The American Preparedness Radio Net

Latoya Egwuekwe is the name of the lady that did the unemployment map(Click Here to view original map) that we had linked to over at Advanced Survival Guide .com. There were comments during the net recently about that map. She has a youtube Chanel with updated versions of that same map. In keeping with the recent topics of our current discussions on the economy it may help some understand just how bad off we are by viewing the most recent update of this map. Latoya did this map originally as a project for a graduate school project while at American University. CNN reported on this map back in late 2009 and this map does a very good job of giving you a visual reality check of just how bad things really are. We really do not like to show the doom and gloom side of things but sometimes that is just reality. During our nets there has been a general consensus that the jobless rate is really much higher than the publicized figures and this map is shown using the figures released by our own government officials. For the folks using dial up internet this will be slow loading but it is a dramatic illustration that really helps to put this topic in perspective.

WOW what a net,,,, is all I can think of to start off with. Many thanks to all the check ins that did such a great job at sharing there thoughts with all of us. Our nets would not be possible without you. The band conditions were very good tonight for the first time in a long while.

The topic for this net was How did we the American citizen effect the outsourcing of American Jobs to overseas company’s.

I am not sure justice can be done writing this net report. You really had to be there to get the entire picture. I would like to point out that everyone had a lot to offer and there were no shortage of different opinions on this topic.

I will start off by pointing out that “We The People” of this great country have some real work cut out for us in the future. We desperately need to pull this country up out of the hole we have dug ourselves into. The “Recession” or to some people the “Depression” we have fallen into sure does seem to be pretty deep. It seemed like the one fact that everyone agreed on was that it is our politicians that have got us into this. That being the case the only solution is to get active in learning the views of politicians seeking office and vote for the ones best qualified to help get us out of this mess. The need to move this country back to abiding by the Constitution has never been greater than it is now. Remember the politicians work for us not the other way around as it seems they want us to believe today. It is the responsibility of every American citizen to become active in keeping our politicians honest every day not just on election day. Be persistent with letters when you receive a form letter back from them that does not answer your exact question.

Benjamin Franklin had it right when he said, “All that’s necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

With that thought in mind get that hand off the remote (or for us hams off the PTT) pick up a pen and write your elected officials TODAY

Important points that were made.
Buy American whenever possible. See this site: www.findusmade.com
Support your local economy whenever possible
Educate yourself about politicians running for office
Write letters to your elected officials and mail them using the US postal service VERY IMPORTANT
Personally visit there office if possible
Emails & Phone calls do not count as much as letters and personal visits
Imported goods should have tariffs placed on them to level the playing field with American Made products
Demand that our politicians bring US jobs back home to us
Demand that your elected officials enforce immigration laws already on the books not write new ones.

There was a lot more than this that came out during the net but it is almost impossible to keep up with writing it all down as we go. If anyone notices something important that I missed please ad it to the comments section.

The check ins were
KJ4PZZ VA
NW8I OH
KD8KWD WV
WA1HHN MA
AC0BG IA
KD8USA MI
KI4LWA VA
WC2A NJ
K2IPX NJ
KJ4NXD FL
KJ4BJN GA
W4DMH WV Net Control

Click on the picture to see the map full size

Aug 26, 5:58 PM (ET)

So the housing crisis goes on, even though the average rate on a 30-year mortgage fell again this week to an all-time low of 4.36 percent.

Read the rest of this story here

In a continuation of the recent topic about Under Employment this article once again covers unemployment but how much of this problem is really related to Under Employment. Job security seems to be at an all time low with everyone that I talk with. Most of the people that I know and talk with about this have all said the same thing. There work is at best on a level that they consider Part Time employment.

The real question is how deep of a recession have we fallen into and is there a solution that will allow us to recover in the near future. With the interest rates about as low as they can be and unemployment rates about as high as we can stand, what options are left for us to pull ourselves up by the boot straps and climb out of this hole. The reality is that a large percentage (possibly even higher than what is being reported) of the average American family is having a very difficult time just paying there monthly bills.

