Survive Infinite Dangers: The Family Survival Guide of 21st Century Dangers (24 page)

Sorry, 90% of the time their computer is still a door stop and they curse the “defective” power protection. The power protection worked just fine. The power spike from the lightning bolt (or whatever) entered the computer via one of the other wires hooked to it, most likely the modem or cable or DSL inputs. There is also the keyboard and mouse and other items connected to the computer. Just think of the word “antenna”. The longer the antenna the more electrical energy it will pick up and send it into your helpless computer. A mile run of DSL or telephone or cable line strung on poles running down your street is quite an antenna.

We’re getting off the subject of the book but since, most likely, 99% of those reading this book own a computer and are reading something totally foreign to them for the first time and REALLY want to know “so what do I do to protect my computer!” let me devote a few sentences to that question. If you still use an old fashioned slow modem (i.e. 56 Kb speed) you can buy modem protectors at any computer store and most hardware stores. Modems, unfortunately, are today part of the motherboard of the computer so if it blows the computer is “toast” (that’s a techie term meaning fried). Modems used to be plug in cards. You threw away the blown card and replaced it with another $10 modem card which was the same thing you did for an Ethernet (look it up if you are curious what it means) connection that is usually your Internet connection from your incoming DSL or cable connection. You unplugged the burnt out card and replaced it with a new one for $10 or so. Today, you replace the entire computer because one single IC (integrated circuit) burnt out right where the wire entered the computer. A ten cent part that you’d think could be fixed. If you are a techie and know what you’re doing you might try to fix it yourself. But you aren’t sure which of about a dozen IC’s is burnt out and it could have done damage on the other side of the computer (a computer spike loose in a computer can cause havoc for a microsecond. Yes, ANYTHING can be fixed and, for a computer, the estimated repair bill is always within dollars of the cost of a new computer. It’s amazing how that works! But you CAN protect incoming wires to a computer or other fragile piece of electronics. The most common method is the use of ferrite beads (Google the term) having the wires wrapped through and around the beads. There is plenty of techie info on the Internet and I even found a Youtube video that is accurate and thorough in all the techniques of protecting a computer. Just remember, protecting the 120 VAC input is almost worthless.

One last tip since I know many of you are going to say “I didn’t know that!” Never plug a laser printer into a UPS. Why? About once a day (there is a timer in the printer) the laser printer will go from drawing a few watts in standby to 2,000 watts or more for between 15 seconds to two minutes. THAT is why your good old UPS units never last a minute longer than the warranty. They are probably rated for 800 watts but once a day – pow! It’s called on to supply 2,000 watts plus whatever else you have plugged into it. Why does a laser printer do such a dastardly deed? To heat up the laser powder which is that black powder that gets all over you when you have to change laser cartridges. Not heated up it will turn to hardened cement. Go back and read the fine print in your instruction manuals. Somewhere it says “do not plug a laser printer into a UPS” so now you know why and you’ve probably doubled the life of your UPS by unplugging it from your UPS and connected it directly to AC power or to a “surge protection only” jack on your UPS. One last laser printer tip that may pay for this book several times over is when the “replace laser cartridge” light or display comes on you can gain an extra few hundred pages of print by removing the cartridge, taking it your concrete driveway and tap the cartridge on end then turn it over and do the same thing. Why outside? Do it inside on the floor and you’ll have black powder ink everywhere and a mad spouse! This breaks loose the powdered ink that is caked on the inside of the cartridge and (for me) usually produces enough extra ink to print a few hundred more pages. End of tips. Paid for the book!

