The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 11, Issue 18

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. Saints be praised and sing Hallelujah, the Gear Guide special issue is complete. This is a very different format from the magazines we normally do, so there was a fair amount of learning on the fly as well as trial and error to see what would work best. There are over 120 individual products featured in the guide. In the end, I’m very pleased with how it turned out. I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks of it later this year.

I’m going to spend the next few days wrapping up some little projects and odds and ends before we dive into the next magazine. I need a breather, LOL.

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Last week, my wife and I spent a couple of days exploring waterfalls in northern Wisconsin. It is just absolutely gorgeous up there and we had a fun time. You know the Airbnb is going to be great when it’s located three miles down a dirt road. In fact, many of the roads we traveled up there were unpaved. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it was unexpected.

Here are just a few photos from our adventures.

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Prepper Tip -- Here’s a great reason why you shouldn’t mix and match your bags, meaning using a bag or pack for multiple purposes. For example, using your range bag as your carryon luggage when you go on a trip. Check out this news story.

This guy is facing possibly several years in a foreign prison because they found ammunition in his bag. Yep, it absolutely should have been found before he left the US, but TSA missed it. Tell you what, though. This guy should have found it before it ever left his house.

If you’re going to use a bag to head to the range, then only ever use that bag to go to the range. It’ll just make life easier.

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I recently started contributing content to the Mind4Survival blog, run by my good friend Brian Duff. My first article went live yesterday. It’s on creating a Death File. You can find it here.

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Some perspective to keep in mind. I saw this in a short video recently and it’s worth thinking about.

Let’s say I offered to give you ten million dollars. You’d probably take it, right? Just think of all the great stuff you could do with that money.

But what if the catch was you didn’t get to wake up tomorrow…or ever again? Would that change your answer? For most, it damn sure would, right?

When you get up in the morning, do it with a smile on your face as that new day is worth ten million dollars to you. Make it count.

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Just a reminder that I have a Patreon page, for those who might be interested. There are three tiers.

Tip Jar - $1/month. No content, this is only for someone who wants to support the page but receive nothing in return. Honestly, I don’t know why it exists, but Patreon set it up automatically and I haven’t figured out how to remove it.

Patron - $5/month. You receive three emails from me every week, each containing preparedness advice and information. Most of the content is original and not been published elsewhere.

Advanced Patron - $8/month. You receive an email every single day, including the Patron level essays as well as additional content.

You can take Patron or Advanced Patron levels for a test drive, if you'd like.

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In addition to our waterfall trip, we took our regular weekly hike over the weekend. I’ll be honest that it kind of kicked my butt. Lots of hills throughout the trail.

Survival Tip – Radio Discipline

The use of radios is something many preppers are interested in. For the purposes of today’s installment, we’re focused on two-way radios, like walkie talkie sorts of models. These are popular for a few reasons. They’re relatively inexpensive and many of them require no licensing or special training. The biggest downside is a limited range. Never believe what it says on the package, as these radios are basically line of sight, and if there are several buildings or a ton of trees between them, reception can be sketchy.

For about 15 years, I worked security at our local county fair each summer. All told between the different areas, I’d estimate we had somewhere around 50-75 security personnel working at any given time while the fair was open. A lot of these folks had no security experience outside the fair. And that was perfectly fine for the positions that those people worked. The biggest problem was with their radio use. For some people, having a radio in their possession somehow translates in their mind to mean that they’re required to use it…for everything. There were a few people who seemed to key up about every ten minutes with the most trivial messages.

• “Blue car just rolled in. It had a funny license plate that said they love dogs.”

• “Just had a driver give me a high-five.”

• “Watch your step in the horse barn, lots of manure.”

Bear in mind that these messages were broadcast to every security person on duty, exactly none of whom needed to hear them.

A big part of radio use is knowing what truly needs to be transmitted. Less is more, in most cases. If possible, limit radios to only those who know how to use them properly. Cluttering up the airwaves is annoying, but it can also be dangerous as it might block an urgent call from someone with something actually important to say.

Prepper Survival Guide and Backwoods Survival Guide

For those new to my little corner of the Internet, I am the Editor in Chief for both Prepper Survival Guide and Backwoods Survival Guide magazines. Here are the covers for the current issues that are available in stores right now. 

You can find them just about anywhere magazines are sold, including:

• Walmart

• Sam's Club

• Costco

• Publix

• Walgreens

• Rite Aid

• CVS

• Tractor Supply

• Fleet Farm

• Barnes & Noble

Subscriptions to both titles are available here.

Questions, Comments, Complaints, Concerns?

I am always just an email away - jim@survivalweekly.com.