. If you want to see us put in the radio watch the video below.
Until next time take care and remember God is still in control....
" In a world where worse has become the norm, be the person who does better"
With this blog we would like to review the Rhino tool bag and roll. The model we will be reviewing is the Ultimate UTV Tool Bag 5 pocket organizer roll pictured below. The bag lists for 49.95 and comes packaged in a really nice box with stickers inside. (and who don't like stickers?)
The tool bag straight out of the box
The roll comes in two designs Plain and Camo we chose the camo version for our purpose. Being in a small vehicle such as a Jeep TJ and needing to carry tools to work on and make repairs to the vehicle should the need arise, having a way of organizing tools is necessary. one way of keeping the tools in one places is we could just throw all of our tools into a plastic tote and be done with it, however this organizer fit the bill for our vehicle. The first thing that impressed us was the overall heavy duty construction of the bag. Made from heavy duty Cordura style fabric with heavy duty stitching and webbing along with some very thick and durable plastic buckles.
The inside of the bag
Opening the bag up I noticed right away the pockets were labeled and with heavy duty embroidered letters instead of write on labels on each of the 5 pockets. Each pocket was labeled sockets, wrenches, pliers, specialty and so on which makes it easy to find the right tool (should we put it back in the right pouch) a snap. The whole bag rolls into a easy to store duffle style bag that fits in the back of the TJ, and makes having the tools at the ready and easily accessible should the need arise. A bonus feature is that it has a 6th pocket on the front of the bag, a nice place to put some gloves.
A sampling of the tools that fit
Above is just a few of the tools that we currently carry of course I didn't have the time or the area to lay out all of the tools for you to see (I will do a blog on this later) but as you can see it holds a lot of tools and best of all if it gets dirty (of course it won't, right?) you can toss it in the washer and have a clean bag in a few minutes.
The Bag in the back of the TJ along with my EDC totes
Overall the bag gets 4.9 stars out of 5 as there are some improvements that can be made (I think it is more personal preference). One of the improvements is to get rid of the shoulder strap, I don't plan on carrying the bag 50 miles to do work and I just did this strap like I do to all of my former tool bags like this and toss the strap back into the packing box to be forgotten. The other improvement I think would be great is to add MOLLE to a few slots that way it would be easy to attach a small accessory bag such as a first aid kit or other bag kits to the bag.
Overall I really enjoy having the bag and I would be comfortable carrying this everyday in the TJ whether it be out camping, trackside, overlanding, a trip to the grocery store, or should the apocalypses happen and believe that the bag will hold up to our needs. We hope you enjoyed our review of the Rhino 5 pocket tool bag and I would highly suggest you pick one up today. With this we would like to say remeber God is in control, stay healthy and stay blessed.
"Should the need arise being prepared is better than the needless suffering of the choice not too"
In this past Front porch Friday we introduced the go bag series and some of the variations of bags to be able to handle various disasters should they arise. In this blog I will be breaking down the first bottle I showed and some of the detailed components as well as some of the functions.
This bottled was put together for the need if for some reason I had to leave my vehicle or go-bag behind I would be able to get home and carry a minimum amount of gear, this is helpful should you find yourself in a civil disrest situation and or other reason I don't want to stand out.
The battle bottle with black cover on it
Let me introduce you once again to the Battle Bottle from Iron Infidel it is a 2 liter stainless steel bottle that comes with a neat camo carrier or if your savvy like me you buy the 2 cover version to switch up. Pictured above is it in the black camo pattern. the bottle is perfect if the event only lasts a few hours, way too little to use your 72 hour bag. The bottle above filled with the water and gear weighs about 10 pounds, fits in between the seats of your car and provides you with a few hours of operating window without breaking out your 72 hour go bag. Let's unload our bottle and see what has worked well for me.
How the Bottle is packed
From top left here are the contents:
1. Compass map reader*
2. Water key (to refill the bottle)
3. Sharpie Marker
4. Snack
5. Snap lights (Green)*
6. Flashlight (Mini Goose Neck)
7. Ferro Rod
8. Knife
9. Magnifying glass
10. Bottle with cover
* ( comes in a multi pack that can be broke into Additional Go- Kits)
For the most part I have everything I need should any emergency arise or if I decide I don't want to drive I have a quick solution that I can just throw into a car and go without tasking the driver with a bulky bag or taking up precious room in their car. Almost all of this stuff can be found on amazon but I have included a link to the battle bottle. How you put it together is for you to decide, I just wanted to show you what has worked well for me. If you have any questions just write in the comments below and I will cover them in another blog post.
