SCP Survival

Best Survival Gear and Supplies

2-Way Radio Communications WITHOUT a HAM Radio License

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We get many questions from those that are just starting to plan their emergency communications.  Most are simply looking for a way to keep in touch with each other when one or more are out of sight but still nearby. Many that want or need to use 2-way radios don’t have the desire to get an Amateur Radio License. And, fortunately, communicating nearby or across town doesn’t require a ham license! Whatever your specific needs may be, you need to know your options and what you can realistically expect. “Range” is the probably the most asked question. And the simple answer is that a radios “range” is dependent on terrain. A radio can “talk” further on flat deserted land than it can in a valley or in a city. Keep in mind that these are strictly for close-range communications and there is really no reliable alternative for long range communications without obtaining an Amateur Radio license. Additionally, since these are considered “Citizen’s Bands” the odds are good that you and your group will not be the only ones using them. Below is a summary of the most common alternatives to HAM radios along with realistic distances.

1. Citizens Band Radios (CB):

CB radios are most likely to be the least expensive option for a group to set-up and use. CB radios and accessories are very common and can be found at truck stops and garage sales. FCC regulations:
  • No license required.
  • 40 specific frequencies between 26.900 and 27.400 MHz.
  • 4 watts maximum output.
  • Base, mobile and handheld stations allowed.
  • Amplifiers not allowed.
  • Repeaters not allowed
  • Side Band OK
  • Realistic range up to 10 miles with an elevated antenna

2. FRS (Family Radio Service)

This service is limited to 1/2 watt output. It uses frequencies in the UHF band near 462 MHz. There used to be several brands of radios that were FRS only. Nowadays, it’s hard to find an FRS-only radio. They are GMRS radios that share some of their frequencies with FRS and automatically reduce power when using an FRS frequency (or channel). All FRS radios are handheld. FCC regulations:
  • No license required.
  • 1/2 watt maximum
  • External antennas not allowed
  • Amplifiers not allowed
  • Repeaters not allowed
  • Realistic range up to 1/2 mile.

3) GMRS General Mobile Radio Service

This service picks up where FRS leaves off. GMRS uses UHF frequencies near 462 MHz and 467 MHz There are 2 classes of GMRS radio: a) Consumer grade handhelds like Midland, Uniden and Cobra. Most of these radios exaggerate their range and power. Typically, the best consumer radio is actually pushing about 3 watts and has a realistic range of about 2 miles in most environments. b) Commercial grade equipment from Vertex or Icom etc. This equipment is built using the same quality chassis as ham and public service equipment. Very good range, depending on the equipment and terrain. FCC regs:
  • A “No Test” license is required. ($80 for 5 years)
  • Up to 50 watts allowed
  • External antenna OK
  • Base, mobile or handheld OK
  • Repeater OK on specific frequencies

4) MURS Multi-Use Radio Service

This is a low-power service that uses 5 specific frequencies in the VHF band near 150 MHz. It is extremely popular due to the no-license feature, and inexpensive radios. FCC regs:
  • No license required.
  • 2 watts maximum
  • External antenna OK
  • Handheld, mobile or base station OK
  • No repeaters
  • Realistic range: 1 mile with handhelds, 5-8 miles with an elevated antenna.
The FCC regulations shown above are to be used as a general guideline so it’s best to research before you buy. There have been several changes made concerning radio equipment performance in the last decade, so stay away from older radios and radios that have been modified. Don’t just buy a radio and put it on the shelf, there’s more to it than that. It’s best to check and use your “system” as often as possible to be sure it will function when it’s really needed. Monthly practice drills are ideal, especially with base radios. You’ll be able to find any weather related problems. It may be tempting to purchase a radio system that is illegally modified or intended to be used by a licensed user or business. But realistically, there’s no way to practice with that type of equipment since:
  • You’re not licensed to use it.
  • You may be seriously interrupting lawful communications every time you key the microphone.
  • You WILL get a fine when they find out where the interference is coming from.
Remember, no matter what types of 2-way communications you choose, there’s always room for a basic survival radio to get the weather, scanners, and news updates. 

