Fieldcraft, Survival, and Security: May 2017

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Long-Term Food Storage

Properly packaged, low-moisture foods stored at room temperature or cooler (24°C/75°F or lower) remain nutritious and edible much longer than previously thought, according to findings of recent scientific studies. Estimated shelf life for many products has increased to 30 years or more. Previous estimates of longevity were based on "best-if-used-by" recommendations and experience.

While there is a decline in nutritional quality and taste over time, depending on the original quality of food and how it was processed, packaged, and stored, the studies show that even after being stored long-term, the food will help sustain life in an emergency.

Research suggests that the following food items will last several years if kept in a cool and dry environment. Storing dry food in Mylar Bags with Oxygen Absorbers, and in 5 Gallon Food Grade Buckets with Gamma Seal Lids can help maintain log shelf-life. It is important to ensure that you use food grade plastic to store foods over long periods of time.

Proper food storage is important to keeping it safe to eat. Eating food that has been improperly stored has the potential to make a person sick, particularly if that storage container is a plastic that contains dangerous chemicals. All plastic is made from chemicals that have the potential to harm a person's health. The chemicals that make up plastic include BPA and DEHA. Storing food in plastic containers - designed only for that purpose - is vital to keeping food safe.

Though not studied, sugar, salt, baking soda (essential for soaking beans), and vitamin C in tablet form also store well long-term. Some of these items, like salt, will store indefinitely, while other items, such as coconut oil, may only store well for a few years. A good practice is to store foods that you like and that you currently eat, and rotate your food supplies, eating food that you have stored and replacing the stored food with newly purchased items. In this way, your freshest items are in your stored food supply if it becomes your sole food supply.

Food Items with Long Shelf-Life

Baking Soda
Beans (Dried) - A B.Y.U. study reveals that more than 80 percent of a consumer taste panel deemed retail-packaged pinto beans up to 30 years old as acceptable for emergency use (samples were stored for years in #10 cans with the oxygen removed). Dried beans can last almost indefinitely in the absence of oxygen and light, but gradual moisture loss will affect its taste and texture. Older beans may need longer soaking and cooking times; try adding acidic ingredients or salt toward the end of the recipe to avoid toughening up the skin.
Bouillon
Coconut Oil - Coconut oil! Unrefined coconut oil is also called virgin coconut oil. This type of coconut oil has the most nutritional benefits and the shelf life has been documented as anywhere from 2-5 years to "indefinite".
Coffee, Coca Powders, Teas
Corn (Dried)
Corn Starch
Corn Syrup
Ghee
Hardtack (Flour, Salt, Water)
Honey (Raw)
Liquor, Hard (i.e. Vodka)
Maple Syrup (100%)
Oats (Rolled)
Pasta
Pemmican
Popcorn kernels (not microwave popcorn)
Powdered Milk (in nitrogen packed cans)
Rice (White Rice) (Brown rice, on the other hand, has a short shelf life of generally 6 to 12 months because of its higher oil content which causes it to go rancid more quickly.)
Salt
Sardines (small bristling) and fresh water salmon are LOW in mercury, but are high in protein, micro-nutrients, and minerals. A little goes a long way to curbing hunger and sustaining optimum health and are very reasonably priced for the nutritional value.
Soy Sauce
Sugar (White Sugar)
Vanilla Extract (Pure)
Vinegar (Apple Cider Vinegar)
Vinegar (White Vinegar)

In general, most canned foods have a long shelf life, and when properly stored, can be eaten for several years:

Low-acid canned goods - two to five years (canned meat and poultry, stews, soups except tomato, pasta products, potatoes, corn, carrots, spinach, beans, beets, peas and pumpkin).
High-acid canned goods - 12 to 18 months (tomato products, fruits, sauerkraut and foods in vinegar-based sauces or dressings).

While these guidelines ensure the best taste and nutritional content of canned food, as long as the cans are not damaged; canned food can be eaten for much longer than the times listed here. The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted shelf life tests on food that was canned 100-years ago and found that although the food had lost its fresh smell and appearance, there was no detected no microbial growth and the foods were as safe to eat as they had been when canned more than 100 years earlier. (The FDA article about the study can be found here.)

Canned Fish and Meats that Have the Long Shelf-Life

Spam - Spam has an excellent source of protein and sodium and it will typically last about 5 years, with a long life-span.

Canned Alaskan Wild Salmon - Alaskan salmon is extremely rich in protein and healthy fats like omega 3s. If you look for Alaskan Wild Salmon, you will get salmon with no environmental contaminants that sometimes show up in other canned fish. You can even eat Alaskan salmon right out of the can without cooking.

Corned Beef Hash - This salt cured beef will give you comfort during rough times in a disaster. You may even find it packed with potato bits to save you time and energy.

Pink Salmon - Not only rich in protein and omega -3 fatty acids, it’s actually better than fresh salmon because the bones are still intact meaning there’s more calcium.

Sardines - Like Salmon, Sardines are very rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. It is often packed in a sweet tomato sauce, which is great for its lycopene content but often contains a high level of sodium. Try going for a low-sodium option that is packed in water. Sardines are sustainable and fairly inexpensive. They also contain high amounts of vitamin b12.

Vienna Sausages - Vienna sausage is very ingredient wise so this means fewer preservatives. They are easy to carry and a great staple food when in a disaster. These guys last about 5 years or more.

