Communication Breakdown

    I'm writing this blog on July 26^th 2010 but I am delaying the posting of it since the frequency of posting content is low, this way you get a bit more regular content.


 
    As many of you know, the grid went down on July 26^th 2010 around 7pm and I learned some good lessons about my grid down preps. This sparked a concern in my mind as to what I will do if the grid is down for a prolonged period of time. What would I do for basic communication since I run Hardware Voice Over Internet Protocol? (an Internet phone service that runs independently of the actual Internet line, the long and short is that it doesn't take up my bandwidth when I'm on the phone) I can do my best to back-up my modem which runs my phone and Internet with power. But what can I do if my provider doesn't satisfy my communication needs if the grid is down? I'll tell you flat out that my provider doesn't. In most cases a traditional phone line is run underground or on a tower and is much less likely to get damaged. Sure a tree can fall on it or a construction worker can cut the wire when digging but these happen much less than a cable line goes down. Cable now carries a large part of the high speed Internet connections in cities large and small. Therefore they often shut the system down to update their system on a regular basis. They update their server and Internet Service software; they add more speed and upgrade their lines often. Better hardware is coming out all the time and they need to update to keep up with their competition. If an Internet service provider doesn't upgrade to the new high speed cables or terminals they will soon be taken over by their competition. When I first got high-speed Internet I had a 52 megabyte connection, now my provider doesn't even have a 52 megabyte connection, they only offer 1 Gigabyte connection or more. The reason for this is that competition updated their service and if my provider didn't everyone would leave for the faster service.

    For this reason the cable system is less reliable in a Stink Hit the Fan situation or even in day to day life. The lines just don't have the redundancy to be a viable emergency option. Do you ever notice how you often need to contact your cable provider to figure out why the service is down after a blackout? It is often because when the power goes off it trips a problem in the cable system that fries the connection until they can find the problem at their many terminals and junction boxes to get it fixed. This is what happened to me this evening. My cable is down right now, Internet, phone and cable TV. This happens almost every time that the power goes out for an hour or more. Unlike the traditional phone line cable needs power, once the modem in your home runs out of power it can't provide you with phone or Internet even if you have battery power left on your laptop. On top of that the cable lines need power at their main station to send out the signal. If the grid goes down for a very long time and the provider can't fund fuel for their generator system they will just leave it down. "Frazer, cable companies have cash by the truckload, why wouldn't they power their system?" I hear you say, my response is simple, if the cable provider doesn't get paid why would they bother powering the system? If people can't power their computers or TVs chances are they won't pay the cable bill! I know if I couldn't use my service for a month I'd wonder what I was paying for. I'd probably send the bill to the hydro company. So if no one was paying their cable bill or even if half the people were to not pay their bill since they couldn't use the service why would the company power those systems? They'd be losing money paying for the fuel to the generator and trying to keep their systems up. In a SHTF situation they would be constantly fighting to fix the problems that hit all the time when the power goes off, terminals and junction boxes will be stressed and they will need to fight to find problems. The cable company would be stretched to their limit. So why should we rely on this system? I'll tell you what I'm doing, I'm cancelling my VOIP service and going back to bell, for the few long distance calls I make to family in Manitoba I'm going to use Skype.

    Why you ask? Because traditional phone lines need virtually no power, I've got an emergency back-up corded phone that needs no power to operate. This will give me more protection of my telephone service since my cable provider doesn't meet my requirements for communication especially if the grid is down long term. If I need to call 911 in a grid down situation I don't want my cellular phone to be my only hope since it is more likely to be bogged down and overused. Plus my alarm system is important to me for home security and I don't want to have to worry while sleeping if the grid is down. With my system monitoring for fire I want to make sure my apartment is secure, one thing that could happen is a power surge can spark a fire in one of my many electrical products and if I am not home I want to make sure the alarm system can contact my alarm provider.

[What is your 2010 preparedness plan?]

 

Frazer,

 

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and check out my Youtube videos.

The Grid Down Diaries – July 26th 2010

It's dark, my apartment alarm system is pulsing in the background, I'm sitting here in the dark with my Energizer LED lantern shining some light in the kitchen and I've got my Energizer LED headlamp on my head. I'm sure you guys know what is going on in my apartment this evening…grid down! This is one of those times that let me refine my grid down emergency plan, yayy! Well I got one thing right, my Streamlight stylus pro worked like a charm since as usual it was clipped to my pocket when the grid went down. It allowed me to dig my headlamp out of my B.O.B and my LED lantern out of my bedside table.