Since radios, ham radio, electronics, computers, EMP theory and on and on is my specialty I could write a thick book on the subject (who knows, watch for a follow-on book if there is enough interest but I think I’ve beat the subject to death. For more information and to become a mini-expert enough to sound really smart when the subjects come up at parties (will never happen) you need to begin to start Googling words, terms and phrases. Do what I suggested about ham radio and you may even pick up a new hobby! At least all things electronics will no longer scare you! You’ll be the techie nerd your friends call you at all times of the day and night with “I’m sorry to call but my computer just quit and I have a paper due tomorrow morning”. Take it from me, you may want to learn a lot but keep it to yourself or you’ll gather more friends and friends of friends than you can count. They can call the big box store where they bought their computer, wait a month only to be given their computer back with all data deleted plus charged $250 for that or they can call you – for free. What would you do?

ELECTRIC POWER

Assuming it was a natural disaster such as a hurricane, flood, earthquake and the like, where civilization is hanging on by a thread but there really are police on patrol and, while you are safe, you still keep your guns handy that purchase of a generator was a good idea after all. Unless it is a really big generator you can’t power much more than your television and a few other items you are not powering your house. It’s become the latest fad among the uber-wealthy to have a 15 kilowatt (and up) diesel generator (sometimes even buried in a special concrete block room along with a buried 20,000 gallon or larger tank to hold the needed fuel. There is a company in my city that now does nothing but that. The profit margins are huge and the installed price equal to a small house. The homeowner of the $3 million dollar mansion doesn’t blink an eye knowing he’ll have his big screen and all his or her creature comforts even if the rest of the world comes to a halt. I’ve spoken with a few of these people and not a one has given a thought to everything else of “what happens” when the lights go out for, like, a month or even forever. A three million dollar mansion with a dead alarm system (after its backup batteries ran down) is quite inviting to roving gangs of “bad guys”. The homeowner MAY own a handgun if he can remember where he put it after buying it years ago – plus where is that darn key to the gun box safe? “No, wait. The safe is electronic so it can’t be opened! Darn!” They don’t just need this book and then do every single thing in it but they need to hire a survivalist consultant (there are such people – such as the author) who will come in and turn their mansion into a survival bunker capable of withstanding Armageddon and costing well into six figures. The homeowner probably has ten times that in gold bars SOMEWHERE on the property. No matter how well hidden enough bad guys given enough time will find them.

Anyway, I’m assuming maybe two buyers of this book are in that uber-rich category feeling safe and secure when once a week the 10 ton generator cycles for 30 seconds sending a signal to the installer that “all is well”. For all the rest of you if you feel safe firing up your generator to use the 20 gallons of gas you have stored, go right ahead! Personally, I’d save it for some unknown need that hasn’t occurred yet.

For sake of discussion, let’s assume this is beyond some fairly local natural disaster where “911” might even still work. By the way, you should always have at least one telephone in the house that obtains power from the phone outlet. If your telephones all require AC power they will all be dead unless they have backup batteries in them. A simple “AT&T Princess model telephone is under $10 and is just a simple telephone but it works when the power goes out but your phone line is still OK. If the disaster is really major and you don’t know as yet if it is close to the end of the world or the world will be back to normal by tomorrow night you should assume the worst at first. Other chapters have covered what to do when disaster hits. This portion of this chapter just covers what to do about electric power. You will need it either now or later. If it lasts more than a few days you should count on losing everything in your freezer and then in your refrigerator. First eat everything in your freezer then your refrigerator. If you can overeat, do so. The alternative is burying all the food you and all in your group cannot eat. Assuming you had a few weeks of food in your freezer and refrigerator eat all you can then donate all you can to neighbors without giving away your safe area and group plans. Just say “things will be fine. We have enough non-perishable food to get by for awhile – just dropping off these perishable foods if you can use them”. Then exit and, finally, bury any food left over. Bury it deep to keep animals from digging it up and having the rotted food kill them.