Freeze-Dried Food (Mountain House)

According to the Mountain House web-site their freeze-dried food pouches have a 30-year shelf-life. The web-site states "Based on our ongoing sensory and nutrition testing of actual Mountain House products, we’ve raised the shelf-life on our pouches to 30 years! Remember that we recommend storing your pouches unopened and avoid prolonged exposure to temperatures above 75° (24°C) to maximize shelf life."

While Mountain House food may be a bit more expensive than items on your regular grocery list, the light weight, very long shelf-life, and ease of preparation (just add water) makes this type of freeze-dried food an important addition to your survival and preparedness supplies. This also makes these food pouches excellent additions to a bug-out bag, assuming of course that you have a clean water supply so that you can prepare the meals while on the move.

There are a number of different information resources for preparing a long-term food storage program. You will find that not all of these resources agree on the best way to store food, what foods should be stored, or how long stored food will last. However, each of the following resources provides some guidance that is worth reviewing as you plan your food storage program:

A Guide to Food Storage for Emergencies (Utah State University)

Preparing an Emergency Food Supply, Long Term Food Storage

Food and Water in an Emergency

Home Emergency Supplies

Food - Ready.Gov

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Water, Water, Everywhere… but not a drop to drink

In any survival situation, water is going to be one of your priority needs. Many survival manuals quote the “rule of 3s”, saying that a person can only live three days without water. While this may vary a bit from one person to the next, after three days without any water most people will be in a downward spiral that will soon result in death unless a source of drinking water is obtained.

We get some water from food, and water is contained in other beverages such as juice and milk, but drinking water itself is your main, and best source, of water. Depending on where in the world you are, finding a source of water may be quite easy, or quite difficult, but finding that source of water is only the first step in having a supply of drinkable water. After finding a source of water you must purify it to make it safe for drinking. In a remote area, water from natural sources might be just fine, or it might contain parasites that will make you very ill. The basic rule is to purify all water from unproven sources.

Common global water-related diseases caused by parasites include guinea worm, schistosomiasis, amebiasis, cryptosporidiosis (Crypto), and giardiasis. People become infected with these diseases when they swallow or have contact with water that has been contaminated by certain parasites. For example, individuals drinking water contaminated with fecal matter containing the ameba Entamoeba histolytica can get amebic dysentery (amebiasis). An individual can get guinea worm disease when they drink water that contains the parasite dracunculus medinensis.

Boiling can be used as a pathogen reduction method that should kill all pathogens. Water should be brought to a rolling boil for 1 minute. At altitudes greater than 2000 meters (6,562 feet), you should boil water for 3 minutes. Boiling is the best method for killing pathogens in water, and is the preferred method to use whenever possible.

Filtration can be used as a pathogen reduction method against most microorganisms, depending on the pore size of the filter, amount of the contaminant, particle size of the contaminant, and charge of the contaminant particle. When choosing a water filter, look for any of the four messages below on a package label; indicating that the filter should be able to remove microorganisms such as cryptosporidium:

• Reverse osmosis (with or without NSF 53 or NSF 58 labeling)
• Absolute pore size of 1 micron or smaller (with or without NSF 53 or NSF 58 labeling)
• Tested and certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 53 or NSF/ANSI Standard 58 for cyst removal
• Tested and certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 53 or NSF/ANSI Standard 58 for cyst reduction

Sawyer Products Mini Water Filtration System

The Sawyer Mini Water Filtration System is my preferred filter for survival use. Concerning their water filters, the Sawyer web-site states: "Our filters are certified for ABSOLUTE microns making it impossible for harmful bacteria, protozoa, or cysts like E. coli, Giardia, Vibrio cholerae and Salmonella typhi (which cause Cholera and Typhoid) to pass through."

Another popular choice for filtering water in the field is the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter. With the LifeStraw you can drink water directly from a stream, pond, or swamp by sucking the questionable water through the filter like you were drinking with a straw. When you first start to use the LifeStraw you must suck enough water into it to fill the filter, so it can take a few second for the water to begin to flow for drinking. The LifeStraw is good for filtering questionable water sources for drinking, but does not allow that clean water to be stored after filtering (you suck the water through the filter directly into your mouth for drinking). Still, as long as you are always willing to drink your water through the LifeStraw it is a good filter to keep in your survival gear.

While filtration is effective against microorganisms; filtration is not effective in removing viruses. Disinfection with iodine or chlorine however has a high effectiveness in killing viruses. Disinfection with iodine or chlorine is not effective in killing Cryptosporidium. Disinfection with iodine or chlorine has a low to moderate effectiveness in killing Giardia. Against Cryptosporidium and Giardia you must either boil your water, or use a water filter meeting the filtration standards listed above.

My preferred chemical purification method for water is the Polar Pure Iodine Water Purifier. Polar Pure has an indefinite shelf-life, and a single bottle will purify 1875 liters (2000 quarts) of water.

If boiling water is not possible, a combination of filtration and chemical disinfection is the most effective pathogen reduction method in drinking water for backcountry or travel use.

Keep both a Sawyer Products Mini Water Filtration System and Polar Pure Iodine Water Purifier in your bug-out bag along with a stainless steel water bottle, such as the 40 ounce Klean Kanteen, allowing you to boil water, and you are prepared to purify most any water source for drinking.

Once you have purified your water, you will need a way to store and carry it. For this I recommend a water bladder such as the 3 liter (100 ounce) Aquatic Way Hydration Bladder Water Reservoir.

The three-liter (100 ounce) is the largest commonly available, and you will want to be able to carry as much fresh drinking water as possible in a survival situation.