    Some things I've found that I need to add to my plan is some fans, it's a little hot out and clearly the A/C is out…I wonder where you find battery powered floor fans? Another thing I need to do is keep some batteries in the flashlights and lanterns. My worry was that batteries would leak if stored to long in my items so I kept everything I didn't use regularly were stored without batteries in them. Well it's good in theory but it really sucks in practice. I think even if I don't keep batteries in my $100 Scorpion flashlight I should keep some cheaper Canadian Tire flashlights, headlamps and lanterns with batteries in them. Some key places for them would probably be by the bed and by the door. I always have a small penlight in my pocket so it covers my day to day lighten needs but I really need to have light accessible in places I could need them when I don't have my pants on…my lantern was a pain in the neck to get the batteries into in the dark so I need to make sure I keep at least one ready to go. Another thing I need to do is get more power outage night lights to light my home for if the grid goes down in the middle of the night and I get up.

    I might want to get some Uninterruptable Power Source (UPS) units in my home for my modem; I run hardware Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone system so I do need more than the internal modem backup power. The grid has been down for about 3 hours now and the phone is dead even with a corded phone, I checked and the modem is 100% down. I know a system that will let me rig the UPS unit to kick on after 2 hours when the backup power built into the modem is about to die. There is an idea for everyone to think of, if you run a VOIP service that you might want to find another backup power source for your phone line. Another good idea is to rig a source that will last longer in a long term grid down situation. If you look at most UPS systems they run anywhere from 45 minutes in the lower end units to 3 hours in the higher end units with higher capacity batteries. This may not be the best solution in a serious long term grid down situation. You might want to add HAM Radio to your back-up communication system as well as some deep cycle batteries rigged to run a 110 volt jack and just plug the modem in if you need to communicate with the outside world. In a long term grid down I'd suggest you use it only for 911 calls because you really don't have any idea after the 1^st layer backups run out how long the grid will stay down. I'd suggest you call your Internet provider if you use a Hardware VOIP system for your phone line and find out what kind of gen set they have running and how long the power will last if there is no power at their base station. In today's world it will be hard to get someone on the phone that will have an answer to this so you might need to send an email (or letter) to your provider's head office to get a response from someone who works directly for your provider who knows what kind of infrastructure they are running. If for example the grid is down across Canada eventually the internet will run out of backup and any kind of VOIP system (hardware or software) will be dead. In the event that you find their infrastructure to be insufficient maybe you just go to Bell or another traditional phone carrier and get a second line added to your home that runs the traditional system since they need practically no power as long as you have a phone that will run if the grid is down.

    I've found that the Reactor Emergency light is insufficient for my needs. I've found that they don't put out enough light to get around the house since they are more like nightlights that run with the power not on. However I've got a Sylvania product that shines a light like a flashlight down the hall that I much prefer. It's like having someone sitting at your plug with a low power LED flashlight shining across the room. These are much better if you've got no light at all. Don't get me wrong the Reactor from Home Hardware is a decent light, I've got one in my bathroom since there is no window and it provides a decent light for a small bathroom. However if you look at my living room the Sylvania product did a much better job to provide me with emergency lighting to see where I was going than the Reactor in a regular size room.

Food for thought…

[What is your 2010 preparedness plan?]

 

Frazer,

 

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and check out my Youtube videos.


 

I could use some help finding independent media sources

I've got a question for you guys, maybe you can give me hand. I've been looking for true independent news sources online. A simple Google search for "Canadian Independent News" brings up nothing but socialist news sources and obviously left wing sources. I'm looking for some news sources (podcasts, blogs, and news websites) that are truly independent. Independent in that they come to their opinions by researching the issues they report on and come to their own conclusions without preconceived notions and leaving their personal biases at the door when they write or produce their media.

I've grown tired of the CBC, CTV, Global and all the other mainstream media sources who seem to only give part of the story, often leaving out critical data from their writing or other news program. I'd personally prefer something that is done by independent people, preferably who do their blog, website or podcast in their spare time and not as a career. In most cases I've found that people who produce news media for a living tend to over time gain some biases and they stop digging into issues and get lazy with their work since they need to pump out media in volume.

Any help finding true independent sources of news and political information would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks Guys!



Frazer,

feel free to follow me on Twitter, subscribe to my Youtube videos and "Friend" me on facebook!