How To Build and Use Your Own DIY Wood Stove

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DIY Wood Stove

One of the basic needs for any survival situation is a means of cooking food.

The most abundant fuel available is wood.  There are many ways to use wood to cook food… the most common being a camp fire or the “rocket stove”.  However, these methods are not the most fuel efficient, and a lot of heat is lost during cooking, resulting in excessive fuel consumption.

A more fuel efficient method is to build a wood fuel oven.  A wood fuel oven can be made out of a variety of materials…metal, brick, or cinder blocks are ideal, as long as you can make the oven air tight.

Understanding How Fire “Breathes”

wood stove

Before building your oven, it’s important to understand the three aspects which regulate the burn rate and temperature of fire:

  1. Available fuel
  2. Escape rate of exhaust (smoke)
  3. Available oxygen

Much like a car engine, the performance of your wood stove will vary based upon how well you regulate the above three components.

Smoke should be channeled away from your fire rapidly to prevent the fire from choking on its own exhaust. Restricting the flow of smoke out of the oven should never be used to regulate the fire.  Excessive smoke in your oven will make food taste bitter.  However, allowing smoke to escape too quickly will also allow heat to escape quicker, reducing the ability of your oven to retain heat and conserve fuel.

Most traditional non-electric cooking and heating appliances work by regulating the flow of fuel.  However, unless working with a pellet stove, it is rather difficult to regulate the “flow” of wood.

That leaves us with the only remaining aspect of fire, oxygen. This can be controlled by creating a damper which will restrict the flow of oxygen into the oven.

Gathering the Parts

You need the following components to build your oven:

  • Oven Chamber
  • Thermometer
  • Fire Box/Grate
  • Food Rack(s)
  • Damper
  • Exhaust Door/Lid
  • Oven Door
  • Depending on materials: assorted hardware, exhaust pipe

The Oven Chamber

How To Woodstove As mentioned previously, the oven can be built out of many different materials.  Suggested materials include: Food grade 55 gallon drum, old charcoal kettle grill, brick and mortar, cinder blocks and mortar, or even a cardboard box lined with aluminum foil.

When all doors/dampers/etc are closed, the oven needs to be air tight, so that you can extinguish the fire when you are finished cooking without having to pour water over the fire.

Thermometer

A standard oven or grill thermometer.  One of the “dial” thermometers which have a metal probe and do not contain mercury.

Fire Box/Grate

The fire box/grate should be elevated so that ash from the burning wood can fall below the fire and prevent smothering the burning wood and preventing the flow of oxygen.

Food Cooking Rack

The food rack should also be elevated, and can be placed either above or next to the fire box.  A grill rack out of a propane grill works great for this.

Air Damper

The damper should be adjustable, but can be rather simplistic, such as a sliding piece of metal.  For optimal air flow the damper should allow oxygen to flow into the oven from beneath the fire, or on the opposite side of the oven from the exhaust and food rack.

The important thing is that the damper is adjustable, and makes the oven air tight when closed.  If need be, the damper can also double as an access door to the fire box.

Exhaust door/lid

The exhaust door/lid, much like the damper, can be simplistic, such as a sliding piece of metal.  Once again, the important thing is that the exhaust door/lid is adjustable, and makes the oven air tight when closed.

Oven door

The oven door should be large enough and located in a position to pull your food in and out with ease.  When closed, the door should make the oven air tight.

Miscellaneous hardware

It’s important not to forget all the hardware you’ll need to assemble your makeshift oven.  This includes screws, nuts, bolts, nails, etc.

