We had a good net thurs night, even tho there was a lot of QRN and QRM plus some bad prop thrown in.  Thanks to everyone with the help in pre-net. 

As a bit of traffic I mentioned the leaked paper on peak oil published in the Der Spiegel magazine.  A condensed version of the translation is available on The Oil Drum under the title “German military study warns of potential energy crisis”.  The article is by Robert Rapier.

The topic of discussion was RELOCALIZATION – How we free ourselves from overdependence on the global economy.

There was wide agreement that the Big Box Stores that have chased many mom and pop stores out of business.  The Big Box Stores don’t have that personal community touch that mom and pop stores have.  Another point is the BBS take money away from community that m and p stores retain.

BBS are no longer as price competitive as they once were.  Why would they be after they’ve chased out the mom and pops?

Some communities have zoning laws to keep out the BBS and that seem to be a good idea.

There was a good deal of discussion about how the job opportunities have dried up for college grads with businesses degrees, at least for the present.

Even with the bad prop we did manage to have a good net.  Thanks to all for making it happen.

Checkins:

W4DMH Dave

KD8MFK Jim

AC0BG Dean

KD8KWD John

W3JSW Joe

KJ4PZZ Bill

N8TMF Lee

K2IPX Bill

KI4LWA Howard

NW8I Del ncs

Don’t forget.  APRN Thurs nite net on/or about 3.818 mhz at 0100z(9:00 pm).  Following last net’s topic of Unemployment and Underemployment lets talk about Relocalization.  I’ll try to be on freq about 8:30 pm.

RELOCALIZATION – “The process by which a region, county, city or even a neighborhood frees itself from an overdependence on the global economy and invests its own resources to produce a significant portion of the goods, services, food and energy it consumes from its local endowment of financial, natural and human capital.”

The above definition comes from The Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins. 

73s

Del nw8i

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

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.

We had another good net Thurs night.  In the prenet discussion W4DMH Dave, made an interesting observation.  When he has discussed things like The Power Grid, Peak Oil, and other things with community leaders, and when the discussion is one on one, they will often agree that things aren’t too good, but when in an official capacity – they disavow the positions they privately hold. 

The topic of Thurs net was Salting and/or Smoking meat for preservation.  Some of us (me included) don’t know too much about how to do it.  Others tho, were pretty knowledgeable.  Generally speaking, you can smoke almost any kind of meat.  Pig, beef, turkey, fish, squirrel, deer and just about everything you can think of.  You can smoke it in an oven, outside over a fire pit with something to snuff out the flames and cover the meat over.  You can smoke it in a made to order smoke house or I suppose you could use a good thick tent. 

I’m not exactly sure about when to salt, how much to use, how many times to use it and how often to smoke it.  If someone reading this wants to jump in here and give us some more info on this smoking, salting process, please do so.

Salt Cured Meat

Smoked meat

The meat is cut into 1/4 inch strips, several inches long, and heated to about 190 to 200 degrees for 45 or 50 minutes, then turned over.  It can be flavored with black pepper, chilli pepper, brown sugar and/or many other flavorings.

Also mentioned was using a meat grinder to tenderize it before you salt and/or smoke it. 

Another good idea was to use a solar oven to dry the meat.   In the Western Countries we don’t usually think of using something like solar ovens but they are regularly used in third world countries.  Solar cookers are also used to cook meals as well. 

I had a question about fruit trees, how fast they mature and bear fruit.  Some dwarf trees can bear fruit in as little time as three years.  Wish I had planted some 15 or 20 years ago.

I didn’t do justice to this net with this brief blog.  Anyone wishing to add to this please do so.

Checkins:

W4DMH Dave

AC0BG Dean

KB4MSU Robert

N8TMF Lee

N8VFJ Ed

W3GRD Gary

KD8KWD John

NW8I Del ncs

73s

Del nw8i

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.

Topic for the net Thurs night will be Preserving Meat by Salting and/or Smoking.  I’ll try to be on freq at about 8:30 Eastern, on/or about 3.818 mhz.  Official net time is 0100z. 

Had a short power failure the other night.  I figured out that besides my emergency power supply, flashlights, kerosene lanterns and lamps I need to have a battery powered lamp as well to light up quickly while I bring the other stuff online.

I checked out and put in my favorites several of the websites we talked about on the Sun night net.  Johnnyseeds.com, heirloomseeds.com, rareseeds.com and heartlandamerica.com (buyouts and closeouts on many different kinds of stuff).  A couple of the seed sites have herbs as well as veggies etc.  There were other sites as well, just Google heirloom seeds.

Also, while I’m on the subject, what kind of fruit trees can you get that grow well and mature fast?  That can be an additional topic if we have time Thurs night.

73s

Del nw8i

Well it is with a very heavy heart that your APRN Roving Reporter is writing to tell you of the loss of his trucking buddy Foster. Foster got away from me Saturday after a walk and romp session at a rest area south of Roanoke Va. I went to lift him up into the truck and he slipped away from me and ran out onto I-81 and was hit and killed. He never knew what hit him so he did not suffer. Probably the worst thing I have ever witnessed.

Foster was a very active free spirit. He loved being with me on the road but I think being cooped up in the truck was getting to him. He had so much energy and loved to run. The schedule we were on the last 2 weeks really offered no time to get out and run around. He had to be on a lead when we were out but it was a long one and he loved to explore and sniff all of the different smells that different areas had to offer. He looked forward to sleep time and he would snuggle up tight to me and snore like a freight train. He spent alot of time sitting in the passenger seat watching the world go by and would occasionally bark at cows or horses in pasture. We jumped some deer up in Iowa last week and he almost pulled my arm off.

As some that have read my bio on QRZ may already know Foster was taken in a drug raid in Baltimore at two weeks old and we were involved in a rescue/fostering program that was geared for Pitt-bulls. We got the call and went and picked him up. He was bottle fed and when it came to be time to put him up for adoption, I decided that we should keep him. Yes, I had grown attached to him. For the last five years I would look forward to getting home from work to catch a flying Pitt-bull before he knocked me senseless when he welcomed me home form work. When I took my present road job, I planned to take him with me as Foster loved to ride with me. Especially to the local fast food joint for french fries. Foster would generally stay up in the radio room or my bedroom being unsociable until I got home. He was truly my best friend……….

The truck is gonna be empty and REAL lonely……………..

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