Online Flyers: Save Time, Save Money

I've been subscribed to Canadian Tire's Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feed for their flyer for a couple months now so that I can get the flyer even when the paper boy doesn't deliver it on time to catch the deals.  Well I've found a new resource for getting flyers from all kinds of retailers that will allow me to find the best deals in my area.  Isn't that what prepping is about? Stretching your dollar to get the most preps out of each one?  The resource is flyerland.ca. You just type in your postal code and they give you all the flyers from your local area. This makes it easy for you to find cheaper prices on items you may need to prep.

I find shopping around helps me save money even when I pay a bit more on gas to travel around town. I don't often leave my local town because that would make no sense since it would use to much gas to be financially responsible. The best thing is you can see if another store is offering the same item for even less that week! I love the flyers but for some reason my apartment building doesn't get them so I get them online and it allows me to get them. This might also help you if you live in a rural area which doesn't get the flyers.

Flyerland.ca breaks the site down into twelve different tabs which let you choose which is best for you or what you are looking for.  They break it down into Home, Stores, Products, Flyers, Deals, Coupons, Brochures, Catalogues, Travel, Contests, Forum and Features.  You can subscribe to each tab through any RSS reader like Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird or Google Reader.  The good thing about this is if you live in a rural area where you don't get high speed Internet you can download the RSS feeds and read them off line so you don't hog your phone line while on the Internet checking the adds.


Frazer,

feel free to follow me on Twitter, subscribe to my Youtube videos and add me as a friend on facebook!

P.S. If you don't know what Real Simple Syndication or RSS feeds are check out this article; RSS (Real Simple Syndication) Explained in Plain English By Cory Threlfall  

Off Brand? Not always better

I've mentioned in the past that No Name or Off Brands are usually as good as the name brand. That is usually true, however here is one good reason to try the stuff you buy and don't just stockpile stuff you've never used. Case in point, Life Brand Antibacterial wipes that I mentioned in the past might be a good cheaper alternative to real wet ones. From experience I can now tell you that you are better off paying the extra money for the brand name Wet Ones. I ran out of the name brand Wet Ones (I know not good prepping of me) so I went and bought a couple containers of the Life Brand wet wipes from Shoppers Drug Mart. I admit I much prefer the name brand on this one! The Life Brand is thinner and clumps up while you wipe your face and don't hold their shape for quality cleansing.

In past posts I've mentioned how Wet Ones can take the place of showering for a short term situation where you might want to conserve your water supply. Since they kill bacteria and clean you up nicely they work excellent but the Life Brand knock offs are not nearly as good, so be advised. Sometimes you do get what you pay for!

Frazer

Feel free to follow me on Twitter, read my personal Blog, check my youtube channel where some videos that don't make it to the prepper networks are posted and find me on facebook!

Frazer?!?!? Where On Earth Have You Been?

Okay, so I guess you guys might have been wondering where I had been. Well I've been fighting computer problems, but I've got a nice new computer now and will be able to post again…boy oh boy it's been tough working on that slow computer that didn't want to do half of what I wanted to do!

It will be nice posting again! And with ease J

Guard Your Soul – How Sunglasses Give You A Tactical Advantage

Have you ever wondered why cops are always wearing sunglasses? If you think about it it makes sense, it gives them a tactical advantage over others not wearing sunglasses. I'm sure you've heard the saying "The eyes are the window to the soul"? Well just think how packing a pair of sunglasses might give you an advantage during a real SHTF situation.

    If you're wearing shades they provide two advantages to you, one they can protect your eyes from debris, especially if you get safety shades! The second advantage is it is harder to figure out if you're scared, nervous or indifferent. Ever take car ride across a land border between Canada and the USA? Ever do it in the summer and happen to be wearing a pair of sunglasses? I have, without a doubt the customs agent will ask you to take them off while they talk to you. This allows them to see into your soul so to speak regarding whether you're hiding something or not! So why not adopt a pair of safety shades to your emergency preps? They weigh little to nothing and provide a practical tactical advantage over the punks you might run into.

    One quick word of caution. Not being able to see into ones "soul" also makes crimes easier to commit since there is a level of inhumanity about you. Gangsters usually prefer not to look into their victims eyes to avoid being haunted by that person in their sleep. Terrorists will execute a prisoner from behind, thus avoiding any possible remorse. So keep this in mind when using sunglasses for tactical purposes, by dehumanizing you they make you an easier target to some.