How To Assemble Your Wood Stove

When assembling your wood stove, the location of all components is critical.  Your oven should encourage proper air flow by locating the air damper and exhaust door/lid on opposite sides of the oven, as pictured.  Your damper should always be as low as possible, and the exhaust should be at the highest part of the oven.  Remember, smoke (and heat) rises.

Try to design the oven so that while the entire oven is filled with heat, the smoke is quickly channeled around and away from the food.  Your fire should always be offset from your food.  This will not only prevent the food from becoming bitter with too much smoke flavor, it will also help prevent the food from burning.

Your thermometer should be level with your food, so that you can monitor the cooking temperature.

Finally, and I can’t reinforce this enough, make sure that when all doors/lids/vents/etc are closed, so the oven is as air tight as possible.

Using your Oven

The makeshift wood oven is very similar to the operation of a conventional oven…warm up the oven, put the food in, wait, pull the food out of the oven when done, and turn off the oven.

First, stack your wood inside the oven on the wood grate.  Generally, stacking the wood in a crisscross square is best for long burns.  Use a small starter log stick for easiest starting of the fire.  Starting off, you’ll want your air damper and exhaust wide open for maximum air flow when lighting the fire and warming up the oven.  If you find it takes a long time to warm up, you may want to try closing your exhaust partially to help retain heat.

Monitor your thermometer.  When the temperature is where you want it, close your air damper most of the way, only allowing a small amount of air into the oven.  Also partially close your exhaust to help retain heat.  While it takes a large amount of oxygen to get your oven warmed up, it won’t take very much at all to maintain your temperature.

Keeping your oven running will require constant supervision until you get the hang of it.  Every makeshift oven is different, and will require a lot of trial and error.  Put in your food, and keep an eye on the temperature.  If the temperature starts falling, open the air damper more, allowing additional oxygen to reach the fire, and close your exhaust slightly.  If the temperature keeps rising, close your air damper more.

Keep an eye on the edges of your oven door…if you see smoke starting to come out, open your exhaust more.  The idea is, keep the smoke flowing out of the oven, but keep as much of the heat in as possible.  Just like a regular oven, keep the oven door closed as much as possible, to keep the heat in.  A general rule I’ve found is that exhaust should be double the size of the air damper.

It helps to have a temperature probe handy, so you can check the internal temperature of your food.  Making sure your food has reached the minimum internal temperature is critical, otherwise your food may make you ill.

When you are finished with your oven, turn it “off” by closing all doors/vents/lids/etc.  Normally I will leave the oven in the closed state until I’m ready to use it again.

Caring for your Oven

When cleaning your oven, be sure not to use any harmful chemicals.  Generally, water and soap should be sufficient to clean your oven.  You may notice over time a black soot buildup inside your oven.  This is okay, as the soot will help to “season” the oven, and actually make your food taste better.

If you know you won’t be using your oven for a long time, it is advisable to completely wash and dry the oven after it has cooled, then store it in an airtight plastic bag to prevent dust or mold.  Always wash and dry the oven again after removing it from storage.

I hope that you have found this useful.  These oven plans have been adapted from the “Ugly Drum Smoker” and uses a similar cooking technique.  My custom built smoker uses this design, and can be used as a charcoal smoker or a wood oven.

This article was originally published back in July of 2011 on Modern Survival Online. 

How To Do Budget-Friendly, Frugal Cooking

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A while ago I began to wonder…. What does it really cost to feed me? 

When we buy in bulk or buy the sales in bulk or try out new long term storage cans it becomes difficult, at least for me, to know what it really costs to feed me for a day or a week.

I decided to keep track of my food intake for a few days and see what it cost.  I was shocked at how expensive it is.  As I have been maintaining a well stocked pantry for many many years I lost track of the cost of “replacement food.” I actually took the 2.99 gallon of milk divided by 16 servings and came up with serving cost, same with bread, eggs etc. I even figured in the coffee per half pot I brew.  I added a minimal few pennies for the garden veggies and fruit.  Growing  your own food has a cost at some level.

