The American Preparedness Radio Net

Hi to the APRN, listeners and readers,

W4DMH, Dave has some family problems tonight so we’re winging it. 

After about 20 minutes the band improved and most of us could hear each other.  We did another open mike segment tonight and it worked ok.  We talked about heirloom seeds again.  There is general agreement that using and protecting sources of heirloom seeds is a good idea in this age of genetically modified seeds.  Also we’re concerned about bovine growth hormone being used to make milk cows produce more.  That in itself is bad enough, but how much of that stuff gets into the milk we buy and how does that affect us?

The second subject of focus was Property Security.  There were several methods suggested to help Property Security.  The use of infrared detectors and light beams was discussed.  The use of barriers such as blackberry bushes and other types of natural growth put in appropriate positions is a good idea.  Of course using our four-legged friends is good.  One thing I forgot to mention is that geese are good alarms also.  They raise the dickens if anything gets near your property! 

Many of these alarm systems can be tied into your radio and tv also, as well as loud speakers and light systems. 

One good point that came up was to try and decide what threat you’re trying to be secure from.  Is it just burglars or threats from roving gangs after a disaster?

These alarm systems can sometimes be found on sale in publications such as Heartland America catalogs or at heartlandamerica.com  .

Other good suggestions were: Don’t draw attention to yourself.  Be careful about who you let on your property and in your house.  If in the middle of a disaster blackout you’re running your generator black out your windows.  And of course we should have home defense weapons and know how to use them.

Checkins:

KD8KWD John

WA3KYS Bill

KJ4PZZ Bill 

John and the 2 Bills helped keep the freq open before the net time

KI4LWA Howard

WA1HHN Walt - Propagation in Walt’s direction was tough tonight.

AC0BG Dean Thanks for hanging in there Dean

W9RGM Ron – Ron thanks for the Heartland Catalog tip

NW8I Del NCS

Thanks to everyone who checked in and participated in the net. 

73s

Del nw8i

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.

Hi to the APRN, listeners and readers:

Our topic for tonight was open mike.  It worked out very good and we had 3 new first time checkins. 

There was futher discussion of Heirloom seeds.  One source is to go to someone who has been farming for many years and get your seeds from him.  2 seed websites were rareseeds.com and myseeds.com – Baker Creek Seeds was another source for heirloom seeds.

We briefly discussed hand tools.  AMES tools is a good tool brand.  There were several APRNers that mentioned estate sales as being good sources for tools and other stuff.

The prices on guns and ammo have come down and now would be a good time to buy before the fall hunting season begins.

KI4LWA said that the website – buildinghomesforheros.com is doing a good j0b for helping disabled vets.  Also Gary Seneise who played Captain Dan in the movie Forest Gump is helping with this.

I relayed the info I tracked down in a Wall Street Journal  article which covered how some American roads in several states are going back to gravel because of budget limitations.  In not dire circumstances yet but bears watching.

How salt was made in various places was discussed.  At one time we had several salt processors in Ohio.  An interesting tie-in to the salt discussion was that in WVA salt brine from wells in which it is used in a flushing process is being reclaimed to be reprocessed to use on the roads in the winter.

Two topics for future nets came from our open mike session tonight.  One will be on Salt preservation techniques for saving meat and how to use a smokehouse.  The other topic was a further discussion on Property Security.  We have briefly touched on these topics in the past but will do a more in-depth discussion on future nets.

When we get a chance we’ll have N8TMF Lee talk a little more about his homebrew 160 and up antenna.

The checkins for tonight were:

KD8KWD John

KJ4PZZ Bill

KI4LWA Howard

N8TMF Lee – new checkin – Lee I’d love to see that Greenbank ant.

N8PS Phil – short time – new check in

N8NMJ Mike

KJ4EIW  Robert – new checkin

NW8I Del ncs

Thanks to all who checked in.  A big hello to the new guys.  Thanks for all your comments and suggestions.  Also, thanks to the early pre-net checkins.  It was a great net tonight and I could hear everyone for almost the whole net. 

73s

NW8I Del

Hi to the APRN, listeners and readers,

Thurs night’s net topic will be an open mike night.  If there is something you want to talk about that’s what we’ll do.  3.818 mhz +/- at 0100z ( 9 pm EST ). I’ll try to be on freq at about 8:30 pm, feel free to start the pre-net before 8:30 if you wish. 

