The Ship Has Sailed.

      1 Comment on The Ship Has Sailed.

Where have you been? Preparedness and survival 

As I write this the outcome of the Presidential election is not known. Depending on who you choose to believe, which candidate is ahead and which is lagging is a wildly open concept. One thing for certain is that there is a sense of nervousness, a feeling that regardless of who wins there will be violence and civil unrest. And as always, most people are woefully underprepared. At best, they are finally shaken from their state of denial and scrambling to get ready for…well they aren’t sure, but it’s bad. Preparedness and survival are not ad hoc pursuits. If you haven’t been planning for at least a few months if not years, then it’s far too late to catch up now.

Recent web traffic to Off Grid Ham is very telling. October racked up about 25% more visitors than usual. There’s more to it than that. As of October 15, Off Grid Ham had been on track to have an average month. After October 15, things really took off. Nearly all of that extra 25% came in the second half of of the month. Traffic monitoring software reveals quite a bit about how and why readers came here. Search terms related to prepping and survival went up in correlation to the extra visitors, and originated almost exclusively from the United States.

I’ve seen similar patterns around hurricanes and other disasters. What this tells me is that when trouble threatens, many people suddenly wake up and decide they need to prepare themselves for a SHTF situation. As well intentioned as these efforts are, they are always too little too late. And although I don’t have data to prove it, I’ll guess that all of these bandwagon-jumpers go back to their old oblivious ways as soon as the threat passes.

survival and preparedness PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO

If you are already in “The Club,” here is your mission.

If you are an established off grid ham or are involved with the prepper/survivalist movement you may have been approached by someone belatedly looking to get into amateur radio for SHTF purposes. I urge you to help & encourage them, but they must be given a reality check. They need to understand that’s it’s not a casual sideline. Radio, in particular, has a steep learning curve once you are over the relatively low barrier to entry. If they think stashing a $30 handheld radio in a cabinet and forgetting about it until some future disaster occurs is “doing something”, they’re completely wasting their time and resources. Your true role may be to keep them focused & moving forward, not teach them new skills. Preparedness and survival 

If you are new to the game, read this.

Whatever concerns you have regarding the Presidential election, you’re not going to alleviate them now, at least not by reading this or any blog. That ship has sailed. Your best and only shot is to get ready for the next crisis, because there will be one. Pay attention, learn, read. Off Grid Ham publishes a new, original article at least once a month, sometimes more. Go back and read all 109 previous articles and subscribe to be notified of new postings. There are thousands of other online resources too. Then go out and practice. Reading blogs and watching YouTubes is only half of learning. The other half is going out and doing. Take your time and don’t allow yourself to be overloaded by that steep learning curve. Preparedness and survival 

Parting thought. Preparedness and survival 

Off Grid Ham is neither a survivalist nor political blog, so I’m not going to dive into the complex intersection of survivalism and politics. There are tons of other blogs that address this; do your own research and draw your own conclusions. For great nonpartisan ideas about off grid communications, please come back here often and continue your journey. Welcome aboard…and I hope you’ll stay on board because the risk of a crisis is never zero.

 

One thought on “The Ship Has Sailed.

  1. Randall Krippner

    I’m always a bit surprised by people’s lack of planning and forethought when a difficult situation is looming. I suppose at my age I shouldn’t be surprised because I’ve seen this happening over and over again during my life, and it seems that some people never really do learn anything. I’m not a survivalist or prepper by any stretch of the imagination, but everyone should be ready to deal with minor disruptions of their normal routine. It doesn’t take much extra effort or money to have enough food and water on hand to hang on for a few days or even weeks, be able to keep your house heated, etc. And solar systems and even generators have gotten inexpensive enough to at least let you keep supplies with at least some electricity.

    Speaking of blog readers, I took a look at the statistics for mine and was a bit surprised to find that most days half or more of the readers of Grouchyfarmer are from India. I have absolutely no idea why.

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