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When I was giving this subject some thought a few months ago, I ran a search for local prepper groups on Meetup. There were several. Much to my shock, when I began the lookup process to discover where the nearest such group was, Meetup demanded that I register (including name and photo) through either Facebook or Google.
I dropped that registration process like a poison mushroom. Does anybody have a far better prepper group location system instead of registering with the enemy, whether one wishes to either contribute to (as this article series appears to suggest) or learn from such groups, or even better …. both?
–Lewis
To be clear, the meetup sign up page let’s one choose between those two option or a third based solely on email (and a password you choose).
This is extremely common on modern sites. Some folks prefer the simplicity of not having to remember a new pw for every site.
Wiser folks know the value and security of password managers, where each site has its own pw.
Anyone who thinks seeing all cars inoperable in the streets and all power and communications down is the sign to look for as evidence of an emp should look for some REAL information on EMPs, like the congressional report on that very subject. It contains hundreds of pages of fact, backed up by actual laboratory testing. (Google ‘congressional report emp’). It seems like the author of this blog gets her info from the movies. Not the real world.
Hey Stan,
While I agree with your assessment concerning EMPs, and the available information on them, I have read the EMP congressional reports on more than one occasion, that is not Daisy’s writing.
You can tell by the tone and verbiage. She has more panache.
It is a special guest contributer.
This article is a good one Ms. Luther. I’d add though at the very top of the list of things an ‘information specialist’ should consider as a primary part of the job is a thorough vetting/background check on all members of the group. And that includes the IS/IT him/her-self. Such a dossier should be compiled on each and every member in the most impartial way possible. Not only to ascertain what skills, education, work experience; more, to see what possible legal situations may be part of the member’s past, what truth is left out or ‘modified’. Results contrary to the goals, cohesiveness and required skillsets and needs of the community/group need careful consideration for any hope of success.
I can see how one might consider compiling a dossier on prospective group members under the heading of this article. However, I consider that to be a personnel issue. There are plenty of books readily available on Amazon and your local book store on the job title “personnel manager”. That is a management issue and a job for a “people person” i.e. judging character, honesty, lying, judging skills and the lies in a resume, not to mention the criminal background check, etc. I consider the body of information I am suggesting more in the form of a library, in fact I collectively refer to it as the Library in the part 2.
Heartless,
Reality of the situation is, unless those people in your group live nextdoor, or within a reasonable distance (i.e. walking or bicycling distance) the likelyhood of them joining you or you them in a SHTF event are slim. Unless you have all agreed to a common meet up point. But I would imagine then you have already established a level of trust.
Take note of your neighbors, what skills they have. Assets, liabilities. Make them see you as an asset and not a liability.
I make it a point to smile and render the appropriate greeting of the day to everyone I run into at the post office.
“If your power is out, your cell phone is completely dead, the radio that you keep in a Faraday cage picks up nothing across its whole range…” And: “Keep this TV in a Faraday cage so you can use it after an EMP event.”
If nothing electronic will work and no signals are available, I wonder what the point is of having a TV in a Faraday cage??
Radio and TV will be covered in Part 5. I don’t know what standards as to shielding and Faraday cages are required, if any, to be maintained by radio and TV stations. However, on the off chance some of them may be able to get an emergency transmitter working within hours, days or weeks I want to have the necessary equipment to receive their broadcasts and learn what news they are able to tell us. I consider that as part of my role, finding and passing along news and information. There are many English speaking radio stations in Europe and other parts of the world. Much valuable information could be learned from them. More on this in Part 5.
Hey Liz,
Ya beat me to it!
“If nothing electronic will work and no signals are available, I wonder what the point is of having a TV in a Faraday cage??”
I was wondering the same. Who is going to be transmitting?
“TV” is an antiquated term anymore – you secure a monitor for multi-duty in your Faraday cage ….
in regard to any usage – with hardened US military & civilian gooberment bunkers – you guarantee me that any/all means of communication won’t be a possibility … between fiber optics and hardened satellite communications – anything could be possible given time …
In this day and age of fake news, biased Media and censorship (see Dasiy’s Modern Newspeak post), propaganda, why would anyone believe anything being transmitted by anyone post SHTF event?
judgement? – don’t take advise from anyone that doesn’t see the need for a “TV” in a Faraday cage?
What the heck does that even mean?
Very interesting. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
An Information Specialist is an interesting idea. One person, having all that information, in one location.
And what we call in the military A SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE.
