How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It

by James Wesley, Rawles

  Two-Way Radio Communications

  Amateur radio is a very do-it-yourself hobby. I would strongly recommend that you get a ham operator license no matter what. In the United States, it is illegal to transmit on the ham bands without an FCC-issued license and call sign.

  I have long been an advocate of using field telephones and relatively low-power handheld transceivers for most retreat communications. Why unnecessarily blast out forty to fifty watts with a 2 meter rig when a few watts with a MURS radio will suffice? Save the higher-power transmitters for longer-range communication, and then use them only when needed.

  My favorite band for walkie-talkies is the Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS) band, since most MURS radios can be programmed to operate in the 2 meter band, and they have much better range than FRS radios. But like FRS, they are unregulated in most private use. (No license required!) It is also important to note that the CB channels, FRS channels, and 2 meter band frequencies will likely be very crowded WTSHTF, particularly in the suburbs, but the less well-known and less populated MURS frequencies will probably be largely available at any given time.

  Once you’ve mastered short-range communications and public-service band monitoring, the next step is to join your local ARRL affiliate club and study to get your amateur license. Someday you may be very glad that you did.

  If you want a higher-power system, I would recommend buying used marine band radios on eBay. (Search for “marine band radio.”) These do not require a license except for “vessels over sixty-five feet in length,” but be advised that there are FCC restrictions on inland use. Fines by the FCC can be and usually are substantial.

  Since most marine band radios draw more current than a MURS handi-talkie, you will need a more capable backup power system for battery charging. I suggest a couple of large six-volt DC deep-cycle (golf-cart-type) batteries for each radio. The beauty of the MURS band and the VHF marine band is that they are both essentially private bands in many areas. But, of course, don’t consider them secure, since they can still be detected and monitored with a multiband scanner.

  Some of my blog’s readers have suggested establishing Bulletin Board System, or BBS-style radio networks for communication after TEOTWAWKI. Since traditional telephone services, DSL, cellular services, ISPs, and the Internet are all more or less dependent on grid power, I expect them all to go down within a few days of each other in the event of major catastrophe. There will, however, be some utility in ham-radio-based packet-radio and digipeater networks, which can operate like BBS servers and even like a quasi-Internet. These can operate over long distances in the HF ham bands. There are also some regional 2 meter band networks that are partially served by photovoltaic-powered repeaters, so parts of those networks might remain intact. Because many older hams are retiring, there are lots of used radios and packet TNCs on the market, selling for very reasonable prices.

  Rather than reinventing the wheel, I recommend joining and expanding existing packet HF BBS networks. One word of warning: Do not simply bookmark the BBS pages. Like all the other World Wide Web pages, they will vanish if the power grid goes down, so be sure to print out an updated hard copy roughly twice a year. Mark your calendar.

  I also recommend joining an existing topic-based, scheduled (“same time, same frequency ”) HF ham call-in.

  Regarding “off-band” (or “out-of-band” or “freeband”) transmission: Such transmissions are not legal in the United States except under emergency conditions.

  Family Radio Service (FRS) Radio Capabilities

  I am often asked about the range and capabilities of “bubble-packed” FRS and GMRS radios. Their effective range can vary greatly. Indoors, the key question is: How much reinforced concrete? Reliable communication in a cluttered urban environment is iffy for the typical FRS and GMRS handheld transceivers on the consumer market. My preference is for the MURS band handhelds. Not only will you get better range but you will also be operating in a less commonly used frequency band. This will give you marginally better communications security (but with the oft-repeated proviso: no radio transmission should be considered 100 percent secure). I recommend the MURS Radios company as a reputable source of transceivers. They also do custom frequency programming, and sell both accessories and MURS-COMPATIBLE perimeter-intrusion detection systems.

