Times Are Changing

Hello Everybody, Frank here.

Let's talk radio.

It would appear that in the very near future, radios might be a great way to communicate. Radio communication has taken a back seat to the internet and cell phones. It is easy to understand why. Internet is mighty convenient. Cell phone, I don't even stop and think at this communication marvel.

Times are changing. Times are changing quickly. I'd like for you to think about radio as a backup system to cell phone and internet. Yes, radio will never replace internet or cell phones, but if you need to talk to someone in your area, or you just want to listen to that same group of people in your area, you can do this with radio. We're going to talk about that.

A few years back I wrote a number of articles about various radio communications. Here is a link to a list of those articles. It's also on the side bar under Frank's Radio Communications.

LINK: Frank's Radio Communications

Some of the information is dated. Some of the test manuals are out of date. Some of the links to various businesses may not work. But the information about the radios themselves, very little has changed here.

Look through some of these articles. Times are changing. If you have questions, put them in the comments. Boys and girls, we need to be able to communicate. Think about it. If you say to yourself, well I can't do that. Then you can't. If you see Bubba riding down the road in his old truck with his CB antenna on it - well he can do it. Fear of learning is common. Adults generally are not good students. Get over it. Learn.

Read some of the articles. If you don't understand it, let it soak in. Most radio is push the button and talk. I live surrounded by Bubba, it's a great place to be. Learn. Read. And do.

Always use caution when sharing information with folks you don't truly know. One last thing. Anything you say on a radio can be heard by somebody else. Don't give out phone numbers, addresses, it's called operational security, OPSEC. Let's do this.

Put questions in the comments. Local is where you live. Local is where you will survive. Bubba is your buddy. Remember, humor is the essence of survival.

 

We'll TALK more later, Frank

OPSEC Communications

Hello Everybody, Frank here.

It's the weekend and we had a great rain last night. Now the freshly tilled garden would be just the place for making mud angels. For you Yankee types, some of you would still be calling these snow angels, but here in the south we actually call it mud wrestling.  See, we have a problem here with communication. Some of you think snow tires and some of us think mud tires.

This previously driven article is about communications. It's titled OPSEC which means operational security. This article is five years old, but the information is still the same today. We NEED to be able to communicate with our neighbors. No, it's not the kind of communication that you say you can't have with your teenage kids, you know, 'we just can't communicate'. The type of communications mentioned here is the life and death type, where you NEED to be able to talk to the person down the road.

The first picture down below is of Nunam Iqua, Alaska. Fern and I used to live there, it is located at the mouth of the Yukon River on the Bering Sea. For you curious types, the zip code is 99666. Google maps will take you right there. 

The article is about radios. This is not so much about ham radio, actually, it's not about ham radio at all. It's about the across-the-counter type of radios. But, ham radio is a good idea, it vastly expands your options. If you are of the level that you find reading Frank and Fern enjoyable, then you should have no difficulty with the first two levels of amateur radio testing for licensing. Ham radio can be very, very expensive, or it can be quite inexpensive. It's kind of like flying a remote controlled airplane, now days commonly called drones. I didn't realize some of those drones are as big as a jet, a big jet. But I'm drifting here. 

Something to remember. Anything that is said on a radio can be heard by someone else. I used to teach my teachers, if you don't want someone to read something, then don't write it. Same applies to radio. Anything you say can be heard by that drone flying in the air. Think about it.

Hope you enjoy the article. Have a great day. And get ready. It's very near.

We'll talk more later, Frank
 

Originally published January 4, 2014

Nunam Iqua, Alaska

Once upon a time, there were two people that lived in far bush Alaska that could see dark clouds on the horizon. These two people, knowing what dark clouds meant, started to prepare for a serious storm. As the clouds got closer, and the sky darkened, these two adventurous souls packed up all their gear and relocated to a somewhat safer location. Even though these people escaped this particular storm, the storms followed them to their new location. And the storms have continued to grow bigger and bigger and bigger.

Okee-dokee everybody, back to reality. My first experience with radio communication in the modern world we live in now, was with two little walkie-talkie radios. Fern and I were leaving Alaska and we were going to drive to southeast Oklahoma. Through a large portion of this trip there is no cell phone service. Since we were traveling in two separate vehicles, each pulling a U-Haul trailer, I bought a couple of the above mentioned handheld walkie talkies from Cabela's. And that's how this radio story started. That was five years ago, and here we are today.

I knew nothing about rechargeable batteries. I didn't know that you could recharge batteries while you're driving down the road. So we used eight alkaline batteries a day. You see, Fern and I are an odd couple. We actually like each other and enjoy talking to each other, so the radios came in real handy. So, after our little trip, which took eleven days, I discovered the benefits of rechargeable batteries.

110/12VDC charger

So, when we got here, we put the radios away for a while. I'm not sure exactly when or how or why, but we started using them again around our little farm here. And like many things in life, I had to experience a large learning curve. Well, we started using the little radios again and learned

about rechargeable batteries. I decided I wanted extra radios. I went online, found a couple, and not paying attention, realized they did not use a AA battery. But, instead these new radios used a AAA battery. This was not my plan, but I didn't have the knowledge to know the difference. So, now I need AA and AAA rechargeable batteries. Well, this system worked out okay. I found a place online to buy batteries that I like. And I still use this same place, by the way. So, now I have a hand full of radios, two different types of batteries and the system is working pretty good. But the three AAA batteries will not stay charged near as long as four AA batteries. 