The people of this country have always been very resilient but at some point we must all consider just how deep of a hole have we dug. We must also ask ourselves how did we allow this to happen and learn from the mistakes we have made. It is real easy to try to lay the blame off on the politicians but are we not responsible for taking care of ourselves. Always remember We the People voted for them and every time there is an election We the People have the ability to vote for someone else that can do the job better.

San Joaquin County, California

By The Record
August 20, 2010 12:00 AM

“They could help us in the event communication goes down,” said Dan Burch, San Joaquin County Emergency Medical Services administrator. That adds an extra line of communication among hospitals, blood banks, county emergency response and state officials, Burch said.

Read the rest of this story here.

When disaster strikes who are the first people in to help provide communications during the initial part of the disaster when normal communication systems are the most vulnerable to problems? The answer is your local Ham Radio Operators. This has been proven time and time again during times of disaster. The sad part about this is that for the most part the general public is totally unaware of this fact. Why is that? The simple answer is that the media seems to be more interested in the sensational headlines about the devastation surrounding the disaster. Most of the time when and if they report about the Ham Radio Operators helping to provide communications the story is buried someplace on page 7 of the financial section instead of being front page news. For most Hams that is fine with them because they do not do it for the recognition but rather from a sense of dedication to serve there community’s needs. A big part of Ham radio is geared towards Emergency Communications and most of the operators involved provide not only there time but also there own equipment to make this happen at there own expense as well.

At the APRN we have been working on a project to help demonstrate this and at the same time try to help spread the word about emergency preparedness. You can read more about this at the page for our Mobile Emergency Communications project. With the help of our sponsors we are coming much closer to seeing this become a reality. You can read more about this project HERE.

How bad is our Economy?

As I read this article I could not help but think of how bad off our economy is at the present time. Another point that comes out in the article is the unemployment rate. Keep in mind what we talked about during a recent net covering Under-Employment. As I read articles related to our economy the thing that NEVER gets mentioned is Under-Employment and how much that is effecting the economic health of this country. It is bad enough that almost everyone seems to agree that the official unemployment rate is lower than what reality seems to be. Now if you factor in under-employment it seems to me that we are a lot worse off than the politicians want anyone to know.

Aug 24, 10:59 AM (ET)

July’s sales fell by more than 27 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. It was the largest monthly drop on records dating back to 1968, and sharp declines were recorded in all regions of the country.

Read the rest of this article. CLICK HERE

Aug 14, 12:17 PM (ET)

apnews.myway.com/

“Aerial Surveillance” When do you feel the local Governments have crossed the line in relation to your reasonable right to privacy? Most of us are aware of “Google Earth” and if you are not but remember the maps of the net check-ins we have done in the past, those are created using Google Earth from within Ham Radio Deluxe logging software. We the public have access to these images for free over the internet but they are not of the same resolution that is available to Government and Law Enforcement agencies. What that means is that these agencies are able to have access to much higher resolution images that allow them to view the area they are looking at in much greater detail than what the general public has access to.

I had read a story written some time ago about a guy that had built a very remote cabin with very limited access by any type of motor vehicle. For years it was unknown by the local Government because the tax assessors did not have access to the property by motor vehicle. By use of satellite imagery the tax assessors office adjusted his property tax to include the cabin that had been built. When I read this I was just a little skeptical of this claim at first.

Well move ahead several years later and I had a letter come in the mail one day from our local county planners office. It had been a couple years since the assessors office had done a visual inspection of our property and I had enclosed a porch and turned it into a room. The letter stated that I had added an addition without getting a building permit. In the letter they described the porch that I had enclosed with detailed measurements. The letter stated that I must contact them within so many days. I called them and got it all straight but I was curious how they knew about the addition. I was told that they had taken an aerial image of the property and discovered it in that image. I asked if flying around in a plane and taking pictures of property was really more cost effective than the inspectors that drove to your property. I was told, that is not how they do it but by using satellite imagery it was more cost effective.