  Licensing Requirements for FRS Versus GMRS Radio Transmission

  The most common FRS/GMRS radios come with several preprogrammed channels, usually numbered 1-22. No license is required in the U.S. for transmitting on Family Radio Service (FRS) channels (channels 8-14). Channels 1-7 and 15-22 are GMRA channels. You must have a GMRS license issued by the FCC to legally transmit on those channels, except in an emergency. For licensing information and application forms, see the FCC Web site (fcc.gov) or call the FCC Forms Distribution Center at 1-800-418-3676.

  Military service members: Consult your COMSEC office and/or spectrum allocation coordinator before utilizing FRS or GMRS bands for unencrypted tactical communications. These bands are some of the least secure in terms of interception risk.

  Alternative News Sources When the Grid Goes Down

  Many people now rely on the Internet and blogosphere for their news and information. Although the Internet is designed to be highly resilient (a carryover from its original design as a U.S. military network), it cannot be expected to survive a grid-down situation. The best that we could hope for in those circumstances is a combination voice and data packet network, via highfrequency (HF) shortwave. At the very minimum, to gather local, regional, and international intelligence, weather data, and accurate time of day, and to maintain overall situational awareness, you should own at least two radios, neither of which need be very expensive:

  1. A general-coverage AM/FM/shortwave receiver. Most of these cover all the way from 500 kHz all the way up to 30 MHz. This includes the AM and FM broadcast bands, many of the amateur bands, the international HF broadcast bands (for stations like BBC, Radio Netherlands, HCJB, WWV, and so forth), and the citizens band (CB) channels. The inexpensive Kaito KA1102 radios are ideal for anyone on a budget. If you have a bigger budget, I would suggest the following: the Sony ICF-SW7600G, the Sony ICF-2010 (both discontinued, but used ones are available on eBay), and, if you have a “the sky is the limit” budget, get a Drake R8A. Even if you eventually buy a more expensive receiver, I recommend that you keep a couple of the little Kaito KA1102 radios as spares, preferably stored in metal ammo cans to protect them from EMP.

  2. A VHF police/marine/aircraft/weather band scanner. Try to get one of the more recent models that can demodulate trunked traffic. One relatively inexpensive “trunked” model is the Bearcat BC898T. If you have a big budget, get a digital model. Nearly all scanners cover the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather bands.

  A Primer on Radio Transceiver Antennas

  To begin, one-half-wave antennas are theoretically the most efficient. Shorter fractional-wavelength antennas (quarter-wave, one-eighth-wave, etc.) are used primarily for compactness and lower cost. To illustrate some practical aspects of wavelength: CB radio frequencies have a wavelength of around ten meters (about thirty-three feet). It is possible to use a half-wavelength CB antenna at home or at a retreat, but not mounted on a vehicle. (On a vehicle, even a half-wavelength antenna is often too tall.) The MURS band (my favorite for short-range communications) has a wavelength of around two meters, so using a half-wavelength antenna is much more practical. The ARRL (arrl .org) has information that can give you an understanding of how both transmitting and receiving antennas work.

  A ground plane is a reflective, flat surface that limits the downward radiation of an antenna. When operating a transceiver with an antenna mounted on a vehicle with typical steel body panels, the vehicle itself forms a ground plane. This is why the most efficient antenna mounting location is at the top center of a vehicle. But, unfortunately, this also places an antenna at the greatest risk of impact damage. This explains why bumper-mounted antennas are
more popular, despite their distorted transmission characteristics and inefficiency.

  A log periodic antenna (LPA) or yagi-type antenna can be very effective, but keep in mind that like other antennas, they need to be properly polarized. Most mobile two-way radios use vertical polarization. Hence, your LPA or yagi will not have the traditional horizontal TV-antenna appearance—rather, it will be flipped on its side, for vertical polarization.

  Is Radio Direction Finding a Potential Threat for Survivalists?