So, I decided to buy more radios. That's when I started using the Midland GXT1000 and 1050. They are the same radio, one is black the other is camo. I got lucky when I bought this little radio, because it did something I didn't know it 

would do. It comes with a rechargeable battery pack, which looks just like three AA's put together. But it says it will take four AA's, and it will. If you take the cover off and take the battery pack out, you will see that there is an extra slot for a fourth battery. The cool part is, these four AA rechargeable batteries, will also charge in the charging cradle that the radio came with. Here's where I got lucky. Midland makes a bunch of radios that look just like this, that have the same set up with the same battery pack, but the other ones will not recharge the four rechargeable AA batteries while in the cradle. As the learning curve increased here, it was obvious that not all of these radios charge the same way. So, a bonus feature, because later on I bought some other Midland radios that looked identical, but I could not charge the four AA rechargeable batteries in the cradle. So much for that issue.

I know these little radios are advertised a certain mileage. But that is under perfect conditions. So, remember, these radios are line of sight, and if you need more information about how the radios operate and their properties, go to Frank's Radio Communications page. These are good radios, high quality and they work well, and they did the job we needed around the farm.

I'm still, at this time, not into ham radio. I tried to get some of my friends and neighbors to get some of these little radios so we could keep in touch. No one was interested in this form of communication, and years later, they're still not interested. That pretty much took care of the home issue. Now I wanted to be able to reach my wife by radio 30 miles away. Bigger 

issue. We tried CB radios with SSB and due to the properties of the CB radio, it just would not work. I live in hill country with small mountains. So one day, looking at a retail radio site, I noticed a programmable commercial radio. Did a little bit more research and realized that these radios would broadcast on the same frequency as my little walkie talkies. That is when I started to realize about different frequencies. You see, a CB radio is around 27 MHz. My little walkie talkies are around

460 MHz. These new little commercial radios are handheld and they would broadcast on the VHF band which includes most local police, fire and ambulance. It was also good on the ham radio frequencies, which at that time, I cared nothing about. All the ones I just mentioned, police, fire and ham, are in the VHF range, that's around 140-155 MHz. But these little radios would also work for GMRS, which is my little walkie talkie, at around 460 MHz, which is UHF. There is also another free public band called MURS, which is around 150 MHz. So, I tried these little handheld commercial radios and they worked great on this frequency. Some of these activities mentioned here, some folks will tell you that you cannot use a commercial radio for, and they are right. But as long as you are not bothering anybody, most people don't care. Also, remember that in an emergency, anyone can use any frequency if no other means is available. 
So, I put a couple of these little commercial radios, remember, these are handhelds, in our cars running legal power, and could talk to my wife most of her way to work. I dug out my old Radio Shack power supply, I put up an outside antenna, and used one of these little radios to talk to my wife all the way to work. The antenna outside of my house is what made the difference.

Okay. That's where we were. So using a handheld radio, with an outside antenna at my house, I can now talk to my wife in her car. Shortly after this stage, I got my ham radio license, and we've made other changes since

then. But what I'm getting at here is, if you want to have communications, and you do not have a ham radio license, it is available. A small power supply, just about any transmitting and receiving radio, the proper antenna and you can talk to your buddy a good ways down the road, even with your little walkie talkie that does duck calls. That little gizmo thingy that your kid is out playing in the yard with, is probably a GMRS radio. Now, you cannot take a GMRS radio and attach it to an external antenna, you just can't do it. But you can, with a handheld commercial radio, and it's not difficult. Now don't think you're going to take one of these little handhelds and increase the power to 500 watts like some CBer's do. They're just not intended for that use.

But, that CB radio that you have out in your truck, is good for other purposes. All it is, is just a ham radio around 27 MHz, or in the ham world, called 11 meter, that will transmit line of sight. But it will also, when the atmosphere is right, transmit very long distances by bouncing off of the atmosphere. Read the other posts for more information on that. So, you have a CB radio, you can talk to your buddy down the road. If you have a GMRS radio, you can talk to your buddy down the road. Someday, you're going to want to talk to your buddy down the road, because your cell phone and your telephone may not work. Some people say, "Hog wash! We're always going to have electricity and telephones." Yep, and the Titanic was floating just fine, until it hit that iceberg. 

Okay. Some little tips here. OPSEC. That translates into operational security. Anything you say on a radio can be heard by someone else. Let me say that again. Anything you say on a radio can be heard by somebody else. Any point where you transmit from can be located. Ham radio operators have a game where they try to locate a certain transmitter. The military and other government agencies also have that ability. So don't think you can't be found. If you've read some of my other posts, I emphasize, don't be stupid.

Okay. Don't use people names on the radio, because somebody is listening. Develop real simple little codes about locations and where you are. Teach other family members to do the same thing. Well, you say, "How are they going to know what channel I'm broadcasting on?" Anybody with a scanner that has these programmed will know exactly what frequency you're broadcasting on. You ask, "How will they know where I'm located?" It's called electronic triangulation. So, don't kid yourself, that you're smarter than the government, because some of those folks are very, very good at what they do.

So, if you've got a bunch of guys you go to church with, and you all have those little GMRS radios, one day at church, set up a time and see if everybody can talk to each other. Just practice and see if you can talk.

Also try it with CB radios, too. Then if you can communicate, set up a time to do it in an emergency. You say, "Well you talked about the power being off and I don't want to use batteries." Well, then don't. Get you a couple of rechargeable batteries. And you say, "Well, fool. If the power is off, how am I going to recharge them?" Get you a teeny, weeny solar panel and check out this link. It will give you a lot more detail.