Many survival manuals show the construction of a homemade water filter. While these types of homemade filters will help remove dirt and sediment from the water, they do nothing to remove microorganisms from the water. That being said, this type of filtration can still be valuable to remove sediment from water sources before boiling or using a filter, like the Sawyer Mini Water Filter or LifeStraw, to purify it for drinking.

A source of fresh drinking water is essential in any survival situation. Keep your water bladder and canteens filled with fresh water, so that you have an initial supply if you have to grab your gear and go. Be sure that you have a plan for obtaining more water, and a means to purify it for drinking once you get it. If you can’t maintain a source of clean drinking water, your survival situation is likely to be over - permanently - about three days after your water runs out!

Monday, May 29, 2017

Making Galeta (Hardtack)

Galeta (галета), also called ‘hardtack’, ‘pilot bread’ or ‘sea biscuits’ is a simple cracker that is easy to make, long lasting when properly stored, and is often stored as a “survival food”. Galeta has been included in military rations for many years. Most varieties of galeta made in Russia include at least some fat or shortening, making them closer to pilot bread crackers, then to the more basic ‘hardtack’ made from just flour, salt, and water.

To make basic hardtack: mix 5 cups of flour to 1 cup of water containing a 1/2-tablespoon of salt. Knead into a dough and roll out to 3/8-inch thickness. Cut into approximately 3-inch squares and pierce each with a fork or ice pick several times. Bake in a 375-degree oven, on an ungreased baking sheet for 30 minutes or until slightly brown. Turn the hardtack over and continue to bake for another 30 minutes.

A softer hardtack, which is the traditional galeta is made using:

4 cups of flour
2 cups of cold water
2 tablespoons of cold butter or shortening/margarine
4 teaspoons of salt

Prepare this mixture in the same way as the basic hardtack, also baking at 375-degrees for 30 minutes per side.

Because fat (butter or shortening) has been added when making galeta, it will oxidize and become rancid over a relatively short time (if not stored in an air-tight container) and thus the softer version is not for long term storage in the same way that basic hardtack is.

A commercial version of galeta is available in many food markets.

Mountain House Pilot Crackers, packed in an air-tight #10 can for long-term storage, is available from various camping supply stores or on-line from stores like Amazon.com.

KGB Survivalist has a short video on his YouTube channel showing how to make basic hardtack. His recipe is a little different in the amount of each ingredient (flour, salt, and water) to use, but there are no set rules on exactly how to prepare hardtack.

While galeta can be eaten like a cracker, perhaps topping it with fish or butter, or jam; basic hardtack can be difficult to chew. Hardtack is best eaten by letting is soak in soup, broth, or tea until it softens. Hardtack can also be crushed into small pieces and used as a base or thickener when preparing other foods.

Take some time to make both galeta and hardtack. It is easy and inexpensive to make, and can add a basic ration to your survival items.

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) Encryption

Keeping private communications private is an important part of personal security. One of the most common forms of communication in the world today is e-mail. In all but the most remote areas it is usually possible to find an Internet connection and have access to e-mail. If you have access to the Internet you can always set-up a free e-mail account with major service providers such as Yandex https://www.yandex.com/. And even in the most remote regions of the world, if you are a HAM radio operator, it is still possible to establish e-mail contact over HF radio using services such as WinLink https://www.winlink.org/.

So, most people - or at least most people reading this blog on-line - probably already have e-mail, or a social media account such as ВКонтакте (VKontakte) https://vk.com/ that allows you to send and receive private messages. But private messages do not mean secure messages. Anyone who is able to intercept your unencrypted e-mail can read it, and of course your Internet Service Provider, and any mail server that handles your e-mail, could copy and store it for future reference. Fortunately, there is an answer to unsecure e-mail and that answer is encryption.

Pretty Good Privacy or PGP was developed by the American mathematician Phil Zimmermann and released to the public in 1991. Since that time PGP has become an unofficial standard for personal e-mail encryption. Today PGP is implemented in many products as the Open PGP Standard. Although the math behind PGP is complex, using PGP to protect your personal e-mail is quite easy. As a very simplified description of how PGP works: when you set up PGP you create a key-pair, a public key and a secret key. The public key allows messages to be encrypted, but not decrypted. The secret key allows messages encrypted with the public key to be decrypted.

You provided your PGP public key to anyone who might want to send you a secure message. You can even post your public key to your web-page, or upload it to public key servers so that it can be found by others who want to contact you. Of course, you must keep you PGP secret key protected - it is after all "secret". As long as you are the only person with access to your secret key, then you will be the only person capable of decrypting and reading messages encrypted with your public key.

PGP is available for free from many sources. If you use web-mail, and use either the Chrome or Firefox browser you can download an add-on for these browsers called Mailvelope https://www.mailvelope.com/en/ that integrates PGP encryption / decryption into the browsers. If you use the Windows operating system, you can download Open PGP Standard applications such as GPG4WIN https://www.gpg4win.org/ and a portable version called GPG4USB https://www.gpg4usb.org/. All of these PGP implementations and many others like them, that you can find on-line, are cross compatible as long as they use the Open PGP Standard.

There are several tutorials on-line that will teach you how to get PGP / GnuPG up and running on your computer. A few examples of tutorials on YouTube are:

As with any new program that you might choose to install and run on your computer, there can be a small learning curve as you get used to the way the program functions, but with PGP that learning curve is quite small, and there is a lot of help available for those who want to begin using PGP.