  Some people have expressed concern that radio direction finding (DF) could be used by looters to locate people with working radios (and thus power and supplies). However, the only people who have effective DF equipment and the requisite expertise to operate it are:

  a. The National Security Agency (NSA) and a few other government agencies such as the FCC—mainly for tracking down unlicensed pirate stations.

  b. Ham-radio operators themselves, who practice playing “fox and hound.” Hams tend to be very law-abiding folks. I can’t imagine many of them going renegade and turning into looters.

  However, I can foresee many looter gangs showing rudimentary signals intelligence (SIGINT) skills and using portable public-service band (“police”) scanners, so it is wise to use low-power and directional antennas. Never mention surnames, locations, latitude/longitude, map coordinates, or street addresses “in the clear.” In my estimation, it is not likely that looter gangs would be sufficiently sophisticated to use DF gear. But never take anything for granted. If and when the Schumer hits the fan, you should construct your own brevity codes and change your call signs and frequencies often.

  One further note: We now live in the age of Bluetooth. WTSHTF, if you have a wireless network for your home computers, you should plan to turn the transmitter off and use it as a strictly “hardwired” Ethernet device. A clever looter might leave a laptop turned on in his vehicle, sensing when the vehicle passes an active wireless network. Even if you keep blackout shutters up—making your house look like all of your neighbors’ homes that are without power—an active wireless network could mark your house as a lucrative target. Ditto for cell phones and cordless phones. Assuming that the phone circuits are still working during a period of lawlessness (not likely, but possible), be sure to switch to landline only for the duration.

  I’ll close this chapter with one big proviso: Don’t make the mistake of becoming overly dependent on gadgets. Time and weather will take their toll. (As the Memsahib is fond of saying, “It’s entropy, Jim, entropy.”) Always have a Plan B and C for communications, and be ready and able to revert from high tech to no tech. Train for both best-case and worst-case situations when it comes to your electronics.

  10

  HOME SECURITY AND SELF-DEFENSE

  Threat Escalation

  As much as I would like to believe that order and decency will prevail in a crisis, I’m afraid the reality is that the thin veneer of humanity may crack under pressure. I hope that the worst never happens, but if it should, you need to be prepared to protect yourself, your family, and your supplies. As I see it, the biggest threat from your fellow man will be from home invasions and looting.

  Modern military planners often talk in terms of “threat spirals” when a given threat escalates and inspires a defensive countermeasure. Ideally you should anticipate your opponent’s next escalation and take countermeasures, insulating yourself from the future threat. Here are some potential home-invasion threat escalations WTSHTF:

  1. More frequent home invasions. The worse the economy gets, the more crime we can expect. Home invasions and kidnap-pings are likely “growth” areas.

  2. Use of dynamic-entry tools by home invaders. We can expect them to use commercial or improvised door-entry battering rams and Hallagan Tools—like those used by police. This means that standard solid-core doors by themselves will be insufficient.

  3. Possible use of vehicle-mounted battering rams

  4. Larger, better equipped, and better organized home-invasion gangs. Larger gangs will be able to invade a home.

  5. The potential use of cell-phone jammers

  6. More elaborate ruses as pretexts to get homeowners to open their doors. For example, not only will the “point man” be dressed as a UPS driver, but there will be a very convincing-looking UPS truck parked at the curb.

  7. More use of pepper spray and other irritants by home invaders

  8. Use of large diversions such as explosives to draw law enforcement away from the scene of a planned crime

  Don’t Be Caught Off Guard

  Almost the entire American citizenry has been systemically off guard since the end of the U.S. Civil War. There are two fundamental weaknesses that make American homes vulnerable to home invasions: a condition-white mind-set, and appalling architectural weakness.

  Condition-White Mind-set

  First and foremost is an almost universal condition-white mind-set. This refers to the Cooper situational awareness color code for “unaware and unprepared.” The vast majority of the urban and suburban population spends 90 percent of their daytime hours in condition white. They do a lot of idiotic things, such as failing to lock their doors and failing to keep guns handy.

