Blackberry REACT December Newsletter

Quick Clicks

Oregon hams are heroes

Ham Radio Operators Are Unsung Heroes
The governor of Oregon says local hams are heroes in the face of the flooding the state suffered early this month.

Yellowstone is seismically active

Ground Said Rising at Yellowstone Park
Most of us think of the West and Midwest as not prone to earthquakes, but much of the West was volcanic eons ago.

Scientists are saying that the ground at Yellowstone National Park is rising about three inches a year. No volcanic eruption is predicted, but it's a reminder that all those geysers have a reason for being so, er, faithful. A magma chamber underneath Yellowstone is filling with molten lava, pushing the ground up. The lesson: Be prepared no matter where you are.

Quick-fix foods

One of the issues with earthquakes is that we will be eating survival rations of some sort for an unknown length of time. Some people suggest keeping dry grains, which has a longer shelf life than fresh foods. Dry grains, though, require either pre-soaking or very long cook times. Pre-soaking takes lots of water and very long cook times take lots of fuel.

We may be better off keeping lots of canned goods which we consume on a rotating basis, but it's difficult to keep that rotation going. Canned foods also require preparation of some kind, although I have heard of Burning Man participants who live the entire week eating from cans of various foods.

Another issue of cans is serving sizes. I read of a man who was all prepared in Florida and sure enough a hurricane hit. He had lots of cans, but no power. He lived alone and did not finish a whole can of corn and a whole can of green beans, and a whole can of chili in one meal. And he had no fridge. The results: lots of spoilage.

Louise and I have a Web page on quick-fix meals that are mostly single-servings:
Quick Meals on the Playa
Some of the meals require boiling water, but some of the rations are self-heating or require no heating at all. If you are injured or have no way to prepare a meal that requires heat, self-heating and no-heating meals can be a life saver. Check our quick-fix meals and see if you see something that you might want to add to your earthquake supplies. You still need to rotate them, so you'll have the opportunity to eat your MREs and equivalents as time goes by and nothing ever happens.

Duracell inverters

These units are sold by Duracell but made by Xantrex, a Canadian company that makes larger battery/inverter combinations. The Duracell versions are rather more expensive (list price $140 for a 4 Ah device with a 100W inverter; in addition to the 4 Ah, there are 14 Ah and 28 Ah units), but the smallest unit has one 110VDC outlet and two USB outlets that let them power whatever devices you have that use USB ports. Whether they are worth the money is a judgment call you get to make. It is handy to have a 12VDC battery and inverter built into one carriable unit. We have a Xantrex 18 Ah battery/inverter that has come in handy many times over the years.

Bug Labs

I've linked directly to the products page; Bug Labs makes hardware modules. They are often compared to Leggos - you snap some modules together and make things. Current modules include motion sensor/accelerometer, GPS, camera/video, and a color touch screen. I can see snapping together a camera that takes pictures and logs the coordinates - I'd find this handy when I'm on vacation on the little island of St. Barths. The roads have no names because every who lives there knows everything there is about the island, so restaurants have no addresses. I've started locating them on Tagzania so newcomers to the island can find the restaurants Louise and I mention on our Web site. (Tagzania is a mapping service that shows maps and satellite images. There are no maps of St. Barths but the satellite images show the roads on the island.)

Bug Labs promises to be shipping in 4Q 2007, which I think means next summer. Explore their site; they have lots of photos on Flickr and a video or two. See their home page:
Bug Labs
for more information. No prices yet.

Old cell phones never die

Louise and I camped in Saline Valley, California, over Thanksgiving, and we saw this Yagi on a guy's truck; I asked what it was for, and the man had what he called a bag phone - one of those old analog cell phones that you needed a bag to carry around because of the battery. It turns out that old phone transmits at 3 watts, and with this external antenna, he could hit a cell tower somewhere from the middle of nowhere in the Death Valley National Park.

We took our Kenwood TS-480 and were able to make a few contacts with a Tarheel 100 mounted on the van. For more photos of the rig, the valley, and the moon, see http://civilizedexplorer.phanfare.com/album/496363.

A year's supply of food

This .pdf file is prepared by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (commonly known as Mormons), and the first dozen or so pages discuss reasons for survival preparation based on a particular view of the world. But then you get to the preparedness test and the "deluxe 96-hour kit" and the suggestions for long-term supplies (one year's worth of food for one adult), and things get very interesting. The guide discusses food fatigue (the same stuff over and over), proper storage of supplies for a year or more, breaking bulk foods down into manageable parcels, qualities of various grains (including avoiding gluten), legumes, canned and dried milk and other dairy products, shelter, money, epidemics, preparation for a nuclear disaster (no longer so farfetched as I might once have thought), and on and on for well over 200 pages. A very helpful resource.

Battery Geek

This site offers external battery packs for a host of devices, including MacBooks with the magnetic connector. They also sell inverters that they claim are sine wave. Prices range from under a hundred dollars to under a thousand, depending on features (multiple voltages, USB ports, and so on) and capacity. The batteries appear to all be Li-Ion and light weight. Take a look to see if they can power your laptop, HT, and your cell phone while you're on those long assignments for all-day bike-rides and the like, not to mention long flights, long weekends, and long meetings.

Disaster Survival Solutions

This business was highlighted in the Sunday, December 9, San Francisco Chronicle. It claims to provide the best earthquake survival kit available. The site provides a table showing the Association of Bay Area Government's estimate of uninhabitable housing units in the event of a Bay Area Earthquake:
http://www.qrcenter.com/roadclosures.htm
Based on the ABAG study, the owner of the business decided that available kits were not sufficient, so he includes a tent and sleeping bags, on the assumption (warranted in my very humble opinion) that our houses will be unsafe after the Big One. The kits come sealed in a big box which is to be placed outside. After the quake, you'll have a place to sleep, a lamp and radio, and food for 7 days for as many persons as you specify. Prices seem high, ranging from $500 for a 2-person kit to $875 for seven persons. You may add persons for additional costs, of course. The site has a page highlighting the differences between their kits and selected competition:
http://www.qrcenter.com/vs.htm
which mentions that the QR Center shelter for four is a Coleman 5-person tent, while the shelter for four from a competitor is a plastic tube tent (open at both ends) and four plastic ponchos.

I have some quibbles with the selections. Food is Mayday food bars, which will get really old really fast; see Mayday Food Bars. Water is one gallon per person per day, which seems too little for daily washing of persons and dishes, cooking and drinking; however, the water is in individual gallon containers, which are easy to handle. (And I guess there's no cooking if all you have to eat is Mayday food rations - no cooking gear and no cooking fuel is provided. I think this is the major problem I have with the kits. "Appetite fatigue" is a serious problem in children and us older people when dealing with food that is both unfamiliar and monotonous.)

The QR Centers are delivered by the company and set up in an outside area where they'll be accessible for use if the house collapses. The company will also do an annual review of the contents, replace all water, replace outdated items, and review your earthquake plan; this review is an additional fee. The company also provides pet survival kits.

Events

Our program for January 2, 2008, is an introduction to packet radio by Phil Henderson and Jerry Haag.

Our first event for 2008 (so far) is BRAG on April 17; the event is in Mountain View from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Updates

Send in your dues. We have to renew our charter this month, so you need to pay your dues as soon as possible.

Our officers were re-elected for the coming year. Please send in ideas for programs for the next eleven months.

Have happy holidays and a happy new year.