What preps are you doing this week? part 2.

[FEISTY]

Also want to know where the public 'phone boxes are - anyone know if there's an on-line resource for that?

OS maps, gotta love 'em
BOLO

Thanks! I just received my order of an OS Explorer Map for my entire area (one of many to come), so I had a look. In an expansive area of the West of Scotland, covering numerous towns and villages, I can, so far, only find THREE public telephone boxes. I'm stunned!

[FEISTY]

Also want to know where the public 'phone boxes are - anyone know if there's an on-line resource for that?

I've been doing some research on that myself - there's no national information out there at all There's the odd enthusiast collecting numbers, or private companies that will charge you a couple of hundred pounds to list the payphones in one town but in general its really bad. All I've done is collect phone numbers local to the people I want to contact, when I go see them. I've been writing about it in my new blog too (in my sig).

ForgeCorvus suggested OS maps and they're right! I had just bought one and I've checked it, but sad to discover the public 'phone boxes are few and far between. If we need to use them (our home 'phones, even the corded ones have been shut down by the Government in an emergency and the mobiles are kaput), we will only be able to speak to emergency services of one form or another. If it's just a power cut, we still have mobiles and I have my new corded 'phone for back-up, but that's only any good if the person you're calling has one too! I think, in terms of keeping in touch with immediate family, radio is the way to go. In terms of immediate preps, a few trips to the marked public 'phone boxes to check they are still there and working is on the list.

[bikerjoe83]

Yesterday I bought some ski trousers that are new in Aldi for myself and the wife. Also got some snow/ice things that slip on over shoes.

Today we got some lip balm, a tin of German meatballs, some more sterilised milk, a pack of 4x led push lights and some air-activated hand warmer sachet thingies.

[Wulfshead]

Today I ordered a 5/10 watt dual band amateur radio transceiver for when I take and pass my foundation licence (leixen VV-898).
That's one to use as a base station and two 5 watt handies.
Jotnar was round the other day and we spoke about radios, their prepper/survivalist role and how best to use them for a dedicated purpose.

I also ordered the antenna conversion connectors so my handies can be plugged into the 1/4 wave ground plane antenna I made so they will get out there further.
Got myself a 2 meter-70 cm SWR meter coming this week so my comms set-up should be good to go.

I know the radio I ordered is not up there with the top brands by a long shot but it gets average and above ratings. What drew me to it is that it is small, so small that it will fit into a gas mask bag and run off a 13.8V leisure battery if needed.

The reason I put this here and not in the radio comms section is because the thing is a prep and the pack carry line of thought involves many prepping considerations.

Wulfshead

[jansman]

Today is my last day free until Christmas Day now. So I am splitting logs to last 'til January(solid fuel being our primary heat-source).I shall also lay in another jerry can of petrol. The freezers are full, so I do not want a powercut to rain on the parade! I have sufficient juice for the generator, but better to have belt and braces. Fortunately my Wife's car is petrol, so I can rotate the fuel easily.
I also have 5 gallons of Best Bitter to bottle and condition. This batch will JUST make it for Christmas! speaking of bottles,I have a lot of 2 litre pop bottles (I use'em for my beer) so I think I will fillthose with fresh water,as you never know what can happen if we get bad weather.

[Arzosah]

Arzosah,
Cutting up food wise was done on a small plastic chopping board, which is perfect BOB size, just inside the doorway in that pebble-dashed utility room but could have been easily done on any surface to hand.
The wood was chopped up right there just out of shot.

All-in-all it was a bit of fun with a serious side to it.

Loved the clear night sky with the shooting stars being aplenty, my son and I also having a laugh using the stars to identify the Pole Star for navigation at night.
All great practice and fun.

Thanks for this, Wulfshead; it sounds like you and your son had a great time! And you *did* think about all the other little bits, not just the cooking, I'm dead impressed

[Arzosah]

Feisty, thanks for posting again on the phones thing. I have a minimum of 3 working public phones within 15 minutes walk of my house that I know of, so I suppose it must vary from area to area ... I hadn't taken on the full implications of even smaller towns than this, and the countryside too ...

I did make sure my mum also has a corded phone - must check on my brother and sister ...

But as for radio ... the nearest family member is 15 miles away, with lots of hills in between, which would be possible with some effort, but the others are 300 miles away, so I'd have to go into it all in a big way, and make sure that *they* went into it in a big way. Hmmm. The guy over the road from me is a ham, his aerial is 50' high, and with a few other families I can see a chance of working together in deep emergencies.

[Stasher]

I'm ready to get shot down in flames here

Today

For the very first time

I bought face masks

Having read (I think) here that FFP3 is the way to go, I bought some disposable

http://www.screwfix.com/p/jsp-disposabl ... k-p3/48959

Please tell me I bought the right ones. I bought disposable because of hygiene considerations

They're going to live in the box with the vinyl gloves.............

[ForgeCorvus]

Stasher: I hope this helps

European standard EN 149 defines the following classes of “filtering half masks” (also called “filtering face pieces”), that is respirators that are entirely or substantially constructed of filtering material:
Class Filter penetration limit (at 95 L/min air flow) Inward leakage
FFP1 Filters at least 80% of airborne particles <22%
FFP2 Filters at least 94% of airborne particles <8%
FFP3 Filters at least 99% of airborne particles <2%

Both European standards test filter penetration with both dry sodium chloride and paraffin oil aerosols, after storing the filters at 70 °C and −30 °C for 24 h each. The standards also include tests on mechanical strength, breathing resistance and clogging. EN 149 also tests the inward leakage between the mask and face (ten human subjects perform five exercises each and for eight of these individuals the average measured inward leakage listed above must not be exceeded).

[Stasher]

Stasher: I hope this helps

European standard EN 149 defines the following classes of “filtering half masks” (also called “filtering face pieces”), that is respirators that are entirely or substantially constructed of filtering material:
Class Filter penetration limit (at 95 L/min air flow) Inward leakage
FFP1 Filters at least 80% of airborne particles <22%
FFP2 Filters at least 94% of airborne particles <8%
FFP3 Filters at least 99% of airborne particles <2%

Both European standards test filter penetration with both dry sodium chloride and paraffin oil aerosols, after storing the filters at 70 °C and −30 °C for 24 h each. The standards also include tests on mechanical strength, breathing resistance and clogging. EN 149 also tests the inward leakage between the mask and face (ten human subjects perform five exercises each and for eight of these individuals the average measured inward leakage listed above must not be exceeded).

Excellent, thanks. For the time being I'm also going to put the tinfoil hat back in the same box