  Architectural Weakness

  Secondly, one hundred fifty years of relative peace, stability, low crime rates, and cheap energy have worked together to push American residential architecture toward very vulnerable designs. Modern American homes are defensive disasters. They have huge expanses of glass, they lack barred windows or European-style security/storm shutters, they lack defensible space, and they often have no barriers for the approach of vehicles. Another ill-conceived innovation is the prevalence of floor plans that situate the master bedroom at the opposite end of the house from the children’s bedrooms, which is a nightmare in a home invasion.

  For the past twenty-five years, one of the hallmarks of “bad neighborhoods” in the United States has been the prevalence of barred windows and beefed-up doors. These are neighborhoods where the prevailing crime rates have pushed the majority of the population into condition yellow as a full-time baseline mind-set. Given the upswing in crime rates that will undoubtedly accompany the coming depression, I wish that everyone in the ostensibly “good neighborhoods” had this same outlook.

  One of the most chronic defensive lapses in American suburban architecture is exterior-door design. Typically, entrance doors have windows either immediately adjacent to or set into the doors themselves. Even worse is the ubiquitous sliding glass door. Nothing more than a brick or a paving stone tossed through the glass and bingo—instant access for home invaders, with the fringe benefit of startling the occupants.

  The Ultimate Solution: Designing for Security from the Ground Up

  Hidden Retreats Versus Visibility

  This is one of the most frequently asked questions from my consulting clients. It is the classic contradiction: concealment versus defendability. The most defendable positions are on barren hilltops, but those are also the most visible from a distance.

  Ideally, you would pick a retreat parcel that can provide both open fields of fire out to fifty or sixty yards yet not have a house visible from nearby roads. But of course this isn’t always possible. So you have to ask yourself: What do I expect to happen in my region in the event of a socioeconomic collapse? Will there just be an increase in burglary, or out-and-out attacks/home invasions by large, organized groups of looters?

  In my estimation, light discipline will be more important than line-of-sight issues. A post-TEOTWAWKI world will be very dark at night. Just a few weeks into the problem, even the houses owned by people who have backup generators will go dark, as they begin to run out of fuel. Again, if you have an alternative power system, don’t flaunt it. It is essential that you put blackout curtains backed by black sheet plastic inside all of your windows. Be sure to check for light leaks, preferably using night-vision goggles. Even heavy wool blankets and drapes tacked up inside your windows will leak light, but backing t
hem with heavy black sheet plastic (not just black trash bags) will do the trick. Tape the sheet plastic in place over the windows, leaving no gap where the sheeting meets the window frame, using opaque duct tape. Without proper blackout precautions, your house will be a “come loot me” beacon that can be seen for miles at night. But with appropriate light discipline, at least your house will look anonymously dark—like those of your neighbors who have no power.

  Consider getting infrared (IR) floodlights to light the exterior of your house. They can be motion-sensor activated. That way, unless your potential attackers have night-vision gear, your house will appear dark, but your yard will actually be well-illuminated (as seen through your night-vision goggles).

  If you can afford to buy a large parcel of land, I recommend a layered defense that is adaptable to changing circumstances—all the way up to the dreaded “worst-case” societal collapse. Install your seismic intrusion-detection sensor in the outermost layer. This gives you early warning of approaching malefactors. If it would not look too out of the ordinary in your neighborhood then you might consider planting a “decorative” thorny hedge around as much of your perimeter as possible, and installing a gate across the bottom of your driveway. The gate should have a spiked top to discourage gate jumpers. Make the hedge and the gate the maximum height that you can without being branded as the poster child for paranoia. Any access roads should also have a MURS-frequency Dakota Alert (or similar) wireless IR-beam motion detector. Then, depending on your situation, you might want a screen of trees for concealment. Next, some open ground, then a tall chain-link fence. Then more open ground close to your house and outbuildings. This area should be crisscrossed with tangle-foot wire. Lastly, thorny bushes beneath each window, and beefy steel shutters.