Link to the bottle: (and no I am not affiliated with them just a really happy customer)
others when they leave, however all people bring joy"
For the better part of my storm spotter/ volunteer career I have owned and driven a few Dodge Grand caravans such as my recent 2006 one pictured below. Some o f the nice things about it were that we had plenty of room for gear, people, and it made a great road trip vehicle. Form a storm spotter perspective it wasn't too bad (the NWS uses these) but three of the major downfalls was one, it was a giant wind sail. Second it lacked the mobility in the snow (it became stuck twice last winter). Finally it lacked the ability to be upgraded and outfitted wit some of the necessary items needed to be able to storm spot properly. Besides storm spotting I wanted a vehicle that should a snow storm or disaster happen I wouldn't be stuck. .
The old faithful Caravan
With the Beginning demise of the caravan we began to look for a better alternative and I wanted a JEEP, one of the setbacks was cost with some of the base models ranging from 15k to over 35k it just wasn't the ideal financial choice, but to no avail I was blessed to find a 1998 Jeep Wrangler TJ Sport for under 10k which while it needs work, it provides a great build platform and still comes in under the lowest priced model we looked at.
The New MPV
Over the course of this fall and next spring we will be doing a lot of upgrades and doing videos on some of the upgrades and why we chose some of the upgrades for our vehicle.
The reason we are calling this our multi purpose vehicle is simple it will provide us a vehicle that will do some of these functions.
Everyday Driver: Now you know the basic reason for this to essentially go to work, to the store, and do everyday tasks without the need to be worried about getting stuck in the snow or not having the capability to do everyday tasks due to other situations that may arise.
Storm Spotter Vehicle: Being a local storm spotter /chaser I don't plan on driving 100's of miles a week and the smaller footprint saves gas money and makes the vehicle less susceptible to high winds, wet roads, and debris laden roads. Also another thing is we rarely get super severe thunderstorms that produce F4-5 tornadoes, most of our threat comes from winter weather and lake effect snow so the 4 wheel drive is a excellent choice for our adaptation of the vehicle for this purpose.
Disaster response vehicle: Going hand in hand with storm spotting, we were in the need for a vehicle that will enable us to help should we need to help others in need. Some of the things we may come upon is pulling vehicles out of snow or trees off of vehicles in the event such things are needed.
Camping/ Bug Out vehicle: Should the need to evacuate arise, we want to be able to evacuate and or get out of Dodge we want to adapt this vehicle with our gear and do it quickly and efficiently. By using the Jeep as a camping vehicle we will be able to test load and evaluate it well before we ever have to use it.
Conclusion: This vehicle build is going to be a fun family project and we want you to come along on our journey as we build it. If you have jeep parts, are a mechanic, have a shop, and or just want to be a patron and help with the build just message me here on blogger. I want to thank you for reading my blog and remember God is still in control, until next time take care.
I want to welcome you to our blog today, by this being the first post I just wanted to give you some background and somethings to expect. First this is our journey into a semi- off grid life, with the way the world is today it is a comfort knowing that most of the time we are not affected by disruptions as we have and are continuing to build our life around self sufficiency. With disruptions in food, power and other commercial supply chains it just makes sense. The second is in our name Wave outdoors and tactical, it is a combination of all our names and will be our future business name as we begin an outdoors store in the future. Now I know by now you are wondering about how this all will tie together? Well it is simple, this blog right now supplements our YouTube Channel (See Intro video at the bottom of the page) by adding content that we either can't fit in the video, going in depth on a topic we do a video on , or just providing another outlet for our content we create. In the future it will tie into helping promote our business, helping educate others on common sense disaster preparedness, and hopefully inspiring others to live healthier, learn a new skill and to go outside and enjoy a semi off grid life as well.
Here are a few things you can expect from us:
Gardening and growing your own food
Camping, hunting and fishing trips
Archery
Ham radio and emergency communications
Common sense disaster preparedness
Gear Reviews
Special project builds
Along with so much more...…
So follow along here on our journey and remember to subscribe so you can receive the latest content. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and if you want to contribute Buy us a coffee in the inks below . Until next time stay healthy and stay blessed.
Our:
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