I use my little radios everyday. My wife gets this strange kick out of feeding farm animals. I don't need to understand why, but she does. And we stay in contact. We make sure we have contact before she walks out the door. We make sure the batteries are charged. Give it some long term thought. Plan ahead, test your equipment. If you choose to advance to the ham radio hobby, then you will understand a whole lot more about what you are doing right now, and a different radio world will open up.

But if you choose not to, you can still communicate. And if you just want to listen, get you a scanner and a shortwave radio, and there are few things that you will not be able to listen to. The scanner is for local and the shortwave is for long distance. Because you might want to know when there is a forest fire coming your direction. It can also tell you from the National Weather Service, when a tornado is coming. And if you listen to the local ham radio weather clubs, using weather spotters, they will also tell you where the tornado is and what direction it's traveling. Then you may hear when they're loading up people into buses a mile or two down the road from you. By the way, don't get on the bus.

When you see those big black clouds come rolling in, then you need to be able to communicate. It will be too late to find your radio and see if you have any batteries. It will be too late to set up a system of communication. It will be too late. Folks those dark clouds are gathering. Pay attention.


We'll talk more later. 73, Frank

OPSEC Communications - A Re-Post

Hello Everybody, Frank here.

Hope everyone is doing well. If you peruse through these pages often, then you have heard us refer to those dark clouds on the horizon. No, I'm not referring to the dust bowl, but it could be. I'm referring to that storm that most of us know is coming. We see events happening on a daily basis that tells us that something bad is coming.

I also use this blog to try to help people prepare themselves by using different communication methods. Here about 18 months ago, we published an informative article about different types of radios that can be used for radio communications. I'm not talking about ham radio or amateur radio here. You see, right now we take communication for granted. We have hundreds of TV channels, AM/FM/XM radio, cell phones, internet, and I'm sure I've missed a few. But we live in a very fragile system that could very quickly go dark. 

I would encourage you to read the re-post below and give serious thought to how your family is going to be able to communicate when, not if, our complete way of life goes down. Please ponder some of these ideas, it could save you and your families' life someday. We are used to instant communications and it's a very sophisticated, complicated network. You need to have a plan B. Take care, I hope you enjoy the article, and when you get finished reading it, please tell me what you think.

We'll talk more later, Frank

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Originally published January 4, 2014

 
Hello, Frank here.

Nunam Iqua, Alaska

Once upon a time, there were two people that lived in far bush Alaska that could see dark clouds on the horizon. These two people, knowing what dark clouds meant, started to prepare for a serious storm. As the clouds got closer, and the sky darkened, these two adventurous souls packed up all their gear and relocated to a somewhat safer location. Even though these people escaped this particular storm, the storms followed them to their new location. And the storms have continued to grow bigger and bigger and bigger.

Okee-dokee everybody, back to reality. My first experience with radio communication in the modern world we live in now, was with two little walkie-talkie radios. Fern and I were leaving Alaska and we were going to drive to southeast Oklahoma. Through a large portion of this trip there is no cell phone service. Since we were traveling in two separate vehicles, each pulling a U-Haul trailer, I bought a couple of the above mentioned handheld walkie talkies from Cabela's. And that's how this radio story started. That was five years ago, and here we are today.

I knew nothing about rechargeable batteries. I didn't know that you could recharge batteries while you're driving down the road. So we used eight alkaline batteries a day. You see, Fern and I are an odd couple. We actually like each other and enjoy talking to each other, so the radios came in real handy. So, after our little trip, which took eleven days, I discovered the benefits of rechargeable batteries.

110/12VDC charger

So, when we got here, we put the radios away for a while. I'm not sure exactly when or how or why, but we started using them again around our little farm here. And like many things in life, I had to experience a large learning curve. Well, we started using the little radios again and learned

about rechargeable batteries. I decided I wanted extra radios. I went online, found a couple, and not paying attention, realized they did not use a AA battery. But, instead these new radios used a AAA battery. This was not my plan, but I didn't have the knowledge to know the difference. So, now I need AA and AAA rechargeable batteries. Well, this system worked out okay. I found a place online to buy batteries that I like. And I still use this same place, by the way. So, now I have a hand full of radios, two different types of batteries and the system is working pretty good. But the three AAA batteries will not stay charged near as long as four AA batteries. 

So, I decided to buy more radios. That's when I started using the Midland GXT1000 and 1050. They are the same radio, one is black the other is camo. I got lucky when I bought this little radio, because it did something

I didn't know it would do. It comes with a rechargeable battery pack, which looks just like three AA's put together. But it says it will take four AA's, and it will. If you take the cover off and take the battery pack out, you will see that there is an extra slot for a fourth battery. The cool part is, these four AA rechargeable batteries, will also charge in the charging cradle that the radio came with. Here's where I got lucky. Midland makes a bunch of radios that look just like this, that have the same set up with the same battery pack, but the other ones will not recharge the four rechargeable AA batteries while in the cradle. As the learning curve increased here, it was obvious that not all of these radios charge the same way. So, a bonus feature, because later on I bought some other Midland radios that looked identical, but I could not charge the four AA rechargeable batteries in the cradle. So, much for that issue.

I know these little radios are advertised a certain mileage. But that is under perfect conditions. So, remember, these radios are line of sight, and if you need more information about how the radios operate and their properties, go to Frank's Radio Communications page. These are good radios, high quality and they work well, and they did the job we needed around the farm.