Even if you don’t want to use PGP to encrypt all of your e-mail (but you really should), having the ability to encrypt e-mail is important. As with any other type of preparedness it is important to obtain the proper tools (i.e. PGP) and to practice (i.e. send and receive encrypted e-mail) to develop and maintain your skills.

The best practice is to use encryption for all of your messages, not just when you’re doing something you consider worth protecting. This is important. If we only use encryption when we're working with important data, then encryption signals that data's importance. If only dissidents use encryption in a country, that country's authorities have an easy way of identifying them. But if everyone uses it all of the time, encryption ceases to be a signal. No one can distinguish simple chatting from deeply private conversation. The government can't tell the dissidents from the rest of the population. Every time you use encryption, you're protecting someone who needs to use it to stay alive. So, take some time to set up PGP and practice secure communication with your friends and family.

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Alt.Anonymous.Messages Newsgroup

For two people who want to communicate securely and keep their association secret there is the alt.anonymous.messages newsgroup. This newsgroup posts PGP encrypted messages received through mixmaster or similar posting methods. Messages are encrypted with the intended recipient’s PGP Public Key, and then anonymously posted to the newsgroup. There are several ways of posting to the alt.anonymous.messages newsgroup, but one of the most commonly used methods, and the one that I like is AAMDirect. Using the AAMDirect software, you create a PGP Key Pair, prepare and encrypt messages, and then anonymously post to the alt.anonymous.messages newsgroup. The other party to the conversation simply uses AAMDirect to download all encrypted messages and is able to decrypt the messages encrypted with his or her PGP Public Key. There is no direct connection between the sender and the recipient of the messages posted to the alt.anonymous.messages newsgroup. AAMDirect has other built in encryption tools, such as a symmetric encryption program and a one-time pad program.

Alt.anonymous.messages has been around since the early days of the cipherpunk movement in the early 1990s. In 2013, at DEFCON-21, Tom Ritter discussed de-anonymizing alt.anonymous.messages. His presentation can be found on YouTube. If you use plan on using alt.anonymous.messages frequently watching Mr. Ritter's presentation is recommended to help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of this newsgroup and its supporting services.

A.A.M Direct, also known as simply AAM Direct is a freeware program, available from different sources on-line such as http://aamdirect.sourceforge.net/. It’s a particular kind of newsgroup application for both reading and posting, hence communicating via the alt.anonymous.messages newsgroup. As such, it can be considered a private annex anonymous email system that doesn’t use an email account. The text content of the messages will be automatically encrypted either via the Mixmaster remailer system or a secure TLS connection using Stunnel and GnuPG.

Without going into further technical details, with AAM Direct you’ll get a solution that will enable two parties to communicate without them having to be linked together, besides a program that can be used to download all newsgroup alt.anonymous.messages.

Having a secure and private means of communication is an important part of survival planning. Not every survival situation is a case of being 'lost in the Tiaga'. It may be that your situation will be one where you have access to the Internet and other infrastructure, but one in which you must remain hidden and undetected. AAMDirect and alt.anonymous.messages gives you one means of communication that is very difficult for an adversary to exploit.

Lockpicking

Friday, May 26, 2017

Cyalume Trip Flare

Here in the Wudewasa Blog, I previously wrote about .22 caliber tripwire sentry alarm mines. These mines are useful for sounding an alert, but they do nothing to show you what set off the alarm. To do this we need something to illuminate the area, and this is where the Cyalume Trip Flare comes into play.

The Cyalume Trip Flare is loaded with a chemlight, and when something hits the tripwire a striker breaks the chemlight causing it to light and illuminate the area around where it is set. The best chemlight to use in the trip flare is the Cyalume ChemLight Ultra High Intensity, with a five minute duration. This allows you to observe the area and hopefully spot whatever or whomever set off the trip flare, but then lets the area return to darkness. While the Cyalume Trip Flare will illuminate an area, it doesn’t make much noise when it is tripped, so you should be observing the area where your trip flares are set. Of course, with a bit of ingenuity it would be possible to rig a noise maker (such as the Robocopp 130dB SOS Personal Alarm) to the Cyalume Trip Flare so that the area is both illuminated and an alarm is sounded when the flare is tripped.

Strike-A-Fire

Strike-A-Fire, made by the Diamond Match Company, is a fire starter with a built-in match. Just strike it on the striking surface on the box and the Strike-A-Fire burns with a strong flame for about 12 minutes. There is no need for additional tinder or kindling. Intended for lighting grills, barbecues, and wood-stoves; the Strike-A-Fire is an excellent addition to your survival kit or bug-out gear. If you lose or destroy the match striking surface on the box, any similar matchbox surface will work; and the match end of the Strike-A-Fire is also easily lit with the spark from a fire-steel.

I personally carry Strike-A-Fire in my outdoor gear. A similar product is also made by Coghlan (a company which makes a lot of camping gear). If you may find yourself in a situation where you have to light a fire during wet or difficult conditions, consider adding Strike-A-Fire to your survival gear.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Pemmican (вяленое мясо)

Pemmican is made from lean, dried meat (usually beef nowadays, but bison, deer, and elk are alos common) which is crushed to a powder and mixed with an equal amount of hot, rendered fat (usually beef tallow). Crushed, dried berries are added as well. A man could subsist entirely on pemmican, drawing on the fat for energy and the protein for strength (and glucose, when needed).

