PowerSwitch

It might be prudent to review basic preps in case of a nuclear attack or large scale nuclear accident.

1) Shelter. A deep and purpose built shelter is best. There are several existing threads on this subject. Most of us will have to accept much more basic arrangements. An existing basement is best, alternatives include an inner room of your home with minimum outside walls.

2) Water is absolutely vital. Allow 2 litres a day for drinking. Supermarket bottled water is the simplest approach. Sparkling is better than still and glass bottles better than plastic. But any bottled water is better than none.
Keep water for two weeks as a minimum, more is better. "WATER MEANS LIFE. DO NOT WASTE IT"

3) Food is required. In an improvised shelter it is most unlikely that refrigeration, cooking, washing up or other facilities will be available. Therefor keep it simple and stock foods that require no preparation whatsoever. Chocolate bars, lifeboat rations, biscuits, and the like are good. Keep food for 2 weeks as minimum. More is better.

4) Lighting is important, but you do not need much. Mains electricity wont be available and daylight cant be admitted to most improvised shelters. Keep it simple. Battery torches and lanterns fitted with LOW CONSUMPTION INCANDESCENT BULBS to extend the battery life. LEDs might not survive an EMP event. A simple 2D torch with a LOW CONSUMPTION BULB will give 100 hours service from two alkaline D cells. Have several torches, and dozens of spare batteries and bulbs.
Chemical glow sticks are useful, keep some dozens.
Candles are a useful very last resort but not ideal.

5) A battery operated radio is vital, preferably several. Batteries for hundreds of hours operation. Keep in a metal container against EMP.

6) Clothing and bedding. Keep plenty. Remember that in an improvised shelter laundering will be impossible. Natural fibers are best. Cotton underpants and t shirts. Wool outer clothing and blankets. Spare shoes. ANY blankets and clothing are better than none.

7) Other supplies. first aid kit, medicines, mechanical clocks or watches. notebook, pencils, calendar. Basic tools in case you have to dig your way out. geiger counter if you have one, and plenty of spare batteries.

defensive weapons, kitchen knives and sporting bats as a minimum, a gun or crossbow if you have such.

Many much more advanced preparations are possible but I suggest that the above be a minimum. Keep it simple.

Is a mini maglite any good?

mr brightside wrote: ↑28 Apr 2022, 07:00 Is a mini maglite any good?

Any torch is better than none, but a mini maglite is far from ideal for shelter use as the main light source.

Run time is only about 4 or 5 hours. The bulbs are non standard, expensive and have a short life. LED versions are available for improved light and run time, but may not survive an EMP.

A 2D torch with a low consumption bulb (2.7 volt, 0.15 amp) will give 100 hours use from two alkaline D cells, and several dozen hours from zinc carbon D cells.
A lantern that uses a 6 volt lantern battery and fitted with low consumption bulb (5 volt 0.09 amp) will give about 100 hours service on one zinc carbon battery.

Many other alternatives exist, but the aim should be 100 hours or more lighting from one set of batteries. The traditional "bunker light" used several large 1.5 volt "flag cells" but these are no longer made.

An improvised area light might consist of a 12 volt 0.1 amp bulb connected to a car battery. That should run for two or three hundred hours. A lower powered bulb would be better.

I've still got an old 'Empire made' leather bound radio, LW/MW tunable, which features the red triangles on the tuning dial. I think these triangles were for emergency information, weren't they? Cold war related possibly? It runs off a single 9v.

Probably for the American market ? Two frequencies, 640 and 1240 in the USA were set aside for emergency broadcasts. All radio receivers sold in the USA during the cold war were required to have these two frequencies marked by red triangles on the tuning dial.
In time of war, all other radio stations were to be shut down to prevent enemy use of the signals as a navigational aid.

In the UK the ordinary radio 4 frequencies were to be used. In wartime all BBC transmitters were synchronised to prevent the enemy homing in on them. The enemy could pick up the transmission but had no way to determine from which transmitter it was.

I've got to ask, Adam, how did you come by this knowledge base?

Which bits ?

Run time of torch batteries with low consumption bulbs ? Calculated from published data on the capacity of the battery and the current consumption of the bulb, and then confirmed by experiment. Only approximate as the current consumption of the bulb may vary by as much as 10% from the nominal figure, and batteries vary a bit. Also the light dims towards the end and it is partly a value judgement by the user as to how dim is acceptable before the batteries are considered dead. Battery performance is also dependent on storage time and temperature, and according to ambient temperature in use. The proper doomer will equip themselves with a home made light that uses multiple nearly dead cells and a very low consumption bulb, to obtain a bit more use from almost dead cells or batteries.

USA civil defence radio frequencies and the legal requirement to mark these on radio receivers sold in the USA during the cold war ? Can not remember where I first heard of this, but the facts are in the public domain and may be confirmed by a search of published USA documents. This requirement ended in the mid 1960s, but many manufacturers and retailers had existing stocks with 640 and 1240 frequencies marked on the dial. So sales continued into the 1970s.