I'm still, at this time, not into ham radio. I tried to get some of my friends and neighbors to get some of these little radios so we could keep in touch. No one was interested in this form of communication, and years later, they're still not interested. That pretty much took care of the home issue. Now I wanted to be able to reach my wife by radio 30 miles away. Bigger 

issue. We tried CB radios with SSB and due to the properties of the CB radio, it just would not work. I live in hill country with small mountains. So one day, looking at a retail radio site, I noticed a programmable commercial radio. Did a little bit more research and realized that these radios would broadcast on the same frequency as my little walkie talkies. That is when I started to realize about different frequencies. You see, a CB radio is around 27 MHz. My little

walkie talkies are around 460 MHz. These new little commercial radios are handheld and they would broadcast on the VHF band which includes most local police, fire and ambulance. It was also good on the ham radio frequencies, which at that time, I cared nothing about. All the ones I just mentioned, police, fire and ham, are in the VHF range, that's around 140-155 MHz. But these little radios would also work for GMRS, which is my little walkie talkie, at around 460 MHz, which is UHF. There is also another free public band called MURS, which is around 150 MHz. So, I tried these little handheld commercial radios and they worked great on this frequency. Some of these activities mentioned here, some folks will tell you that you cannot use a commercial radio for, and they are right. But as long as you are not bothering anybody, most people don't care. Also, remember that in an emergency, anyone can use any frequency if no other means is available. 
So, I put a couple of these little commercial radios, remember, these are handhelds, in our cars running legal power, and could talk to my wife most of her way to work. I dug out my old Radio Shack power supply, I put up an outside antenna, and used one of these little radios to talk to my wife all the way to work. The antenna outside of my house is what made the difference.

Okay. That's where we were. So using a handheld radio, with an outside antenna at my house, I can now talk to my wife in her car. Shortly after this stage, I got my ham radio license, and we've made other changes since

then. But what I'm getting at here is, if you want to have communications, and you do not have a ham radio license, it is available. A small power supply, just about any transmitting and receiving radio, the proper antenna and you can talk to your buddy a good ways down the road, even with your little walkie talkie that does duck calls. That little gizmo thingy that your kid is out playing in the yard with, is probably a GMRS radio. Now, you cannot take a GMRS radio and attach it to an external antenna, you just can't do it. But you can, with a handheld commercial radio, and it's not difficult. Now don't think you're going to take one of these little handhelds and increase the power to 500 watts like some CBer's do. They're just not intended for that use.

But, that CB radio that you have out in your truck, is good for other purposes. All it is, is just a ham radio around 27 MHz, or in the ham world, called 11 meter, that will transmit line of sight. But it will also, when the atmosphere is right, transmit very long distances by bouncing off of the atmosphere. Read the other posts for more information on that. So, you have a CB radio, you can talk to your buddy down the road. If you have a GMRS radio, you can talk to your buddy down the road. Someday, you're going to want to talk to your buddy down the road, because your cell phone and your telephone may not work. Some people say, "Hog wash! We're always going to have electricity and telephones." Yep, and the Titanic was floating just fine, until it hit that iceberg. 

Okay. Some little tips here. OPSEC. That translates into operational security. Anything you say on a radio can be heard by someone else. Let me say that again. Anything you say on a radio can be heard by somebody else. Any point where you transmit from can be located. Ham radio operators have a game where they try to locate a certain transmitter. The military and other government agencies also have that ability. So don't think you can't be found. If you've read some of my other posts, I emphasize, don't be stupid.

Okay. Don't use people names on the radio, because somebody is listening. Develop real simple little codes about locations and where you are. Teach other family members to do the same thing. Well, you say, "How are they going to know what channel I'm broadcasting on?" Anybody with a scanner that has these programmed will know exactly what frequency you're broadcasting on. You ask, "How will they know where I'm located?" It's called electronic triangulation. So, don't kid yourself, that you're smarter than the government, because some of those folks are very, very good at what they do.

So, if you've got a bunch of guys you go to church with, and you all have those little GMRS radios, one day at church, set up a time and see if everybody can talk to each other. Just practice and see if you can talk.

Also try it with CB radios, too. Then if you can communicate, set up a time to do it in an emergency. You say, "Well you talked about the power being off and I don't want to use batteries." Well, then don't. Get you a couple of rechargeable batteries. And you say, "Well, fool. If the power is off, how am I going to recharge them?" Get you a teeny, weeny solar panel and check out this link. It will give you a lot more detail.

I use my little radios everyday. My wife gets this strange kick out of feeding farm animals. I don't need to understand why, but she does. And we stay in contact. We make sure we have contact before she walks out the door. We make sure the batteries are charged. Give it some long term thought. Plan ahead, test your equipment. If you choose to advance to the ham radio hobby, then you will understand a whole lot more about what you are doing right now, and a different radio world will open up.

But if you choose not to, you can still communicate. And if you just want to listen, get you a scanner and a shortwave radio, and there are few things that you will not be able to listen to. The scanner is for local and the shortwave is for long distance. Because you might want to know when there is a forest fire coming your direction. It can also tell you from the National Weather Service, when a tornado is coming. And if you listen to the local ham radio weather clubs, using weather spotters, they will also tell you where the tornado is and what direction it's traveling. Then you may hear when they're loading up people into buses a mile or two down the road from you. By the way, don't get on the bus.

When you see those big black clouds come rolling in, then you need to be able to communicate. It will be too late to find your radio and see if you have any batteries. It will be too late to set up a system of communication. It will be too late. Folks those dark clouds are gathering. Pay attention.


