The girlfriend has a loaner radio from her ham club. We need to set up an antanae for it and since we were going to be doing that I figured I’d pull my radio out of storage and hook it up as well since both radios operate on the same frequencies (Mine is an RCI-2950dx…noted for its ‘modificationability’). For the antanae, its going to be a simple and cheap dipole for now since, well, I’m cheap.So we’ll do the math to determine optimal length, cut the antanae, connect it to the insulator, plug in the coax, set up the SWR meter, and, maybe, get the bloody thing working. Pictures? Maybe, if I can remember.
It has, however, come to my attention that I need to pick up a battery charger for the 12 volt marine battery I keep on hand to power this thing in a blackout. One BatteryBuddy added to my list…
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God. Hates. Florida.
One of the cuties on my friends list rode out the hurricane in grand style….steel sheeting over the windows, generator and fuel, thundertoys, and she seems to have weathered it just fine. I’d love to post some of her pics but I gotta clear it with her first. However, she gets major Zero points for being ready and prepared. Coolest thing? She has no water pressure at the moment but she does have a full swimming pool…niiiiiiice. Why is that cool? Because, my friend, you then have several thousand gallons of chlorinated water to bathe and wash with…and flush toilets. Even with a some minor hurricane debris like a lawn chair or some shingles in there, as long as you dont have the neighbors dog floating belly up it should be fine for non-potable uses. And a hot bath is a fine non-potable use.
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Bird flu. Hmmmm. As I read it, the situation is thus – an extremely virulent strain of flu is infecting birds across Asia and is now showing up in Europe. Migratory and wild birds are transmitting it to domestic birds. The concern is when/if the flu mutates to a version that jumps from birds to human.
The great flu pandemic of 1917 (I think thats the right year) was the last time we saw such a beastie. My grandmothers sister died in that one. There were stories, some more true than others, of rail/trolley cars starting with a load of healthy people and finishing the route with a load of corpses. The advent of modern air travel certainly would make the likelihood of infection spreading faster even greater. Not much you can do for it except be prepared to isolate yourself from other people. Might be a good idea to practice the most basic precaution against any infectious disease: soap and water. And for the love of Crom dont put your hands near your face after touching money, a doorknob, a telephone or anything else that a hundred wheezing, mucous-dripping people may have already touched. Buy the yuppie bottle of hand sanitizer and use it.
Is a government enforced quarantine a likely course of action in this case? The current administration seems to be thinking it is. Now, think about this…when the government says “Everyone MUST leave.” like in Hurricane Katrina, what happened? Right. So when the .gov says “Everyone MUST stay.” what do you think is going to happen. Uh-huh.
Hand sanitizer, soap, bleach, repeat.
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This is more personal politics than preparedness but….if you have one of those Big Brother neighborhood watch cameras monitoring your neighborhood you should know that paintball guns are readily available from a myriad of sources. That is all.
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She has ridden it out in style hasn’t she? Go her!
Our pool out back is one reason we don’t have nearly as much stored water as we otherwise might. Very handy.
I’ll bet I can guess which cutie that is 😉
I don’t have a pool, but I do have 1000 gallons in a storage tank plus 3 hot water heater tanks. And by spring, I should have a 5000 gallon tank hooked up. If I get my ass in gear, anyway.
Good luck with the antenna. Let me know when I can listen for you 😉
I once saw autopsy slides of WWI soldiers’ lung tissue. Spanish flu caused such devastating damage to the lungs that it was sometimes impossible to tell if the soldier had died of the flu or a mustard gas attack. Pretty scary.
My local newspaper ran an article about my state’s flu preparations. They’re stockpiling supplies of things like gurneys and respirators, but the real worry is the lack of extra medical personnel to handle a surge in patients. Apparently, there is some conflict about what will be done with flu victims. The public health folks are saying that they plan to have victims stay home and be cared for by their families if we get hit hard by an epidemic. The possibility of prolonged exposure to a flu victims or victims should definitely be accounted for in one’s preps.
[Charging the marine battery]
Two chargers. A grid charger for recharging after the blackout…and a solar panel for normal trickle-charging.
The solar panel should pay for itself (in grid power not up in heat for trickle charging) fairly quickly, if you buy it at a reasonable price….and it dishes out about 1% capacity in amp-hours amperage in full sun.
>>>Not much you can do for it except be prepared to isolate yourself from other people.
you may want to isolate yourself from your cat also if it ever has any contact with birds.
When you say soap, I assume you mean regular soap and not “antibacterial” soap. Is that correct? Any thoughts on the whole superbug/antibacterial issue?
For the love of Crom…
“And for the love of Crom dont put your hands near your face after touching money, a doorknob, a telephone or anything else…”
This is true. If you have the bird flu, or any other strain of communicable disease please stay the hell away from me.
Pellet guns are also widely available from a myriad of sources.
This is an edgy question but is there a way for a healthy individual to lay on a supply of antibiotics, i.e. Cipro and penicillin etc. legally? Also, for the stuff I have in the cabinet, amoxicillin and ampicillin – is there a place where I can find out the shelf life of this stuff? I have kept the leftovers, but wonder if this is actually a bad idea.
Crom
it was 1918
Tamiflu is apparently currently effective against H5N1, but there is an international run on it for obvious reasons. Prescription-only in the US.
Forgive me if you caught this already, but an FDA panel announced last week that they found that antibacterial soaps weren’t any more effective than normal soap. It’s definitely worth digging deeper into the findings to get more details than what the mainstream media mentions though.
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SILVER SPRING, Md., Oct 20 (Reuters) – Antibacterial soaps and disposable wipes have not been proven any more effective than regular soap in preventing infections among average consumers, U.S. health experts said on Thursday.
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=governmentFilingsNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reuters.com:20051020:MTFH80332_2005-10-20_20-43-59_N20547025:1
This is exactly what I was driving at.
Given propagations conditions and the fact that your radio endeavors will likely be an evening activity, I’d recommend setting up a 40M dipole, or inverted V, which is still a dipole, only with either end attached close to the ground. If you have a decent tuner, a G5RV would also work as a multi-band antenna.
HHH Net Meets every night on 7.235Mhz. Participating in that net is a really good way to get into HF communications. Folks check in from all over the country and give each other signal reports, which will give you some idea of what’s going on with your signal. One of the main guys is also from Montana. I’m not sure where exactly, but if he’s atleast a couple hundred miles away, he should be loud and clear.
Re: For the love of Crom…
You can obtain many antibiotics from a vet supply or farm supply place, but it’s then up to you to determine dosages for humans.
I have the shelf life info around here somewhere. I do know that antibiotics last longer when refrigerated.
Post anything you’d like! I just put more up.
Re: For the love of Crom…
Easiest way would be to find a like-minded individual who is also a doctor. This is the preparedness equivalent of winning the lottery.
Vet meds can be used with good results and there are several books on the subject.
Another easy way is to simply contact friends/family who have had surgeries/dentalwork in the last few months…they usually have leftovers.
I finally added you … ;p
I second: Post ’em. For those of us who aren’t LJers there is apparently no other way to see them. (apparently can’t friend via OpenID)