Sheesh ... on one side posters here are warmongering ... and on the other they are prepping for nuclear war ...

I do not consider a nuclear attack to be likely, but do consider that the risks are greater than was the case a year or two ago.
It is in my view prudent to prepare so far as you consider to be reasonable.

adam2 wrote: ↑29 Apr 2022, 07:45 Which bits ?

Run time of torch batteries with low consumption bulbs ? Calculated from published data on the capacity of the battery and the current consumption of the bulb, and then confirmed by experiment. Only approximate as the current consumption of the bulb may vary by as much as 10% from the nominal figure, and batteries vary a bit. Also the light dims towards the end and it is partly a value judgement by the user as to how dim is acceptable before the batteries are considered dead. Battery performance is also dependent on storage time and temperature, and according to ambient temperature in use. The proper doomer will equip themselves with a home made light that uses multiple nearly dead cells and a very low consumption bulb, to obtain a bit more use from almost dead cells or batteries.

USA civil defence radio frequencies and the legal requirement to mark these on radio receivers sold in the USA during the cold war ? Can not remember where I first heard of this, but the facts are in the public domain and may be confirmed by a search of published USA documents. This requirement ended in the mid 1960s, but many manufacturers and retailers had existing stocks with 640 and 1240 frequencies marked on the dial. So sales continued into the 1970s.

Well, all of it really. It seems to me as a general layperson, some on here may say 'sheeple' which is a term i object to, that you have a vast amount of knowledge on a subject i couldn't name or pigeon-hole. The task of giving a name to this area of expertise is one which i've tried fruitlessly to accomplish ever since becoming a member of PS. In addition to this, the probablility of needing to implement this expertise would seem, to me at least, to be suffiently remote as to render it of limited use. That said, as someone with little expertise in your field i am fundamentally unable to accurately risk assess the liklihood that you'll need to swing into action; and should you need to swing into action you'll probably live and i'll probably die.

Just as an aside, i'm not on a wind-up, i find it amazing how much powerswitchers know about very obscure things. You actually remind me of aircooled VW drivers, but you don't send me to sleep.

One good prep for nuclear attack OR FOR OTHER DISASTERS is a gravity water filter.
Such as https://www.andrewswater.co.uk/british-berkefeld/ As suggested elsewhere in these forums by a respected member.

Very simple to use and requires no electricity supply or other energy. The filters require periodic replacement but are long lasting. Keep spares.

Such a filter should remove fallout particles from water, AND ALSO removes micro-organisms that cause disease. Used filters can be cleaned for re-use, but only a limited number of times. Take care as a used filter will be at least somewhat radioactive in a fallout situation.
One filter system is sufficient for a small household. Two might be prudent for a larger household.

A stock of bottled supermarket water is cheaper and simpler for any short term emergency, but a gravity water filter is a long term prep. I have one.

In even a basic improvised shelter, it should be possible to provide some EMP protection for electronics.

Items to store, in rough order of priority are.
Radio receivers.
Two way radio equipment.
Geiger counters, if you have same.
LED torch bulbs/ LED torches.
Electrical test meters, preferably analogue types that do not need batteries except for the ohms ranges.
Silicon power rectifiers and LEDs.

If you possibly can, provide two layers of protection such as metal tins inside a metal filing cabinet.

Batteries are vital, but basic zinc carbon and alkaline types should be invulnerable to EMP, but store in metal boxes just in case. Avoid any lithium batteries or other exotic types that contain electronics. Low power incandescent bulbs are probably invulnerable, but store in basic metal protection just in case.

Lower priority items.
Computers, remember that there is unlikely to be any internet service after the attack.
Cellphones, most unlikely to be any network on which to use them.
Consumer electronics in general.
Electronic calculators, arguable either way. Log tables and slide rules are simpler alternatives, but OTOH electronic calculators are so small and cheap that a couple may as well be added to the higher priority items. Solar powered better than obscure types of battery.

adam2 wrote: ↑12 May 2022, 16:37 Cellphones, most unlikely to be any network on which to use them.

True, but even without a network they can still do a lot of potentially useful stuff. Camera, voice recorder, ebook reader, torch, calculator, music player, children entertainment etc...

However, they are pretty fragile so can't be expected to last long after a nuclear strike.

Consider also, not just the risk of nuclear weapons being used, but also the risk of a large civilian nuclear accident.
The risk in Ukraine is increasing due to the invasion.
I also perceive an increasing risk of a nuclear accident in France. As discussed elsewhere on these fora, many French nuclear reactors are out of service due to stress corrosion and other faults.
If the approaching gas and electricity crisis is as bad as expected then I expect that these reactors will be restarted cracks or not. There are ALREADY calls in France to nationalise EDF in order to ensure electricity supplies for winter. Public ownership does not in itself mend the cracks.

France is a lot nearer than Ukraine.