It seems to me that ever since 9/11 happened that we are in a constant decline with our reasonable right to privacy. The government claims that this is so they can better protect us from terrorist but at some point you really have to wonder. Is it the terrorist that they are really using all of this high tech surveillance on or is it the average American that they are now interested in using this for.

The picture above is from using Google Earth. Know this is what is available to you and me. I have been told by a very reliable source that the imagery available to Government and Law Enforcement agencies can be up to 10 times greater in detail than this example. I am not saying that is a fact but I am sure it is not completely impossible either.

In a sluggish economic summer, no easy fix ahead
Aug 13, 7:18 PM (ET)

The rest of this story can be read here

apnews.myway.com//article

As I read this article I started thinking about a conversation that Jeff and I had during the pre-net a few weeks ago. This brought me to the TOPIC for tonight’s net. UNDER-EMPLOYMENT or UNEMPLOYMENT, which one or are both effecting the current slide in the economy here in the US. I see people around me struggling to pay the bills more today than I have ever seen before in my lifetime. The fact is that no matter how low the FED sets the interest rate if you do not have enough income you can not borrow money. The fact is you can not spend money you do not have to spend.

We are going to try 3.818 (+/-) but please keep in mind that it seems no matter where we try on 80 meter someone always claims to have been there for years and feels the frequency belongs to them. Last Sunday I got home real late for the net but I did tune to 3.818 and heard one Ham (I will not mention calls) telling another that until they got the email they did not know anyone had been meeting on this frequency for years now. It seems that we have ruffled feathers once again with our choice on where to meet for the net.
I will send another email out to the email reminders list later this evening with more on this.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White bans planting of genetically engineered beets. The bio-tech giant Monsanto Company has been dealt a setback with one of their genetically modified “Roundup Ready” seeds.
Full story at link below

msnbc.msn.com

We briefly touched on some points during one of our nets about Monsanto’s involvement with Terminator seeds. If you have any interest at all in having a quality supply of genetically unaltered food in the world I suggest you read more about the long arm of Monsanto reaching into the worlds food supply. Here is a link to the Wikipedia page about them.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto

After reading carefully what it says on Wiki about this company please do your own research and come to your own conclusion. Here is more on terminator seeds at the link below.

Terminator seeds

Heirloom plant, learn more about this at the link below.

Heirloom plant

Open pollination, learn more at the link below.

Open pollination

I hope some of this helps for those not up to speed on the topic of gardening.

Folks there is no shortage of Preparedness/ Survival web sites out there but in my personal opinion there are very few GOOD ones. I want to share with you today a fairly new web site but in my opinion one of the most well rounded, sensible sites out there. I went there this evening to have a look and found a real neat map dealing with unemployment in the US currently posted that everyone should have a look at. Follow the link below to their site.

Advanced Survival Guide. com

They also have a Basic Preparedness page that is very well done and very similar what I try to teach people that are just waking up to preparedness. Please have a look by clicking the link below.

Basic Preparedness page at Advanced Survival Guide. com

I believe that everyone will find some interesting and or useful information on their site.

The antenna launcher donated by AKBiocca Engineering arrived yesterday and what I can tell you so far is the craftsmanship of this launcher is truly superb. This launcher is very compact for portable use and the quality that comes from AKBiocca Engineering is nothing short of true 100% American made with obvious pride in there work. If any of you are in need of a fast, easy, economical and most of all very SAFE way to deploy your antennas, I urge you to have a look at this product. I will post my personal results of testing with this as soon as I get a chance to practice with it some more.

Folks I am not a machinist but I am very familiar with what it takes to do this type of work. For the price they sell there basic kit for you can not go wrong. I do not believe you could purchase all the parts and do the modifications to the pieces and make this high of a quality launcher for the same money by doing it yourself. I am all for being self sufficient but if you sacrifice quality in doing so it just is not sensible. These folks have been doing this for a long time and thru years of research and testing different designs they have come up with a very compact but very efficient design. I will point out that for those die hard do-it-yourself types out there they have instructions on how to make this launcher on their web site for free.

Click Here to enter Antenna Launcher.com