Saturday, September 8, 2012

Car Maintenance aned Radio Daze

Did some minor maintenance on our four vehicles today.

Checked all tires for correct air pressure.
Checked all engines for coolant, windshield washer, and oil levels.
Replaced everybody's wiper blades and air filter.
Cleaned the windows in all four cars.

Since my right leg is feeling much better, I've been more active.
The shoulder still hurts, and it takes two Naproxens to knock the pain down. I'm going to tell them Monday afternoon at PT that I don't think my "Subscapularius" muscle is healing.

AND....I'm messing around with some radio stuff. Mostly I'm writing up a beginners guide to short wave and SHTF portable radios for wirecutter, and I'm still working on the "Expedient HF Antennas" article that I promised the guys over at Western Rifle Shooters Association about a year or so ago.

After I get the first article done on listening for Kenny, I'll start one on (legal) transmitting. He brought up some good points in our emails about most people don't know very much about practical radio use in regards to what kind of little radio to stuff into their BOB, SHTF bag, or whatever you call yours, and how to use them.

And he's 100% correct. You can get some excellent, small, power stingy, portable radios these days that cover AM, FM, and SW that you could use to at least get an idea of what's going on if/when things collapse, BUT unless you have a little basic training about how to use them, you probably won't get much "value" out of them.

Out here in the People's Democratic Republic of Kaliforniastan, we call them "Earthquake Radios", and we keep them with our "Earthquake Supplies". 25 or so years ago I was making up a list of stuff, and one of my buddies saw it, and asked if he could add something to it.
Right at the top, he added three items:

45ACP
12ga pump
ten boxes of shells for each

Interesting foresight from a good friend who's no longer with us.....

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5 comments:

  1. Well, crap. Hope you start healing better.

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  2. Dang, sorry to hear that, and yeah, more doctor's appts in your future I fear! But DON'T let them push you off...

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  3. You did a good job today despite your leg issue? What happened to it? Keep us posted with your health.

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  4. It stinks when everything doesn't work right. Hope you are doing better soon.

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  5. Looking forward to Nollij on ray-dee-oh.
    Thank you.
    Earthquake radio...I'm in Ohio so here I'd likely just call it a "tornado radio" for the curious. I have a cheapie hand crank model that was a gift for Christmas...well, back when I could count the gray hairs one at a time that showed.

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Keep it civil, please....

Gloomy, Gritty, Grey Day

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