73s

Del nw8i

Dave K7DLB – I saw a Wall Street Journal article on our deteriorating highway system.  I saw a reference to the article and hunted down the actual article to be sure it was real.  It was a WSJ article on the subject.

Keep on truckin Dave,

Del nw8i

Hi to the APRN, listeners and readers,

The topic for tonight’s net was underemployment and unemployment.

This topic produced some good input.  (As an aside, Mike, you lucky dog, you live close to all those scenic Civil War sites!)  The topic of underemployment and unemployment has been experienced by all of us or our family and friends one way or another.  There was a consensus that this is a problem over the US  in almost every area.  Dean AC0BG said that underemployment was a bigger problem in Iowa than unemployment.  But that still means less into the economy. 

Generally, I think we all agreed that the true unemployment figures are higher that the published figures because the numbers don’t include those who have quit looking for work.  If you want to see where that leads look up tent cities or car parks.

We’re probably going to need to learn new skill sets.

One area of this topic that seemed to hit a nerve with everyone was the issue of temp employment agencies who will hire people to do the same job they were doing before, but at a reduced pay rate.  That is of course with no benefits and at a 20 or 30 percent reduction in pay, the difference going to the temp agency.  Of course the temp agency is usually close to a check cashing scam establishment charging about  600 percent compounded interest and fees on a yearly basis. ( Here in Ohio we’ve had new laws in the past year to minimize the worst practices of  payday lenders.)  KJ4PZZ Bill said SS checks, disability checks etc. are areas of big business at the end of the month for these payday lenders.

AC0BG, Dean said a good place to get some info on economics is to google the words crash course.  Dean, you had a good signal tonight.  Thanks for your input and hanging in there thru the bad conditions we’ve been having.  Thanks also to WA1HHN, Walt for sticking with us as well.

Tonight I couldn’t hear very well W4SQL Landy and W4DMH, Dave.  Conditions have been rough.

KI4LWA Howard, mentioned that we could have a round of inflation coming up because the US is monetizing its debt.  Wouldn’t surprise me at all. 

Checkins tonight were:

W4DMH Dave the regular Sun night NCS, but he was having sigs problems, probably propagation.

W4SQL Landy

N8NMJ Mike – Thanks for helping with the relays Mike.  It would have been a short net without your help.

AC0BG Dean - Good to copy you well for a change.  Hope everything gets back to normal after the nasty flooding you guys had out there in Iowa.

KI4LWA Howard

WA1HHN Walt – Thanks for hanging in there.

KJ4PZZ Bill

NW8I Del – 6th man NCS tonight  That’s everyone for your input and help.

73s

Del NW8I

Oh, before I forget, K7DLB Dave, give us a post will you?  What’s happening with the roads out there?

Did you ever wonder what happens to all of those recycled glass bottles that we are supposed to throw into the recycling containers? Well I found out recently.

Two weeks ago in Canada and again this week in Ohio I picked up a load of glass cullet. Nothing more than finely ground recycled glass bottles, about the consistency of sugar and took them to 2 different fiberglass insulation factories. The one plant made the roll fiberglass insulation that is used on Pole Buildings and the other used it for standard household insulation. The glass powder is melted and blown or spun into fine fiberglass strands and fused to the backing be it paper or plastic.  My company moved 4 truckloads out of Canada and 5 loads out of Ohio..Each load averaged 48000 pounds. I wonder how many bottles it takes to make up all of that glass???? I ‘ve always thought that glass bottles were melted down and turned back into bottles…….

Something else that kind of scared me a bit.. At one of the glass recycling plants I was loading after dark. There were HUNDREDS of rats running around. They were tunneling through the huge piles of ground glass and obviously raising their young in these piles. My trucking buddy Foster was watching all of this with great interest. You have to consider just how tough these vermin are to live in piles of glass like that……Food for thought……Maybe a topic for a net….No wonder they are so hard to get rid of and so destructive to food storage and such!!!!

I have been really busy on the road the last couple of weeks and I apologize for not checking in more often. There are lotsa crazy things happening right now and it is tough to jockey it all around!!! I have a new special person in my life and things are taking a BIG turn for the better!!!! So, please bear with me for a bit and as soon as I get a new camera, I’ll be able to share more from the road!!!! 73 for now

K7DLB out

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