We'll talk more later. 73, Frank

Something to Seriously Think About

Hello, Frank here.

The last couple of days SurvivalBlog.com has run two articles, Part 1 & Part 2, about "The Hidden Weakness in Your Defense Plans, by T.S."  I have been reading SurvivalBlog for a number of years, and I rarely miss a day. This article caught my eye. It deals with a subject that is often missed in preparedness discussions. It's not a cutesy article, and it's not one for children, or you pray that children are never exposed to something like this. It's not the type of article that aides digestion while sitting around the dining room table, unless you're a sociopath or psychopath. 

As mentioned, I read SurvivalBlog just about daily, and I've also read, and endorse James, Wesley Rawles books. I believe this is the first time that I have recommended and encouraged you to read one of the articles on James, Wesley Rawles' SurvivalBlog. Lots of us out there talk about what type of seed to grow, how to build a compost bin, and what might happen in the future, but the following topic is not something we generally discuss. The author of this article does a good job of covering an unspeakable subject. 

I can't say that I hope you enjoy the article, but I believe that it will encourage adult discussion. Remember that little ears can be traumatized easily by adult subjects. Please read Part 1 & Part 2, and give it serious thought. With reservations, I make the following statement. Fern and I have practiced this type of scenario in our minds for many years. We practice it daily. Nobody ever wants to be involved in this type of situation, but if you are, then you need to be able to deal with it responsibly, because trying to rationalize something like this and put it into an understandable perspective, is beyond the scope of most folks. There are some things we just don't talk about. Maybe your family will now have the ability to do so. Sometimes stopping to think about a situation is our worst enemy, that's why we train to override our innate, natural responses. 

We'll talk more later, Frank

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Hidden Weakness In Your Defense Plans, by T.S. -Part 1

The mental and emotional considerations of using lethal force to protect your home and loved ones after TEOTWAWKI is not going to be as easy, as you have imagined it.

By way of introduction, I am a retired street cop who spent his entire career on the streets of a gang-infested neighborhood in a large, inner city. I have shot people, though none died. On several occasions, I was myself shot at, and I was hit once. I want to share my thoughts and experiences with you, lest you have naïve and unrealistic ideas, which will prove counterproductive, at best, and possibly fatal.

I am not going to address a shooting incident today, when and where there is effective law and order. The venue we will address here will be strictly for a time and place where society has broken down and the rule of law no longer exists. This is only intended to address a post-apocalyptic scenario.

I know. I know. You readily say, “I won’t have any trouble at all shooting riffraff that’s coming after my food or family.” Really? Let’s explore that thought, because here’s the thing– I know you think that, and I know you believe it with all your heart, but may I suggest that a critical component that is necessarily involved in the act of shooting a human being may have been left out of your thought process? This is the potentially fatal flaw for the majority of preppers in a self-defense scenario.

First, let me say up front that while this is based on my first-hand experiences, it is also covered in much more detail in Colonel Dave Grossman’s excellent books On Combat and On Killing and also Warrior’s Mindset by Asken. All of these are MUST reading for anyone who is prepped up on guns, ammo, and attitude. Unless you have been personally involved in shootouts as a cop or firefights as a soldier, you must read these books, but I will condense some of what’s in them and add my own experiences for those who can’t or won’t read three more books.

We think and believe that we live in our conscious world; that’s wrong. We are more what our unconscious mind thinks than who we consciously think we are. Have you ever tried to break a bad habit? Have you ever tried to lose weight or get into better shape? How about making New Year’s resolutions? How did that work out for you? You lose those battles because your unconscious mind is much stronger than your conscious mind, and the unconscious one usually wins. You can make all the conscious decisions you want, but no matter how much determination and willpower you add to that if you don’t get your unconscious mind on board you will likely fail.

So when it comes to shooting another human being, you need to understand the mental and emotional dynamics involved. When cops are on the line at the range, they will consistently hit a man-sized target every time without fail. Yet, statistically on the street, they will miss 75%-80% of the time, and they will miss a target that poses a clear and present danger when they would never miss a piece of paper. Why is that? S.L.A. Marshall did extensive studies and found that during WW II, 90% of the Japanese and German soldiers that were shot by small arms fire, were shot by less than 20% of our soldiers. Please look that up if you don’t believe it, but it’s documented and indisputable. That doesn’t mean the others were cowards, because many were capable of extraordinary acts of bravery, such as running out into the face of enemy gunfire to get to an injured man, for instance. So, if they weren’t cowards and were good shots, why didn’t they shoot an enemy soldier? The now-defunct Rhodesian army pioneered the system of charging directly into the enemy when being ambushed because they took fewer casualties doing that. At the time, they had no idea why it worked, but they knew it worked. What they did figure out was that when you look into a man’s face, it’s harder to shoot him, even if he’s shooting at you. On the world’s battle fields, strewn with casualties even in ancient times, the vast majority of the slaughter came only after the enemy turned and ran. This is counter intuitive if you bought into what Hollywood has taught us, but the truth is that it’s much easier to shoot an enemy in the back than it is to shoot a man at close range in the chest or face, and fear does not change this dynamic. Most of you reading this article are going to think it’s all wrong, so I’m going to burden you with some statistics, because you need to buy into this documented phenomenon, even though Hollywood has poisoned our reasoning and our true history.

