How You Can Use Drones In A TEOTWAWKI Scenario

Drones have been widely available on the market lately and they come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors. Many people look at drones and see an over-the-top expensive toy. I, on the other hand, as a prepper, see opportunity. And with good reason. Drones are remote-controlled gadgets, with enough battery autonomy that have cameras attached. No special skills are required to handle your very own drone and you can even pair with your smartphone. You can use drones in a TEOTWAWKI scenario to gather intelligence in your surroundings without being physically present in a possibly hostile territory. Reconnaissance missions will no longer require special preparations, other than that of flying a drone that has a camera attached. The cameras can take high quality pictures and even videos with sound. If you’re smart phone allows it, it can even emit in real time. Many drones have a built-in GPS software that helps them return safely to their launch point, in case radio contact is lost. However, in a survival scenario, the GPS service might not be available, so keep that in mind before taking off.

What You Need To Know About Drones

First and foremost they are battery operated. So if you plan on using the drones even when everything falls to bits, you’ll need to ensure you have a recharging station, based on fuel, or even better, solar panels. They are computer and smartphone friendly, which means they have USB ports that allows you to connect your drone to your computer, for easy access and settings; you can even follow the flight path in real time from your smartphone and even adjust camera angles. The flight speed varies from model to model. The average drone flies at about 25 mph, but the more expensive model can reach staggering speeds of even 80 mph. Autonomy and control distance is also variables from one model to the next, but an average fully charged battery gets depleted in about 10 – 30 minutes. There are also gas-powered drones available on the market, their autonomy is superior to the battery operated ones, but they’re also more expensive. A drone can serve many purposes in SHTF situation: scouting and surveillance flights, scouting for wild game and even delivering messages from A to B. On the downside, drones are very visible and can attract unwanted attention. They can be taken down easily or even worse, followed to give away your location. So you’ll need a bit of practice before using it in a critical situation and A LOT of caution.

Some Of The Best Drones That You Can Buy

The Dromida Ominus FPV is one of the cheapest drones on the market, which is perfect for flight practice. The camera quality is rather good and it has great connectivity to your mobile device. It’s easy to use, has decent autonomy and it can be very fun to fly. For those of you that are looking for a device to get you started in the drone area, look no further. The Dromida Ominus FPV is a resilient little gadget, comes in many colors you can choose from (blue, green red, yellow), is both iOS and Andriod compatible (so you won’t have to change your phone) and costs only $150. If you’re interested in purchasing it, go here.

The Parrot Bebop drone is possibly the most renowned of the Parrot company and it is a semi-pro drone, meaning it’s considered to sit in between toys and professional drones. The drone itself is very lite and incredibly maneuverable, making it easy to fly even in closed spaces or indoors. It supports smartphone and tablet connectivity and it comes with two batteries. The battery, if fully charged, should last about 10 – 15 minutes of continuous flight. The onboard camera is decent; it has a resolution of 1080p. The base model comes at about $450, but if you’re willing to spend more you can get the model with the range extension, that will allow it to fly further. For more details, go here.

The Yuneec Q500 4K is drone whose popularity is growing steadily amongst the drone enthusiasts thanks to its camera quality. The built-in camera has a 4K resolution (4000p), meaning the image quality it offers for both pictures and video is unbeatable. It comes with two batteries and the camera is removable. There’s also a version that comes with a 1080p camera, but the $k version is of course far superior. The controller has an android built into it, so you don’t necessarily have to use your phone or tablet for maneuvering the drone. The model doesn’t have many gadgets and accessories available yet, but it won’t be long before Yuneec releases a bunch, considering how fast this little drone is gaining in popularity.

Getting your very own drone is nowhere near a bad idea. Flying one can be really fun and addictive, so if you’re lacking a serious hobby, drone flying could just fill that void. Enjoy it and practice, you’ll never know when your drone piloting skills will save your neck in a SHTF scenario.

By My Family Survival Plan

Survival Navigation Tools: A Compass Will Save Your Life

Survival Navigation Tools: A Compass Will Save Your Life – Graphic © myfamilysurvivalplan.com. Background photo: Pexels (PD)

Let’s imagine for a moment – that you’re out hiking or exploring. Or even a worst case scenario: you’ve been stranded due to an unfortunate accident or event into an unknown place, far from civilization. Even if you’re a bit familiar with the wilderness or have a clue where you are, it’s still bad; not knowing is even worse. The first reasonable thing to do is to try and locate where you are and start moving towards a safe zone. Many of you will consider the modern approach to navigation, based on a GPS system. But what if your electronic device (phone, tablet, GPS device) gets damaged or it simply runs out of battery?