Pemmican is an American Indian food that has a very long shelf life and it requires no refrigeration. It is a simple combination of meat jerky and your favorite dried fruit. It is a compact energy source that contains protein, fiber, fat, carbohydrates, natural fruit sugars, vitamins, and minerals. It also tastes great because it

Pemmican has several very important and desirable characteristics:

1. It uses both the lean meat and the fat from an animal.
2. It conveniently stores your summer food harvest for winter consumption.
3. It requires no refrigeration or canning jars for safe long-term food storage.
4. It does not weigh very much because it contains no significant moisture.
5. It is a complete meal all by itself.
6. It is very nutritious and very tasty.
7. It can easily be made in the wilderness without any special cookware or equipment.

Here are some basic pemmican recipes:

Recipe # 1

Ingredients:

4 cups lean meat (deer, beef, caribou or moose)
3 cups dried fruit
2 cups rendered fat
Unsalted nuts and about 1 shot of honey

Instructions:

Meat should be as lean as possible and double ground from your butcher if you do not have you own meat grinder. Spread it out very thin on a cookie sheet and dry at 180 degrees F for at least 8 hours or until sinewy and crispy. Pound the meat into a nearly powder consistency using a blender or other tool. Grind the dried fruit, but leave a little bit lumpy for texture. Heat rendered fat on stove at medium until liquid. Add liquid fat to dried meat and dried fruit, and mix in nuts and honey. Mix everything by hand. Let cool and store. Can keep and be consumed for several years.

Recipe # 2

Ingredients:

2 lbs dried beef (see recipe 1 for drying instructions)
1.5 cup raisins
Beef suet

Instructions:

Grind meat to fine pulp in a blender. Now add in the raisins. Chop this mix enough to break up the raisins and mix in well. Melt the suet to a liquid and pour into the mixture, using just enough to hold the meat and raisins together. Now allow this to cool slightly. Put this into a pan and let it cool completely. Next, cut the pemmican into strips, than divide it into bars of about 4 inches long by 1 inch wide. Bag these separately and you can store them for several months.

Recipe # 3

Ingredients:

Dried lean beef, buffalo, or venison (see recipe 1 for drying instructions)
Beef suet
Seedless dried fruit

Instructions:

Melt the suet until it becomes golden brown and liquid. Strain out any solids. If you cool it, re-melt it and strain it again it will improve the shelf life of the pemmican. Grind the meat into a powder. Chop or grind dried fruit and add it to meat. Pour liquid suet onto meat/fruit mixture. Mixes best if suet is warm, and allows you to use less of it. Now, press the pemmican into a tin using a spoon. Let cool in the fridge, than turn it out and cut into bars the size of candy bars. Wrap each bar in wax paper or paper lunch bag, label and store.

Recipe # 4

Ingredients:

2 cups dates
3 cups powdered jerky (or powdered tofu-jerky)
2 cups raisins
Honey (as a binding agent, add as much as needed)
2 cups nuts

Instructions:

Grind all this material together, except for the honey. Add in the honey a little bit at a time, and mix well each time. Pour into pan until about three quarters of an inch thick or make them directly into bars. Refrigerate and cut bars out of pan. This is a sweet concoction and in cold climates, honey can be replaced with suet and processed just as in pemmican recipes seen above.

While the idea is to make pemmican yourself, there are companies that make pemmican as a commercial product. One such commercial version is the Tanka Bar, Natural Buffalo Cranberry Bar. If you are not sure whether you will like pemmican, buy a little first and try it; with the goal of course being that your will begin making your own.

Finally, here is a YouTube video showing How to Make Pemmican.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Signaling for Help

Sometimes (perhaps more often than not) in a survival situation you will want to signal for help. You want others find you and rescuers to come to your aid. There are several ways to signal for help, and if you are going to venture into the wilderness you should be sure to have some type of emergency signal available.

In cases where you believe that there will be an air search, find an open area and lay out ground to air signals. Ground to air signals are simple geometric figures intended for use by personnel with a downed aircraft to signal other aircraft as to their condition and needs.

These signals can be laid out with any material that contrasts with the surrounding ground cover.

VS17/GVX Signal Panel Markers are designed to be highly visible from the air, and can be used to mark your location. The orange side of the panel is easiest to see from the air. Flashing (opening and closing the panel rapidly) is easier to spot than the static panel. The signal panel can also be tied to a long stick and waved like a flag to attract attention.

A Cyalume ChemLight tied to a cord and swung in a circle makes a visible signal at night.

A signal mirror is an essential item that allows you to signal for help whenever the sun is up.

Search and rescue won’t always have access to aircraft, and even when aircraft are available to aid in the search, rescuers will have to make their way to you over ground in many cases. A signal whistle helps rescuers locate you, and can be heard at a distance of a few hundred meters, or perhaps even a couple of kilometers depending on terrain. I personally like the Fox Sonik Blast whistle, but any loud whistle will serve the same purpose.

The military surplus 26.5mm Flare Pistol is a good signal device, although perhaps a bit bulky for carrying on a day hike. Still with daytime smoke, and nighttime flare signals, the flare pistol is something worth considering.

It is interesting to note that inserts / adapters can be purchased for the 26.5mm Flare Pistol to allow it to fire .22LR, .38 Special, and 410 shotgun shells. Neither the flare pistol nor the adapters are by themselves considered firearms, so they can often be shipped right to your door. There is also a 12-gauge adapter for the 26.5mm flare pistol, but this is intended for use with 12-gauge flares. 12-gauge shotgun shells cannot be safely fired using these adapters.

If the flare pistol is too large and bulky to carry with you, you can always opt for smaller pen flares. These flares are much smaller than the 26.5mm flares, and thus produce a smaller signal, but they can still be useful to attract the attention of rescuers. Many different types of flares are available from companies like Orion Signals.