Your most important power is going to be powering your shortwave radios that you carefully protected with double wraps of aluminum foil or a galvanized steel trashcan. Hopefully, you bought back up radios and lots and lots of batteries. Keep them safe until you need them. Unwrapping one Kaito 500 to learn “what happened?” is enough for now. After that you need some basic low intensity light that is either a couple of LED lights or a few candles. You will need some light most every night. Prisoner of war results show sensory deprivation is one of the quickest routes to insanity or at least depression. Even a single candle is enough. Refer to the chapter on supplies. But a few LED’s can burn forever if powered by a charged battery system. A couple of 75 to 150 watt solar panels mounted on the south facing side of your roof will provide you all the electricity you will need for the next six months. It’s not that simple but that is the first must have item. But, oops, most solar cells are semiconductor based which means EMP will take them out. You just can’t win! The author keeps his solar cells wrapped in aluminum foil with the output wires shorted to each other. That will provide some EMP protection. If EMP and they were on your roof they are probably dead.

I’ll now outline your “off-line power system”. You didn’t need that darn power company anyway! As long as you never want refrigeration, regular lights and creature comforts again. But this will get you through the next six months in good shape!

You heard the term “living off the grid” many times. Technically it just means your home is not connected to the electric grid that begins at some power plant of some type most likely far away and generated by anything from coal to wood to gas to nuclear; most likely “all of above” as the power grid” of our country is so interconnected it is more of a web than a grid.

To people who have lived “off the grid” for years and take it seriously this also means no connection to public water, sewer, telephone (by wire), Internet (by wire) and – I can’t think of anything else. Some try and give up after a year realizing such living is not only time consuming, it can be strenuous and relatively expensive at least on the front end if you endeavor to come close to having and using all the creature comforts you and I take for granted. Living off the grid by having a wood stove, an ax and a bow and arrow to hunt game is not really living off the grid to me; it’s living in the 17
^th
century of Western Tennessee. So consider you will be living off the grid for up to six months but trying not to drop too far back in time. You may even be able to power a small television and DVD player. TV stations may be off the air but you’ll be able to listen to your DVD’s. That will get you through the boring nights far better than “books by candlelight”. So let’s see how we get there.

I could just about list one Web site, tell you to read it in great detail, get to know the people who run it, buy what they recommend, get your personal electricity power system up and running then skip to the next section. But I’ll add some words to make it a bit easier than that. The Web site is
www.backwoodssolar.com
. (BWS) The couple and the others who live with them WAY back in the mountains of a western state have been at this for years. They “walk the walk and talk the talk”. They take great pride in being 100% off the grid in every conceivable way. Still, they have all of the comforts you and I do. Televisions, computers, freezers, refrigerators, washer, dryer, cell phone and, yes, even bed warmers. The rest of the world could go away and they wouldn’t notice other than their satellite Internet and TV would quit and their long distance cell connection would stop working. They are all very nice people and they seem to truly enjoy helping someone do anything from building a small backup power system (more our speed for this book) to a full (and expensive) system where the customer is 50 miles from the nearest blacktop road and building their home was something worthy of a National Geographic special.

I am going to save at least 50 pages by recommending you (1) request their catalog and (2) read their Web site down to every word on every page. Then and only then are you ready to plan your system.

At this point you have read their catalog in depth to where you have it memorized and the same with their Web site. Maybe (I hope) you’ve followed their library recommendations and bought ALL of the books they recommend as well as obtained the material they have for sale. You can’t have too much written material on what is going to be the “John Jones Electric Company” (if your name is John Jones!). If you get serious with this there are a few power and light companies who have programs where they will buy power from you! This can be a money maker for you selling the power beyond what you can store in your batteries. If you do build a significant “power company”, check into this with your power company. Also, they may have some helpful information for you as they are in favor of customers generating their own power. How that makes them money I have no idea but they encourage it – go figure! Most power and light companies have at least one person who is in charge of helping customers generate some electricity on their own. They also want to know what you’re doing so you don’t do something that could damage their system or equipment (unlikely) or damage your house or even endanger your life (more likely). So check in with your power and light company to tell them what you’re doing. You may be pleasantly surprised by what they tell you.