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I use zombies as a mythical event, but it could be anything from terrorist attack, pandemic, war, or natural disaster. The techniques that I will present will all be tested by me, and explained in an easy to understand format. I will use the term zombies or zombie attack as a generic term to refer to any disaster that has the potential to take out local infrastructure and force the populace that remains to rely on themselves and not grocery stores, water and power companies,and specifically not on the government to hand out the things they need.

Much of what will be in the zombie section of this blog will be suitable for science experiments. Science is more fun when you add zombies! This will include physics, chemistry, alternative energy, biology and possibly other disciplines!

I think I did not make some aspects of skywave clear enough so this article should clarify some things.  It is going to get a little more technical than I had hoped, but I fear that is unavoidable in order to make some things clearer.  I do not think this article is overly complex and should be understandable by most everyone.

There is a layer of the atmosphere that contains charged particles.  This layer is called the ionosphere.  The sun charges the particles in the ionosphere, when it is daylight they become charged, when the sun sets they start to lose their charge and continue to lose their charge until sunrise the next day. (continue reading…)

You have a radio transmitter and want to find someone to talk to.  There are two ways that you can accomplish this.  You can just tune around and listen for someone else to talk or you can just start talking hoping that someone hears and responds to you.  If everyone is just listening for someone else the band may seem dead even though many are monitoring so learning how to call is important.

There are a few different ways you can accomplish this, one would just be pressing the PTT button and asking “is there anyone out there?”, additional Pink Floyd lyrics optional.  This may work for unlicensed bands, but licensed bands generally have a bit more protocol to them.  I will discuss the way that works well for ham bands in the HF region.  This can be used on non-ham bands as well, although a slightly modified version may be more suitable there. (continue reading…)

If you did not start at the beginning you should read part 1 first.

Propagation

There are two different ways that radio signals go from the transmitter to the receiver. Skywave and groundwave. The names are like they sound, the radio wave travels either across the ground or the sky. Groundwave communications are shorter range, and usually direct from one radio to another. Skywave will go up to the ionosphere and bounce back down to the Earth. Skywave generally does not have the issues with polarization that were mentioned above. (continue reading…)

If you did not start at the beginning you should read part 1 first.

Antennas

Antennas are a critical component in a radio device. They will gather the very weak electromagnetic wave that is in the air and convert that into sound for you to hear. They will also emanate the radio signal so that other radios can receive it. Not all antennas are the same, there are several properties that make an antenna suitable for a particular radio. (continue reading…)

If you did not start at the beginning you should read part 1 first.

Popular Bands

In order to make things easier for everyone groups of frequencies that have a common use are grouped into bands. If you are looking for a specific type of radio signal basic knowledge of the bands is essential. Before I talk about the bands I want to talk about the two different types of transmitting. There is broadcasting, or a one-way transmission usually for the purposes of educating or entertaining and there is communicating. Communication requires a two-way flow of information, which implicitly requires both parties to have both a transmitter and a receiver (often built into the same radio device). Some bands are only broadcasting while others are only for communicating. (continue reading…)

If you did not start at the beginning you should read part 1 first.

Spectrum

Radio frequencies span a wide range of frequencies. Radio is below light, X-rays, gamma rays and other emanations. Radio comprises the frequencies 3Hz to 300GHz. A Hz or Hertz is a measure of how many cycles per second an oscillation occurs. 1GHz oscillates 1 billion times per second while 10Hz oscillates 10 times per second. For reference visible light is 300THz or 300 trillion times per second. (continue reading…)

Crash course in radio or how to communicate when the zombies attack

This is a multipart series attempting to give some basic information on radio communications.

Scope

This guide will not be overly complex. It will leave out many details and over simplify some other details for the purposes of making the information available to a wider range of people. A lot of the “why” is left out focusing instead on the “how”. There are a lot of books that cover the “why”, if you are interested in that you should locate some texts (some are free on the internet) and study those.

Who is this guide for:

• You want to learn the basics of radio operation but do not want to learn all the particulars that could be handy for designing your own system.
• You are just starting out and want to get the basics down
• You think it may be good to know about radios in case communications are knocked out
• You are looking to purchase an emergency radio (continue reading…)

There is a great blog and the author has written many articles in a series called “Tactical Preschool“.  As he describes it, this is very basic information suitable for a refresher course, and remember it is preschool not anything too advanced.  As I say it, it makes a good “boot camp” manual if the zombies ever do invade.  As this post may get some readers who are unfamiliar with how I use the term zombies and zombie invasion I will quote my definition – this is the only thing so far that I have not tested all of the information personally.

I use zombies as a mythical event, but it could be anything from terrorist attack, pandemic, war, or natural disaster. The techniques that I will present will all be tested by me, and explained in an easy to understand format. I will use the term zombies or zombie attack as a generic term to refer to any disaster that has the potential to take out local infrastructure and force the populace that remains to rely on themselves and not grocery stores, water and power companies,and specifically not on the government to hand out the things they need. (continue reading…)

I am currently making a batch of Field Expedient Meals (FEM).  These are often called DIY MREs (Meals Ready to Eat).  Because these meals are not strictly ready to eat, I am calling them FEMs or Field Expedient Meals.

I think it important that we be on the same page with what I am talking about.   A MRE is a military term for a “Meal, Ready to Eat”.  These started in 1981 and since have become popular even in civilian circles.  They require little preparation, at most heating, and are water-proof and bug-proof sealed food rations that usually have a 3-5 year shelf life.  These are battlefield rations, but also work well for camping and for bug out bags or in emergencies. (continue reading…)

I want to try my hand at a short story.  This story could be the type that would be made into a movie of the week.  This story, much like many movies of the week, has not been fact checked for plausibility.  It has not been vetted by any scientific minds.  The point of this story is to entertain and to cause people to think about the reactions they may be forced to take if similar events occurred.   Do not focus on whether this is possible or even probable, that is not the point.

This story described a “zombie level event”, which is the term I use to describe a major event.  When you plan for a zombie invasion you are planning for most possible disasters, whether natural or man-made.  This is just one such scenario.

(continue reading…)