You should be fine as long as you remembered to pack a survival navigation tools, a map, and a compass as a backup. Every serious prepper should have a compass in his private survival kit. There’s a great variety of compasses on the market, to suit the needs of even the keenest explorers. The beginners or light travelers could always get a basic compass, one that’s cheap, works great but it doesn’t have some bonus features, such as a mirror or a declination adjustment etc. For the more serious hikers and preppers, there are more advanced compasses, with many additional features (magnifier, mirror etc.) that make navigation easier and are perfect for those who wonder regularly into unknown territory. It all comes down to choosing the one that works best for you. Let’s have a look at what’s available on the market.

How A Compass Works

A compass has a tiny plastic bubble filled with liquid, a damping fluid, which is mostly oil based and treated with antifreeze so the compass can work even in low-temperature environments. Its role is not only to protect the pointer needle from outside interference but also to prevent the needle from excessive jiggling and trembling caused by the magnetic forces of the earth. If you find yourself in a cold environment or at high altitudes, the liquid will contract to create a bubble inside the plastic casing, but this won’t affect accuracy. When you return to normal conditions, the air bubble will disappear.

The magnetized needle encased in the plastic liquid-filled transparent bubble is the one that’s responsible for telling directions. It has 2 pointy sides, one of which is strongly attuned to the earth’s strongest magnetic field, generated by the magnetic North Pole. So at any point, this needle (which is normally red) will point north. However, the magnetic north is different from the geographic north. The magnetic north is situated in a chain of islands in the Canadian Arctic. So you must compensate and calculate the differences when traveling by map and compass.

There are also electronic compasses available on the market, which are easier to read thanks to their displays. But they’re less reliable than traditional ones for the same reasons every other battery operated GPS device is: they’re fragile and are dependent on an external energy source that will run out soon or later.

Compasses To Consider

The Suunto A-10 field compass is a very simple and efficient compass that works great. It’s lightweight, made from a scratch-resistant and shock-absorbing transparent material and it has an ergonomic design which makes it easy to hold and handle or to fit in a small pocket; it also comes equipped with a detachable snap lock. It supports a two-zone reading (covering the entire north hemisphere) for an extra accurate reading, which can be done in both inches and centimeters. The needled is not flooded in liquid, but this doesn’t seem to affect the overall performance of this compass in any way.

The Cammenga Phosphorescent Clam Pack Lensatic Compass is a very established name in the field. It’s a very sturdy field compass that is completely waterproof and it’s has a very tough aluminum frame. You can carry it tied to your wrist, clipped securely to your belt or just have it sit in its own carrying pouch. It weighs about 8 ounces and the dial includes both degrees and miles. It has phosphorescent paint to make for easy readings at night and for those who don’t mind spending twice the money, there is also a tritium version available. This tiny navigation gadget has been approved by the DoD, so that tells us a lot about its quality and efficiency.

The Suunto KB-14 360R Pro Compass it’s absolutely state of the art as far as accuracy goes. It’s a professional compass, which means great investments have been made and excellent materials went into the making of this particular model. It’s extremely accurate, down to a third of a degree or 0.5 degrees when it comes to graduated intervals. The shell is made of a durable anodized light alloy, it has superior damping fluid (which stay consistent even in extreme conditions) and a nylon pouch for protection. This model is highly used by professional cartographers, surveyors, and foresters. It’d be the perfect compass if it had the declination correction feature; luckily this feature is available on the improved (and more expensive) KB-14D model.

There are still plenty of models out there for you to check out and chose from. But make no mistake about it: we’re far from that technical breakthrough when electronics can replace classical gadgets in a survival scenario. I’m not saying that the GPS systems are completely useless, far from it. But when the computer systems fail, you’ll need to revert to a simpler way if you want to survive.

Artificial Intelligence Take-over: Truth Or Myth?

Though the idea of an Artificial Intelligence world domination may have a cartoonish status in our survivalist community, unfortunately, the concept is closer to the truth than you might think. I don’t need to point out the obvious: the signs are all around us, from the self-driving car developed by Google to 3d-printed bionic limbs and organs, and if Nobel-prize winner theoretician and physicist Stephen Hawking himself fears an impending machine attack, then the red button has been pressed as far as I am concerned.

If Stephen Hawking, the multi-awarded scientist considered the smartest physicist on the planet thinks seriously about this, so do I, and so should you. Unlike the case of a war or a hurricane, the problem with a war of the machines is that it can happen overnight in just one instant, thwarting any chance of preparing whatsoever.

What Exactly Is An AI-attack?

The Terminator, the Lawnmower Man, and many other flicks, books, and cultural elements have long since proposed the idea of a world taken over by AI. If you look at sci-fi movies you can notice that ever since the 60s, the ideas imagined back then have more or less came true. This means that the human mind can anticipate how to the world will evolve 50 to 100 years time in the future.

