Outdoor Adventure USA

Our net this week will be a topic that should be of interest to everyone - Urban Emergency Preparedness. As most know, our nets focus primarily on activities that occur on our outdoor travels and one of the most important things that we teach for these travels is the need to be prepared. Being prepared covers a lot of ground, but the essentials are the same, whether you are off road or at home and the things that you need to do at both locations are, in most cases, identical. In fact, a well equipped off road vehicle is the very thing that can serve you well for disasters and emergencies at home.

It is the unpredictability of emergencies and disasters that, obviously, make it important to be prepared. An excellent example of how vulnerable we are, and how unpredictable these events can be, occurred in Arizona about a month ago. The event involved an act of vandalism that crippled communications for the northern half of the state. Although this wasn't an act of a terrorist or an organized group of terrorists, it takes little imagination to understand how much more devastating it would have been had this been the case. This article give the details of the incident: http://freebeacon.com/national-security ... oss-state/

Our guest this week will be Mike Ward, KG6WSL. Mike hosted the very popular Rescue Net here in the Southern California area for many years. Welcome back, Mike!!!

Can I get an online check in? I'll be monitoring from home (can't reach Keller from there).
Roger KK6GFF

Web base check-in please, KK6CTT.

I'll be out there this evening as well. Sounds like a good topic and one all hams and outdoor enthusiasts have a pretty good handle on without even knowing it. I just read an article about the increased communication planning and infrastructure redundancy that is going into large scale sporting events. The Super Bowl where they lost power was a bigger problem because the saturation of cell/hardline phone use in the stadium made it hard to contact the people who could fix the problem. Our reliance on cells and electronic gadgetry is at peak use during these large gatherings and it has become apparent that this same problem will hold true when a wide spread disaster hits. Too many phone users, not enough towers or overloaded circuit boards and the whole communication infrastructure comes tumbling down.

DHS Emergency Communication Forum: http://content.govdelivery.com/attachme ... e%2B15.pdf

Solution: Up to one year prior to an event, several modes of communication are put in place in conjunction with large scale events. Redundancy is necessary..."Two is one, one is none, three or more is some" concept.

All that adventure gear is part of our urban preparedness plan and we don't even it know it. Some of us do know it but we can also admit there is always more we can do. Best thing...just keep plugging away at it...slow and steady progress. It all pays dividends in the end. Don't forget to help others along the way because your stuff cannot support everyone when the bad times come and it is nice when you have others that understand that before problems arise.

Please check me in to this evening's net. Thank you.

I just wanted to mention this STOMP bag by voodoo tactical. This kit is amazing
http://www.voodootactical.net/p-1197-vo ... kpack.aspx

overkill for sure more than just a good start

Recommend reading that I found upon search of internet (LDS Preparedness Manual, 509 pages) : http://www.abysmal.com/LDS/Preparedness ... edness.pdf

I have also posted this acronym before and find it very useful. Simple and very important rule missed by many...do not rush when you have the time to be methodical. An injury that would not normally be an issue can turn into a huge detriment. A broken digit, an infected cut or insect bite, a bout of diarrhea, It can all spell disaster in a survival situation where YOU are the best resource that you and your family may have. Do not take unnecessary chances, make wise alliances and be prepared to stare coldly in the face of the fight or flight mechanism and come to grips with what you might deal with psychologically. It doesn't have to be pretty, it just needs to work.

Here is information the we discussed on the net tonight:

1. Emergency Essentials, http://www.beprepared.com . Emergency Essentials is a terrific resource for both information and the various items (food, utensils, etc) that you will need to be prepared for disasters and emergencies.

2. The LDS Preparedness Manual. There are over 500 pages of articles, stories and recommendations. This is an excellent resource book for the beginner as well as the more experienced preparer. It is available on Amazon for about $25.00 and worth every cent. See: http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B008 ... irect=true .

odomandr wrote:I just wanted to mention this STOMP bag by voodoo tactical. This kit is amazing
http://www.voodootactical.net/p-1197-vo ... kpack.aspx

overkill for sure more than just a good start

I have that bag in my jeep all the time. It's an excellent designed bag for more than just first aid. Pictures below. I see there is a net coming up on first aid kits, then I'll post more detail about the bag and what changes I've made to it. How it came it was good but there was a lot of redundancy and I increased its scope. Also I thought the components included in the bag were not of a very good quality and I replaced most of them for better ones.

I first learned about the bag on this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaLfG0PfKPQ

You can buy it empty as well as some of the voodoo tactical field med bags as well that are much smaller. Ive had trouble stocking a bag from empty and much of what you use frequently you may develop a preference for. But yes generic not quality for that bags contents