Even back to the time of Alexander the Great, in all his massive battles during which he conquered the known civilized world, he lost less than 700 men. Of the slaughter and carnage that followed, the vast majority of the enemy were smitten from behind after the battle was won. During the battle of Rorke’s Drift during the Zulu wars, the English soldiers fired continuously into the packed ranks of Zulus, literally at point blank range knowing that Zulus never take prisoners. Even a 50% hit rate would seem impossible under those circumstances, but when the bodies and the number of separate wounds were counted and the ammo used was checked, the hit rate was 13%! At the battle of Wissembourg in 1870, the dug-in French fired over 48,000 rounds into the German troops, who were advancing packed shoulder to shoulder at a slow walk in an open area, and hit 404 of them. After the battle of Gettysburg 27,574 muskets were recovered from the battlefield. Over 24,000 of those, more than 90%, were fully loaded. Over 12,000 were loaded more than once and over 6,000 were loaded between 3 and 10 times, with one being loaded 23 times. On the black powder field, a loaded weapon is the most precious of commodities, because 95% of a soldier’s time was taken up with the reloading process and only 5% actually firing. Logic and math would require that if those soldiers wanted to kill the enemy, then 95% of the those who were killed would be found with an empty weapon in some stage of being reloaded. Any weapon found fully loaded and ready to fire would have been pure gold on a battlefield, picked up, and used, which further exacerbates the evidence. What happened was that individual soldiers, who couldn’t shoot the enemy, didn’t want to be seen by their comrades doing absolutely nothing, so they occupied themselves loading over and over. During the civil war, the generals on both sides realized there was a serious problem and saw that their men were shooting too high, over the heads of the enemy. Orders went out to shoot at the knees, but that didn’t help, because poor aim was not the problem.

Sociopaths aside, your subconscious mind abhors the idea of taking a human life, for any reason. This is true, even though your conscious mind has fully grasped the need to take a life in order to save yourself or a loved one. Until I studied this, it always amazed me how many armed women were robbed, assaulted, and raped in their own homes by an intruder who took their gun and had his way with her because she couldn’t shoot. Pointing the gun straight at him, they were unable to pull the trigger. That was their unconscious mind at work. Your conscious mind may clearly see a criminal and imminent danger, but your unconscious mind sees a human being.

However, we don’t want to just shut down the unconscious mind, because in fact it can be a life saver. Any man that has been in a life-threatening situation knows about “trusting your gut”, and many women are alive today because of “women’s intuition”. Both are the same documented phenomena with gender-specific names, but these phenomena are actually easy to explain. What they are, pure and simple, is our unconscious mind picking up on cues from our environment that we did not notice consciously, but it’s what the unconscious mind did notice. So we don’t want to shut down that valuable asset, but we do want to be able to act consciously.
 
There’s no purpose pointing all this out if there is no solution for the problem. However, in this case, there are. While it’s not quick or easy, the unconscious mind can be reprogrammed. If you’ve tried to lose weight chances are you either failed outright or you succeeded for a time but then gained it back. I’m talking about simply eating less. How can we fail so consistently when we want it so badly? The answer is that if your unconscious mind has a picture of you being a certain weight, it will fight to maintain stasis, because “that is you”. Your unconscious mind always wants to feel comfortable and will fight for that comfort.

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The Hidden Weakness In Your Defense Plans, by T.S. – Part 2

There are two tried, proven, and scientifically-documented ways to program the unconscious mind. Any professional or Olympic athlete will tell you that visualization works. If you watch winter Olympics downhill skiers stand at the top of their run, they are moving their bodies imagining the run as they want it before they even start. This programs the unconscious to see the same picture that the conscious imagines, and when the two work together amazing results follow. The other way to reprogram the unconscious mind is also well known and documented, though few have applied that knowledge to shooting; it’s positive affirmations. If you continually bombard your unconscious mind with verbal suggestions, what you are essentially doing is brainwashing yourself. If the unconscious mind hears it enough times repetitively and over a long enough time span, it begins to believe it. To be effective, your self-talk should be short, simple, and to the point. For instance, let’s say you aren’t the most observant person in the world. Your self-talk statement might be something like this; “I am always alert”. Your positive affirmations should be spoken several times a day and as often as you can. Remember repetition and time are the proven basis for brainwashing. If you do this, you will find that over time you will be looking less at your shoes as you walk and instead looking around at your surroundings more.
 
If you are one of those people who have less-than-excellent situational awareness, it’s critical for you to improve in this area, because you can’t defend against something you don’t notice until it’s too late. You’ll find that as soon as you say it, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, because you can’t make that statement and not involuntarily (unconsciously) start looking around. If you routinely look down while walking on a flat surface, like a sidewalk or road, and say something like that to yourself or even just think it, an autonomic response will follow that makes you look up and around. You don’t have to consciously do a thing or think a thought, it just happens. This is your unconscious mind working FOR you instead of against you.
 
If we fast forward from WW II to Vietnam we find something totally different, because now 90% of the riflemen are shooting the enemy. What’s the difference? Once the military learned about this phenomenon, we found ways to correct it. We did that by reprogramming our unconscious mind and also by temporarily bypassing it altogether. Training (correct training) is the key.
 