In a recent interview, Stephen Hawking talked about the new technology used to power his device that helps him communicate. The technology uses his previously used words in order to predict what he will say next, not unlike the similar technology on smartphones. It’s this very technology that Mr. Hawking is concerned about, as it may very well surpass human intelligence.

“Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it would take off on its own and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate,” he told the BBC.

“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

The idea is not new, as the British scientist and grandfather of modern computers Alan Turing was wondering in the 1950s: “Can machines think”, however, the concern is.

Much like in the sci-fi movies, the artificial intelligence becomes so intelligent that it ultimately develops a conscience of its own. The concerns are all the more real as we ask ourselves: what exactly determines conscience? And the scientific answers are so downright simple, it is truly alarming: a sum of electrical impulses in our brains.

This idea of tech singularity (one super intelligent machine over-mind) was theorized by none other than Ray Solomonoff in 1967:

“Although there is no prospect of very intelligent machines in the near future, the dangers posed are very serious and the problems very difficult. It would be well if a large number of intelligent humans devote a lot of thought to these problems before they arise.

It is my feeling that the realization of artificial intelligence will be a sudden occurrence. At a certain point in the development of the research we will have had no practical experience with machine intelligence of any serious level: a month or so later, we will have a very intelligent machine and all the problems and dangers associated with our inexperience.”

But probably the most alarming factor of concern in this direction is that IT evolution is growing at an ever-accelerating pace. From the internet to phones and computers, the new generation machines already take several months to be developed. If everything grows at an exponential rate, it isn’t difficult to imagine where will it all go in a decade: a world ruled by computers; and are there so many paces left to the state where machines develop conscience?

Machines Already Took Over

The way for a possible conquest of the machines has already been paved, as society is welcoming them more and more into our lives. More and more functions are being done by machines instead of humans, from simple ticket vending machines to transport systems, air traffic control, and nuclear warfare. It’s a known fact that the stock market downfall in 1987 was caused by computer transactions. Imagine what would happen to the world economy if the internet would simply cease to exist tomorrow. All the financial crisis in history combined wouldn’t match the real consequences of such a financial disaster. The brutal truth is that we already live in a world controlled by machines one way or another, except they are not sentient. Think about what would happen if they become so!

Spell checker software exists on every computer in every home, and it is a very basic program, yet it is able to speak our language better than us. Language invented by humans, perfected by your computer.

However, this nightmare scenario, though it can occur anytime without warning, is not necessary for a small scale machine apocalypse to happen. Imagine a world completely sustained by non-sentient machines. What happens should a major bug occur? Transport systems blocked, security door blocked – people trapped inside buildings, elevators, trains, and most importantly, credit system collapse. Without money we cannot pay for food and paper money becomes more and more obsolete. In such a scenario, chaos ensues, and we must be prepared. But how?

What Are The Solutions?

Until the few scientists concerned with this issue get the governments mobilized (if they do, that is), you need to be prepared. Rely on machines as little as possible.

If machines develop conscience overnight, a zombie apocalypse scenario would seem like a child’s play. Machines are metal and circuit giants which cannot be stopped by bullets, no matter how well prepared you are. The best solution is to make your own EMP generating device.

What Is EMP?

EMP stands for electromagnetic pulse, and it’s basically a burst shot of electromagnetic energy. This energy has the ability to partially or completely damage or temporarily disrupt the functions of electronic equipment of any type. Given the right proportions, an electromagnetic pulse can disrupt any device with electric circuits, from a cell phone to an atomic bomb.

How To Make Your Own EMP Generator

If you are familiar with EMP guns, you are probably thinking of big generators and atomic bombs. But the principle applies at any scale. You don’t need to build a complex circuit to be able to have an EMP gun for close quarters use. Actually, the circuit is already built and you can find it for less than $5 at any store: a disposable camera.

You will also need:

• an insulated copper wire (the thicker, the more powerful the pulse)
• a metal rod (preferably iron for better efficiency)

Instructions:

Wrap the wire TIGHTLY around the rod. The wire should be sticking out on both ends after you are done.

Take the battery out of the camera

Take out the taser from the camera and solder the capacitor to the ends of the wire. Make sure it is shorted.

To test the device, do so with a pocket calculator. Take it somewhere far from any other electronic device, preferably outside in the backyard. Leave any electronic object out of your pockets; remove your wristwatch if you have one. The EMP gun you just built should have a several feet range. Put the battery in and push the switch while holding it close to the calculator. It should render it unusable right away.

Always Keep Prepared!

Keep your appliances sharp, but your wits sharper! Just because society evolves in a direction that tends to remove the humanity in its individuals bit by bit, doesn’t mean that individuals will turn into machines, or worse, be ruled by them. Stay prepared!