Although designed as a roadside emergency signal, emergency disc lights are small and light enough to be included as a signal in most packs. Visible at night for several kilometers, and lasting several hours on a single set of batteries these lights can continue to signal for help throughout the night while you get some rest.

You can also set up a fire to be used as a signal. During the day, you want a fire that produces a lot of smoke, and at night you want a large bright flame that can be seen from a distance. Survival Russia has a good YouTube video on how to build a signal fire.

If you find that you must signal for help, using more than one type of signal improves your chances of being found. Sweeping the horizon with your signal mirror throughout the day, using your whistle to attract the attention of rescuers in the area, having a signal fire prepared, and having ground to air signals laid out during the day all work to make your location more visible to others. Of course, no signal is of any value if nobody sees or hears it. Therefore, if you are going into a remote or wilderness area, make sure that you let someone know where you plan to be, and when they should expect your return. If you have not returned or made contact be a specific time, a search and rescue team should be sent out to find you.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Psychology of Survival

The Office of Aerospace Medicine, Civil Aerospace Medical Institute has published some comments on the Psychology of Survival'. I have reproduced those comments below. Understanding how a survival situation can affect your state of mind, and how your state of mind can affect your ability to survive is an important topic, that is too often overlooked in preparedness planning.

When preparing for a potential survival situation you must first admit to yourself that it can happen. Once you have taken this first step, you can then start preparing for an event that will hopefully never occur.

Preparing for an event that may never occur is not always easy. However, if you take the time to prepare yourself both mentally and physically, your chances of survival will increase dramatically. Having the right frame of mind and being able to think productively are critical. Having knowledge of the intended use of gear, or the ability to improvise using gear, increases confidence and ultimately your chances of survival.

Being suddenly introduced to a new and threatening environment can be a very traumatic experience. Your ability to handle this change will depend heavily on your mental state. A person who thinks randomly and/or irrationally will act in the same manner.

Whatever affects the mind will in turn, affect the body. This is the principal behind the whole-body concept. A continuous, nagging injury can take away from a positive mental attitude. Try to remember that pain is the body's way of telling you something is wrong. Treat the injury that causes the pain.

For the body and mind to function normally, it must have food and water. Water is essential to survival. Life expectancy without water, in extreme conditions, is three days. Even when you are mildly dehydrated, mental skills decrease. When you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated.

When dealing with hunger, it is important to remember that the average person can survive 30 days without food. Human beings are creatures of habit. We have established our eating schedule over many years (breakfast: 6 - 8 a.m., lunch: 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., dinner: 5 - 8 p.m.). During a survival episode, when these established times are upon you, the body is expecting to be fed. The expectation can be overwhelming. Try to keep your mind off food by doing the things necessary to aid in your survival.

Fatigue exist in two forms: physical fatigue and mental fatigue. Each form of fatigue will hasten the onset of the other (whole body concept). Physical fatigue stems from overexertion. The best remedy is prevention. Pace yourself and take frequent rest breaks. Mental fatigue is caused by the stress placed upon the mind. One remedy for this is to routinely take your mind off your situation. The best remedy for fatigue is rest and sleep. If you are fatigued, the best thing to do is sleep. When sleeping, the muscles relax and the body unwinds. Also, it is believed that during sleep the mind releases useless information and resets your biological clock. Sleep may be difficult in this new environment, however, if sleep is put off even for a day, you will become fatigued.

Psychologically, this is potentially the biggest obstacle that you as a survivor will have to overcome. You, or anyone in your group, who are suffering from depression will experience long periods of sadness or negative feelings. If you let depression progress it can create feelings of fear, guilt, and helplessness. This may lead to a loss of interest in the basic needs for life. Depression usually occurs after a person has fulfilled their basic needs, and when there is plenty of "down" time. Keep your mind busy with productive thoughts, such as signaling or improving your shelter.

There are many reactions to stress, and they will vary from person to person. Fear, anxiety, panic, boredom and helplessness are all common emotions experienced in a survival situation. If you don’t keep your emotions under control they can dramatically reduce your chances for survival.

Fear and anxiety are naturally occurring emotions. Anxiety is simply fear at the subconscious level and is described as a feeling of uneasiness. In this state, a person is worried about what might happen instead of what is happening. If anxiety is not dealt with, it can cause panic. Panic is an irrational state of mind and is counter-productive to a survival situation.

Fear is at the conscious level. You know what frightens you. Fear, left undealt with, may turn into panic. You must be in control of your fear. To control fear, you must learn to recognize it. Fear produces symptoms, both physiological and psychological. It is important to remember that the symptoms stem from the body going into the "fight or flight" mode.

In any survival situation, there are priorities. These priorities are established based on how long a human can survive without each item. The list below is based on the "Rule of Three's":

Air (3 minutes)

Shelter (3 hours)

Rest (30 hours)

Water (3 days)

Food (30 days)

Where does the "will to survive" fit in? What is the "will to survive?" It has been described as hope, determination, goals and/or a positive mental attitude. The opinions will be as varied as the people making them will. One thing is certain: without a "will to survive", your chances of surviving are greatly diminished. The "will to survive" is commonly referred to as a desire to live despite seemingly insurmountable mental and (or) physical obstacles. In many cases, you will provide the necessary equipment for survival. Training for a survival situation will come from courses, experience, and research. However, equipment and training are not always enough to ensure your survival. You must also have a will to survive.