Anything happens to that person, that gaget, or even that location (e.g. fire) and all that information is lost.
Rather, every single person in a group should have a mirror image of all that information at each of their locations.
However, I would advise against keeping things electronically. More on that later.
Daisy posted a most excellent article yesterday about Newspeak and the MSM. No one TV source is going to give you all the facts, just the ones that agree with their slant or bias. Local TV news will only give you about a tenth of reporting for your local area. They have to get in sports, weather, and their daily fluff piece. A local newspaper will get you more.
And just cut the cord already. To paraphrase Pink Floyd, “300 channels of sh*t to choose from!” I did over a decade ago, before “cord cutter” was common lexicon, and I am still well informed, more so than others. They dont call it TV programming for nothing. And that $120 or whatever it costs a month for TV can go towards better things for prepping. Nowadays you can still stream your favorite TV shows.
When I was in the military we were spinning up for an exercise. Created a scenario to meet all the training objectives, loaded maps, imagery into the computers, plotted all the units etc. After two weeks of work, I was briefing my OIC of our status. After I finished, he nodded his head, and then shockingly crawled under the tables, and started tripping the breakers on the power strips. All our computes went down. As the last computer spun down, he stood up, brushed off his hands, and said,
“Ok, now what?”
And we busted out the maps (physical ones), acetate, alcohol markers, and started plotting units on the map with little stickies.
For some reason, preppers outside of military circles only think there will be one and only one EMP attack. The idea of a secondary or even tertiary EMP attack never occurs to them. Or a third party sees the situation, sees an opportunity, and takes advantage of that opportunity in the chaos, and launches their own attack (to use a TV pop-culture reference anyone remember Jericho?). They can always blame the initial attacking party.
Our enemies know the first attack took down a lot of our infrastructure. But the military will have their back up systems, and will be attempting to re-establish their C4I systems and mobilize. Same with state and local government, NG and EMS.
American might be down, but she is not out. They are not going to give us a chance to get back up.
After a power/internet outage has occurred, what is one of the most famous stereotypes Americans are known for? When the power comes back on, internet reconnects, everyone checks their email, text, social media.
So, all those preppers, HAM operators dig their gear out of their Faraday cages, connect their power source, pat themselves on the back for being so smart, and 24 to 96 hours after the first attack comes the second attack.
“Ok, now what?”
That is where having physical maps, books etc. on hand are the advantage. More than a few preppers have the same books on their shelves. And, those things are not dependent on electricity. Yesterday was the first day we have seen any appreciable sunlight in 4 days. I would not have to have someone tell me we cannot get to a file, PDF etc. because the batteries are drained and cannot charge due to overcast skies.
USGS 1:24,000 digital maps are nice, but they dont render well, unless you zoom in really tight. They are also huge, 27MG for a single 1:24,000. Eats up a lot of memory. On more than one occasion, moving around the map, my PDF view locked up and I had to force a close and relaunch.
A USGS 1:24,000 physical map is about $7.
B&N also sells local maps too.
Ah, thanks for the feedback. 1stMarineJarHead you have made me alter Parts 2 and 3 to address your concerns and that is much appreciated. Those parts will be stronger now. Looking forward to your and everyone’s comments as we go forward.
No worries.
Hope you dont take the critique personally. Just passing along personal experience and observations.
If you ever really want to see what a post SHTF world looks like, go spend a year in Afghanistan. Even urban areas look more Mad Max than then most rural areas in America.
Detroit might be an exception.
1stMarineJarHead
20 years ago when I demonstrated my software product to potential buyers they would always ask does it do this or that or something else. I loved it when they asked something it didn’t do and I could see the business need for it. I found this to be my best source of new features . I always loved to improve my product. Right now my product is this series of articles and comments exposing weaknesses will allow me to improve the articles and the plan they represent. So keep the comments coming! Thanks
Old Timer49
The problem is where can you keep all this info ? I have about 100 books now but I would most likely need 300-400 more to cover everything I think I would need in case the SHTF
Books like Back to Basics, Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It, cover a myriad of basic skills to live in a post SHTF all in one book.
However, some skills I deem high priority (e.g. Medical) I I will buy books dedicated specifically to those topics on hand.
I think Daisy’s water survival guide would fall into this category as well.
In our local groups we’ve just referred to this person as the librarian. Lots of ongoing reading, summaries out to the folks. Recommending home hard copy libraries. Gathering electronic files (something over 20,000 or so at this time), organization and distribution.