During WW II and the Korean War, we trained men to shoot paper bull’s-eye targets. They were encouraged to take their time, pull the trigger slowly, and breathe correctly; sound familiar? They became very good at taking their time, breathing correctly, and hitting paper bull’s-eyes, even at distance, but that training did not translate well into real combat. While there were other minor changes, the two big changes in military training that resulted in such an increase of the effectiveness of the riflemen were:

1. They now shoot at paper targets that are of real people, not bull’s-eyes. That conditions the unconscious mind to shoot something much more similar to the real thing.
2. If you fire the shot within three seconds, the unconscious mind is bypassed, because it takes 3-4 seconds to kick in what you’re doing and the consequences. By the time your mind decides that you should probably miss that target and just try to scare him away, the shot has been fired. When a bad guy is drawing a bead on a team member, you do not want to start thinking things like: “He probably has kids at home”, or “I’ll be widowing some poor woman”, or “He’s just hungry”. With training, your conscious mind will be screaming, “He’s drawing down on my friend; I have to shoot him or he’ll kill my teammate and me too, take my wife, and eat our food.” Your unconscious mind will cause you, at the very least, to hesitate for a few crucial seconds while it searches for alternatives to killing a human being.

After the collapse of society and in the absence of any effective law enforcement, we’re not talking about facing a military unit that possesses military-grade weapons, military training, and military vehicles. If you are, give it up; you’ll lose. What you are very likely to face, though, are individual criminals and gangs. These are “animals” and easier to “put down”. They may even make it easier for you by looking the part. However, what if it’s your neighbor, with whom you have refused to share what little food you have, and he has returned, armed and desperate? Can you shoot “Fred”, who you’ve known for years and who used to bring the cold beers to all your barbecues? What if your spouse is in the garden collecting vegetables for dinner and an old, frail, skinny man is drawing a bead on him/her? What if it’s a lady, a pregnant lady, or a thirteen-year-old boy who is starting to squeeze the trigger? Could you really shoot that pregnant lady or that child? If you hesitate for even a split second, your spouse just died, and it’s your fault. Still think this is going to be easy?

So, let’s talk in more detail about those solutions.

1. Stop right now and throw away all your bull’s eye targets; buy human targets to shoot at. I’m not talking about silhouettes or zombies either. I’m talking about real, human-looking targets of people posing as bad guys who are facing you. Start that process of reprogramming immediately, because it takes a lot of time, a lot of ammo, and we may not have all the time you’ll need if you procrastinate. That’s the easiest part.
2. The next part requires that you practice enough times at acquiring that stop watch. Then have them shout a stop order. They will stop the watch at exactly the three-second mark. Practice this with the target being at all points of the compass, as that can happen in real life.
3. The next part is the visualizations. The more detail you insert, the more effective they are, but detail will take you some time to develop and add. Here’s a hypothetic scenario for you. Let’s say you imagine yourself shooting an armed attacker who has just come out from behind a tree or building, depending on whether your environment is going to be urban or rural. You easily imagine yourself raising your weapon and shooting the guy, but there’s no detail there, so your unconscious is not going to buy into that. The lack of detail is what makes visualization fail for most people. The scenario I just described is not visualization, but it is the foundation for visualization. That’s where you have to start, but that’s not real life, is it? The devil is in the details. Did you visualize the target drop? In real life, people don’t usually just drop dead. They run until they bleed out, they fall, and they scream in agony. They call out to their mother in their death throes. They beg for their life. They use their last ounce of energy and last pint of blood trying to shoot back at you. (You must make sure the people you kill are dead. Many a good cop has been shot by a criminal who was fatally shot but returned fire before bleeding out.) Imagine that the target sees you at the last moment; does he freeze? Does he run? Does he pull his firearm up towards you? Does he drop his? Does he tell you to drop yours? Does he ask you to let him go and tell you he will never come back? Murphy’s Law says whatever you failed to anticipate is what will happen, so think through all the possibilities. You also have to engage all of your senses in the visualization, to make it believable to your unconscious mind. Did you see blood oozing from his wound? Did you even imagine, in detail, exactly where you hit him? Did you see, in your peripheral vision, the spent casing go flying? Did you see the look on his face the moment he saw you and knew he was going to die? Did you hear the sound of your rifle? Did you feel the recoil? Do you feel how dry your mouth has become and how wet your palms are? Did you smell the gunpowder right after the shot? Tunnel vision is normal during an adrenalin dump, but it’s not all exclusive. Did you notice the area around the target? If you are convinced the target has been neutralized, did you immediately start scanning the environment for another person, in case this one wasn’t alone? To be effective, you have to engage as many of your senses as possible and in as much detail as possible. Now repeat all that with a woman, an old man, and a thirteen-year-old boy as the perpetrator.
4. I want to add one more thing, which is the post-shooting situation and action. Please do not ignore this, or you radically increase the chances of suffering some form of PTSD. Unless you are all alone, never, ever, ever go look at the person you just shot. Let someone else check to make sure they are dead. Let someone else strip them of anything valuable, and especially let somebody else bury, burn, or otherwise dispose of the body. If you get a good, solid look at their face, your conscious mind will accept what you’ve done (assuming it was indeed a righteous shooting). However, at night, in your dreams, your unconscious mind will be thinking, “I shot the father of some kids somewhere”, I just killed my neighbor, Fred”, “I shot some lady’s husband or some mother’s son”, and/or “I shot a starving man who only wanted food” and other similar thoughts. There will likely be blood, guts, bone tissue, and so forth that can traumatize any normal man’s soul and sear it with memories that can never be purged without years on the couch of a good shrink.