Monday, May 22, 2017

Midland Micro Mobile GMRS and the Operator G1 System

When the official communication infrastructure fails, the best and most effective means of alternate communication is amateur radio, such as that promoted by the International Amateur Radio Union. However, not everyone needs this level of communication, and many are unwilling to put in the time and effort to study for and pass the licensing exams.

For those who don’t want to become amateur radio operators; the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) can be an excellent communications system for survival and remote area operations. When most people think of GMRS radios, hand-held "walkie-talkie" radios come to mind. These hand-held radios can provide local area communication for a distance of a couple of kilometers. The advertised communication range for these radios of 20 - 30+ miles is the best that is possible under perfect conditions. You should not plan on being able to establish effective communication with hand-held GMRS radios at distances greater than a couple of kilometers; and you should not rely on communications ranges that you have not personally tested. Many companies make GMRS hand-held radios, and you can expect to get the same basic performance from radios made by each of the major manufactures. My personal choice for GMRS hand-held radios is the Midland GXT1000VP4, but you can choose any brand that has the style and features you prefer and get the same basic communication capability as the Midland GXT1000VP4.

The major weakness with hand-held GMRS radios is the non-detachable antennas. With 5 watts of transmitting power and a good antenna raised a few meters above the ground you would have good area communications for your bug-out camp, or for working in a remote area beyond the range of cell-phones. Thankfully Midland has comes out with a series of radios that allow you to do just that.

The Midland Micro Mobile GMRS radios, available with 5, 15, and 40 watts transmit power, and using an external antenna that can be raised five meters or so above the ground, make your GMRS radio a truly effective communication tool. For survival use, the 5 watt MXT105 radio can be paired with the Operator G1 by Hardened Power Systems making a self-contained communication system that has been specifically designed for survival use.

The Operator G1 is designed to be used with the MXT105 (and the previous MXT100), but for larger radios, such as the MXT400, you can buy other power boxes from Hardened Power Systems.

The Midland MXT105 and MXT115 both come with an external antenna. The MXT400 does not include any antenna, but for all three radios I recommend adding a top quality GMRS antenna such as those made by DPD Productions.

For survival use the MXT105 combined with the Operator G1 power system will likely meet all of your communication needs that can be met by GMRS radio. Remember that the purpose of GMRS radio is to give you local communications capabilities. Having a radio that will transmit from Vladivostok to Moscow has its place, but probably not so much in a wilderness survival situation. Keeping the radio transmit power low keeps your signals from being easily intercepted, thus revealing that you are in the area, and possibly giving away the location of your bug-out camp.

If you have a need for the 40 watts MXT400 in your bug-out camp, you have a need for amateur radio. That being said, the MXT400 is an excellent choice for mounting in your vehicle, or even for setting up as a GMRS base station in your home.

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Armoring Your Doors and Windows

My house is my fortress. And fortresses should be equipped with strong doors.

The doors on many homes offer very little protection against forced entry. A determined intruder can easily kick in the door and enter your home in a matter of seconds. You can however improve the security of your home by reinforcing your doors and windows.

The exterior doors to your home should be solid hardwood or metal. In Russia, many homes have a steel security door in addition to the main door to the home. (What’s Behind the Russian Steel Door Culture?) These security doors are important and should be installed on your home, but it is also important to reinforce the primary door to your home as well.

The first step in securing the door to your home is to be sure that it is equipped with a strong deadbolt lock, with a bolt with at least a one-inch throw (the length that the bolt extends from the lock into the door frame). The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Builders Hardware Manufactures Association (BHMA) subject all locks and components to attacks by hammers, saws, wrenches and other tools. They then grade the locks according to their ability to withstand attack: Grade 1 (best and toughest), Grade 2 or Grade 3. Most locks you find in home centers and hardware stores are Grade 2 or 3. Some Grade 2 locks may list Grade 1 components on the package, but that doesn’t give the lock a Grade 1 rating. Grade 2 is still an OK lock for residential use, but a Grade 1 lock will increase the security of your doors at little increase in overall price.

A good lock to be effective must be strongly mounted to the door and the bolt must extend into a reinforced frame. A product called ‘Door Armor’ (formerly EZ Armor) lets you reinforce your door, making it very difficult to kick-in. A video showing the effectiveness of Door Armor can be seen here on YouTube.

Once you have reinforced your doors, consider the security of your windows. Any windows within reach of your doors should be reinforced, as should any picture windows, sliding glass doors, or windows that are located where a burglar might break them to gain entry to your home. Installing 8 Mil Window Security Film will keep your windows from being easily broken. A video showing the effectiveness of Window Security Film can be seen here on YouTube.

Neither Door Armor nor Window Security Film is particularly expensive, and as we have seen these products will substantially increase the strength of your doors and windows, and thus the security of your home.

Choosing a Knife for the Field

A knife, it is often said, is the most important tool you can have in the field. But, what knife should you carry? What knife will do everything that you might need? Unfortunately, there is no single knife that will do all things equally well (if there was, then everyone would carry that knife). However, there are knives or combinations of knives that will do most things quite well. So, what makes a good knife for the field?

A good field knife must be able to cut and carve, but also chop, hack, and pry. The blade must be easy to sharpen, made of hard-enough steel to hold a keen edge, but not so hard that the edge is likely to chip during heavy use. The blade must be long enough to allow performing chopping tasks and battoning, but not so long that it becomes cumbersome - to me this means a blade between 13 cm - 23 cm (5 - 9 inches). A shorter blade is not well-suited for chopping tasks, and a longer blade is difficult to use for finer cutting tasks.