I think cooking in bulk and freezing in portion size also added to my blur of the rising cost of food. I know it has risen but I needed a reality check.

I began to research a bit to see if there were meal plans for $3 a day, $4 a day with a healthy diet. There is not much out there for sample menus and what there is is quite a few years old so not applicable for pricing.

What was my cost? $4 the first day. The second day was on the way to around $4 until I ran errands and had Dairy Queen ice cream for lunch and ran up the food costs.  These were low cost meals with what I had in the fridge meals as I was busy and I expect it would be higher cost at other times like when I buy my favorite, salmon.

I found this large recipe file with low cost easy items. Not sure of the year it was put together but each recipe has a total cost and per serving cost.

Also, remember that variety and spice are keys to success in frugal meal planning.

The Best Survivalist Tent For Bug Outs and Camping?

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I’ve been looking for a tent for about 2 years now, but not just any tent.

Yes, I wanted a tent in case of bugging out. Yes I wanted a small, easy to setup, tent for camping.

But I also wanted a tent that could be a play tent for the grandchildren to play in in the hay loft if they decided to camp there, a tent that I could deploy in the livingroom for the grandkids or if the power went out and we needed to cold camp in the house AND I wanted a “sick tent” that I could seal off in case of a pandemic.

Kind of asking a lot, aren’t I?

Well, I think I have found it all in this Bear Grylls Rapid Deploy Tent that I bought from Sportsmans Guide on sale for $71 – priced the same thing at Walmart for $119.

tent bag

So here is the bag for the Bear Grylls Rapid Series 4 Person Easy-Up Tent, its about 36″ long and maybe 20 lbs. – not small. Now as far as I am concerned when it comes to tents, “2 person” means 1 and “4 person” means 2 and that is about right for this tent which has a foot print of about 7’x7′ with the interior height being about 5′ – not big, but not tiny.

tent extras with bag

I was really excited to see if the tent was what I thought it was and immediately went to setting it up. Here is the bag dumped out. What I want you to note is that white flap on the right – the instructions sewn right into the bag. I love it! Three steps to put it up and two steps to take it down and I could read the instructions without my glasses.

It comes with its own ground tarp and has a bathtub floor, so you can feel very comfortable about no insects, scorpions or snakes getting in. It says 60 second setup – “Ya right,” I thought. I laid the tarp out and the tent out and holy cow, yup 60 seconds or less! It is basically set the legs and pull and it snaps up!

tent no rain fly

This is a three season tent, so it is all screen if you desire it without the rain fly to stay cool. With the rain fly it will create that dead air space that is so essential for no weight insulation. AND it has TWO DOORS!

Now why am I thrilled with two doors? Too much time camping in Montana where there are bears that are prone to attacking campers in their tents. Bear Grylls knew what he was doing with two doors – may never need the second one, but so nice to have it! If you have ever thought about getting trapped in a tent with no way out except to cut the tent, I would call this a prepper’s tent.

tent up

What you can’t see, is that this tent is NOT STAKED DOWN. It doesn’t need stakes! Yes, outdoors I would stake it, but if I want to let the grandkids “camp” in the barn loft or livingroom, or I need to deploy it in the house or garage as a “sick tent” I don’t need to stake it. Also, have you ever noticed that when people are evacuated they almost always end up in a school gym or some such with NO PRIVACY? This tent could give you that privacy on a gym floor or the option of not having to stay in that evacuation area.

So what did I buy? A playhouse for the grandkids and a nice little easy-up tent for the old folks if they want to go camping (more likely to end up on the back of the Harley for Bob’s expeditions), a bug out tent, an immediate small tarped area in the house to keep warm if needed in the winter and a sick room if ever needed (And I pray we never do!) all for $71.

Hard to beat the versatility of this tent in my book!