Shooting another human being just isn’t built into a normal person’s DNA, unless you are a sociopath and have no conscience, remorse, or guilt. Be sure it is a righteous shooting, or you will deserve the guilt and trauma that follow. There can be a fine line between killing in self defense and unnecessary murder. We all have a moral compass, and for each one of us that compass points somewhere a little different than everybody else. I think we are all on board with shooting someone who would kill a loved one, but what about someone who is going to steal food, which is required for sustaining life and without it will result in the death of that same loved one later down the road? Is that also justified? We each have to make that decision, and I urge you to do that ahead of time, so you don’t have to work it out in your head in the middle of an adrenalin dump. Know exactly what you are willing to do, when, where, and how you will do it. Preparing your whole mind (both halves) ahead of time is your best defense. Without your whole mind behind you, all the marksmanship, training, and the finest weapons will almost certainly fail you.

 

Fern's Radio Communications Story

Hello, Fern here. I am borrowing Frank's introductory line for my one and only radio post.

I wanted to give a little different perspective about radio communications. Gentlemen, this will be good information for you. I hope to give you the perspective of a wife and a woman. Ladies, this post is really for you. Frank and I have very different interest levels, knowledge and interaction with our radio equipment. Like he has said in a couple of his posts, I need to be able to turn it on, key the microphone, and talk. I need to be able to talk to him just about anywhere I am. He is my knight in shining armor and I need to be able to call him from anywhere if I am a damsel in distress, or I just want to tell him how beautiful the sunrise is, or if there are beautiful flowers and tomatoes in the garden. I just need to always be able to get in touch with him if the need arises.

Let me back up a bit. Frank recently did a post about OPSEC communications which I thought was very valuable. I wanted folks to see how our use of radios has grown into an every day habit. It hasn't always been this way. In fact, it hasn't been very long at all since we began understanding and implementing radio communications as part of a very necessary piece of our daily operational security. So, I want to share with you my take on how I have come to depend upon, trust in, and need to have a radio with me anytime we are apart. Even if I am just out in the garden or in the barn, I have a radio with me all the time. And to monitor any communication I may wish to send, Frank listens to our Alinco base station in the shack, or his handheld.

You see, when we got to the point that we knew our move from Alaska was going to entail two vehicles with two U-Haul trailers and we wouldn't be able to talk to each other for about 12 days, I knew that just wouldn't do. We spend the vast majority of our time together and talk a lot. We were making one of the biggest moves of our lives, and I wanted to be able to talk to my husband. So, being the man he is, he came up with a great solution. He got us two handheld radios that would easily allow us to talk between vehicles. Yea! It made all the difference in the world to me, and it also introduced us to the world of radio.

Some time after we arrived, probably after we got our goat herd and I was spending more time in the barn, we started using them some around the farm. At first, honestly, I thought they were a pain to keep up with. I

remember feeling like they were in the way, awkward to carry, and I just didn't like it. I also found talking on them to be odd, and I didn't like that either. I didn't like knowing that others could listen to our conversations. But as time went by, there were several times they came in very handy. Like the time I went out to check on one of our first does and found she was having babies out in the pasture. I tried to call Frank on the radio, but the battery was just about dead and the only thing it would transmit was a beep. But he knew it was me and that I needed him. This saved me the trip back to the house, and I was able to start moving the goats into the barn. And in a very short period of time, there he was to help me.

I can't tell you when we realized how much these radios could increase our daily communications and security around the farm. I just gradually began to find more comfortable ways to carry them. Then, after we began using the commercial radios, I started using a microphone on mine. I find it easier to hear what Frank is saying when I have it clipped to the top of my shirt. I also find it easier to just key the mic instead of having to take the radio off of the loop on my work jeans or out of my coat pocket. I like the ease of the microphone much better. Frank doesn't. That's okay. We have each found a way that works well, is comfortable, and is effective.

Ladies, one of the main reasons I have come to appreciate the use of these radios is because Frank can be assured of my safety and I know that I can call him if I need something. We live off the beaten track and I like to

be out and about on our place. We have developed certain phrases we use when I arrive at the barn to milk the goats and another one when I leave there. We have also picked out a phrase to use in case something is very wrong and the other needs to come immediately, whether we are at home or on the road. We have practiced not using names and specific words identifying locations, not even using the words barn, house, etc. Every so often, we will slip and still identify a person or place. You would be surprised how much you have to train yourself to talk in a different way when you are putting information out on the airwaves where anyone can hear you. And the need for that practice is why you need to be set up and using whatever radios work for you long before a real, long term emergency occurs. If you wait until you really need them, it will be too late.

A while back, Frank and I both got our ham radio licenses. He has told everyone the only reason I did that was for him, and that is true. It is an interest he has and is something we felt we needed to do so he would be able to listen and communicate around the neighborhood, around the country and around the world in case of a disaster or collapse. We truly feel this ability will increase our

safety and security when and if that time comes. And we truly believe it is coming. We went to a few classes to learn something about the ham tests. Frank has taught me much about frequencies, different types of radios and some about antennas. We discuss things frequently, but I do not have anywhere near the knowledge he does, nor do I want to learn any more than I need to know. To pass the General test, I took over 100 practice tests and basically memorized the test. I have only talked on the repeater to other hams a handful of times, less than 10, since receiving my license. I have no desire to be involved in the 'ham' world at all. My only reason for being involved in radio at all is to communicate with my husband, who is my protector.

So, ladies, I encourage you to become involved in finding a means of being able to communicate with your family should all 'normal' means of communication become unavailable. Radio, in some form or fashion, will be available. To find out more about what may suit your situation, you will have to go and read Frank's Radio Communication posts. There is no way I can explain or teach you any of that. I have found over time that I have come to depend upon being able to talk to Frank, either here at home, or out on the road. He has given me this precious gift. Ask your husband for this same gift. It could be a matter of life and death.


Until next time - Fern