In the field, I recommend carrying both a strong fixed-blade knife, as well as a multi-tool, such as the Leatherman Wave or a Victorinox "Swiss Army" knife (such as the Huntsman II). My current carry knife for the field is the "Smoke Jumper" made by the American company TOPS Knives. (I also like the Cold Steel SRK, and the Gerber LMF-II) I have a Leatherman in a pouch on my belt, and the Victorinox Huntsman II is always in my pocket. With these three tools, I have been able to accomplish every knife related task I have faced in the field.

So, what’s the best knife for the field? It’s the knife that you have with you! So always carry a knife. But, the knife that you choose to carry is going to depend upon your personal preferences, skills, and anticipated uses.

Saturday, May 20, 2017

YouTube Survival & Preparedness Channels

When I am not in the woods, I enjoy watching videos about survival and preparedness. Here are some of the YouTube survival and preparedness channels that I thought were interesting. There are, no doubt, other great channels and I will update this list as I find other channels I enjoy.

So, choose a channel or two and have a view. You’re almost certain to learn something new.

Survival Caching

Caching is the process of hiding equipment or materials in a secure storage place with the view to future recovery for operational use. Caching considerations that are vital to the success of the caching operation may be done in a variety of operational situations. For example, cached supplies can meet the emergency needs of personnel who may be barred from their normal supply sources by sudden developments or who may need travel documents and extra funds for quick escape. Caching can help solve the supply problems of long-term operations conducted far from a secure base. Survival caching is used to support movement through an area, escape and evasion in an area, or to extend the amount of time one can remain at a bug-out camp without the need for resupply or outside contact.

A survival cache to support escape and evasion contains basic survival kit items and assumes that you have been forced to flee with minimal or no personal survival gear with you. Survival Lilly, in her video "Planting A Survival Cache - Bug Out Survival", demonstrates this type of cache. If you were forced to flee into a wilderness area with nothing, having a cache like this could save your life.

Survival caches to support movement through an area are based on the assumption that you have personal survival gear with you. The movement cache allows you to replenish items (like food and water) that you use up while moving through an area. Movement caches are hidden along a planned route, and spaced at intervals to replace items as they are depleted.

Long-term caches are intended to support living and working in an area over an extended period of time. A long-term cache might be two to three weeks of food cached near your bug-out camp, thus allowing you to remain in your camp longer than would be possible with just the food carried in your pack when you arrive. Long-term caches can also be used to protect items against theft or seizure by an oppressive government (such as hiding firearms and ammunition, or communications equipment).

Regardless of the type or purpose of your cache, there are important considerations to ensure that your items will be available when you need them. First is to ensure that items are packed in a way to protect them from moisture, temperature, insects, rodents, and foraging animals. Make sure that things in your cache are wrapped and packaged in such a way so that if one thing breaks or leaks it does not ruin everything else in the cache. Remember that heat and humidity can cause some types of food in your cache to quickly spoil. Freezing temperatures can cause liquids to expand as they freeze and burst their containers. If animals can smell the food in your cache they may dig it up, and insects and rodents my burrow into your cache is the outer container is not properly sealed.

I have found that the MTM Survivor Ammo Can is an excellent choice for containing small survival caches. For larger caches, waterproof containers like those made by Pelican and Plano are good choices.

Next you must be sure that other people are unlike to discover your cache. If you place a cache at the edge of a roadway, and later that road is widened your cache will either be discovered or destroyed. A cache placed along a popular hiking trail may be accidentally discovered by others hiking along the trail. Even in fairly remote areas, such as in your bug-out location, it is best not to put your cache in your camp itself. If you arrive at your bug-out camp and find that it has been occupied by others you lose both your cache and camp, if they are in the same place. Put your cache a kilometer of so away from your bug-out camp, and once you have occupied your camp you can recover your cache and bring the supplies to camp.

Finally, you must be able to locate your cache and gain access to it when needed. Your cache must be hidden in a place that you can be guaranteed of finding again. If you have a GPS you can record the coordinates of your cache, but don’t rely solely on the GPS to find it again. You might not have your GPS when you need your cache. When you record your cache location, mark the location as an azimuth and distance from a fixed permanent object, such as a large boulder. Since you are emplacing your own survival caches, you will likely remember their location once you are back in the area, but remember that things may look somewhat different six months to a year later. Make sure that your cache is placed near an easily identifiable permanent item.

Be sure that you will be able to recover your cache when you need it. A cache buried in the ground on a warm summer afternoon will not be so easy to dig up during the winter when the ground has frozen and lies under a meter or two of snow. Even if you don’t have to worry about deep snow and frozen ground, will you be able to dig up your cache if you don’t have a shovel with you when recovering your cache?

Once you have recovered your cache, you will need a way to transport the gear you have stored in it. This is particularly important in a survival cache where you may not have any survival items with you upon reaching your cache. I like to include a small inexpensive rucksack in my survival caches. This allows me to recover the cache, place the items into the rucksack and move quickly out of the area. The old Soviet canvas rucksacks that can be picked up for just a couple hundred rubles is an excellent choice for including in your survival cache.

Which cache method to use depends on the situation. It is therefore unsound to lay down any general rules, with one exception. Planners should always think in terms of suitability, for example, the method most suitable for each cache, considering its specific purpose; the actual situation in the particular locality; and the changes that may occur if someone else gains control of the area where your cache is located.

A more detailed discussion of caching can be found in the American Army publication Special Forces Caching Techniques.