10 Ridiculously Simple Ways to Save Money Everyday and Secure Your Financial Future

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You’ve heard it over and over. Stop splurging on clothes at the mall, stop eating out, and start sticking to your budget. But actually, this is all great advice and something you need to pay attention to if you want to become financially sound in the future. Studies show that when it comes to sticking to a budget, most people simply don’t do it or even consider it a top priority.

On the other hand, there are some people who take saving money and budgeting very seriously. Although they probably don’t go out as much, they get to travel to exotic destinations each year due to conscientiously saving their dollars.

But, before you quit frivolously spending money cold turkey, keep in mind that it’s typically the little things you’re throwing money away on that are adding up the most.

Here are 10 super easy tips on how to save your money little by little over time that will make a huge impact on your overall budget.



1. Prepare Your Own Lunch

How long does it take for you to fix your own lunch? By simply getting up a little early to make your lunch or cooking just a little extra the night before and using food storage containers to freeze extra for the week, it will save you an incredible amount of money over the course of just 7 days. Go ahead and do the math and you’ll be amazed. People who know how to save money generally prepare their own food.



2. Take Advantage of Sales

At some point, most items go on sale at both grocery and non-grocery stores. Try going shopping when a store is having a sale or try to only buy a certain item when it’s on sale. Also, stockpile a few canned goods here and there so you’ll always have a full cupboard. There are many ways to track store sales and coupons at your favorite locations both online and offline. This is also a good way to build up storage for items on your survival food list.



3. Ditch the Plastic

When it comes to day-to-day spending, only use cash. Although it may take a little more time to plan how you’ll spend money throughout the week, make it a habit to withdraw a certain amount at the beginning of the week and spend it wisely. Research shows that people in general spend 30 percent less overall when paying with cash.



4. Embrace All Things DIY

If possible, try shoveling the snow, mowing the lawn, or cleaning the pool yourself instead of paying someone to do it for you. In fact, consider getting the entire family involved to do outdoor chores and use the extra cash for a family fun night.



5. Make Your Cleaning Products Instead of Buying Them

Cleaning products can get expensive. It shouldn’t cost a fortune to do laundry. By making your own laundry detergent in addition to other all-purpose type cleaners, you can save a significant amount of money over time as well as keep your home spic-and-span clean.



6. Stop Using $5 Dollar Bills

Make your own rule to stop spending a certain denomination of currency. A good choice is $5 since it’s a relatively low number, but will add up to a substantial amount of savings rather quickly. Whenever you come across a $5 dollar bill, toss it in a designated drawer or jar and watch your savings grow exponentially.



7. Eat Out Less

All those dinners you eat out are literally costing you a small fortune. Make it a point to eat out only once, maybe twice a week at most. Once you realize how much money you’re saving, you’ll be less likely to want to eat out at all or only on a special occasion.



8. Budget Your Children

If your kids get an allowance, consider putting them on a budget. Rather than rewarding them for getting good grades or doing chores with money, allow them extra Internet or TV time instead.

 Write it Down

Want to really see where your money’s going? Write everything down that you spend no matter how trivial. Don’t cheat. At the end of the month, look back at your list. Make a list of your largest expenses like, mortgage payment, insurance, personal loans, groceries, etc., and go from there. Hopefully it will get to improve how you spend money.



10. The $100 Challenge

Begin saving all your bills, and once you reach $100, take them to the bank in exchange for a crisp $100 bill. Next, tuck it away deep in your wallet or purse. Why? Just knowing it’s there, it’s likely you won’t want to spend it but rather hang on to it. Besides, most stores won’t accept a $100 bill for lunch or coffee anyways.

Try some of these easy tips and see how much you save at the end of the month. People who are smart about money set aside a minimum of 10 percent before they even spend one dime of their check/salary. This way, they’re always stashing away and protecting their financial future.

Want a Bonus?

This is the toughest one of them all, but if you are a current smoker, quitting smoking can save you big time (in fact, one of our writers saved $4,000 a year by quitting smoking!)