Must-Have Emergency Medical Information

Many of us have taken one or more first aid classes either through our workplace, military service, being in a state CERT program, or as a nurse's aide. As a CERT team volunteer, and a part-time nurse's aide, I have been through a couple formal first aid training programs. All of these traditional first aid programs have one fatal flaw: They assume paramedics or other trained medical help is soon forthcoming - and thus focus merely on keeping someone alive and "together" for at most a few hours until that help arrives. But what if that help isn't coming anytime soon, of at all? What then?

This situation is addressed by a Registered Nurse, who goes by an online identity of "The Patriot Nurse". The Patriot Nurse has a youtube channel as well as a regular website http://www.thepatriotnurse.com. This lady has travelled all over the world and has worked in very primitive conditions where hospitals and other modern, high-tech medical support like we are used to in America simply don't exist. THAT is the kind of experience you need from your instructor to prepare for a scenario such as described in "One Second After" or any other widespread disaster where medical help may be a long time coming, if at all. (Please see my book review at http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2013/12/book-review-one-second-after.html)

The Patriot Nurse offers 1 and 2 day educational seminars which attempt to address this type of situation. The class schedule is available on her website; just follow the link above. Meanwhile, be sure to watch some of her OLDER videos in youtube that show common sense preparations ANYONE can make - even on a limited budget. Unfortunately, her newer videos tend to wax on way too much about politics and do not provide the hard core information the older ones do. While that makes for interesting discussion material with family, friends or neighbors, it's TOTALLY irrelevent to the task at hand, which is to become more prepared for any sort of civil crisis scenario.

That said, she has much of value to offer any concerned citizen.

DISCLAIMER:

I am NOT in any way affiliated with "The Patriot Nurse", financially or otherwise. I do NOT get any sort of compensation, "spiff" or kickbacks from advertizing her website or products. I'm doing this to make people aware of the shortcomings of traditional first aid and even many so-called "wilderness medicine" classes and to point out an alternative that I have become aware of. As a CERT team volunteer and a nurse's aide, I am painfully aware of this particular gap in my training, and as soon as I have the money and time I plan on availaing myself of this potentially life-saving knowledge.

Book Review: One Second After

There has been considerable talk in the media lately about the fragile and vulnerable nature of the US Power Grid. Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, recently commented in her 'farewell' speech that "a large scale cyber attack is inevitable" and "it's a matter of when, not if." She went on to say that "an unprecedented natural disaster is also likely on the way." This past November 13-14, a massive test called "GridEX" was conducted involving several government agencies and various private entities. "GridEx" was a series of simulations designed to test America's readiness in the event of a cyber attack or physical threat to its electrical infrastructure.

Recently, National Geographic ran a TV movie called "American Blackout 2013". As of a couple weeks ago it was available to watch on youtube. "American Blackout 2013" was a fictional account of what happened to several people in various scenarios during a widespread failure of the US electrical grid. While the movie had several technical holes common to Hollywood productions, I thought it captured pretty well some of the interpersonal dynamics among the people involved.

The book "One Second After", by William R. Forstchen, takes the concept of a widespread electrical grid failure due to terrorism to the next level. In the National Geographic movie, where the computers that control the grid were hacked, everything running on batteries still worked. Cars still ran as long as they had gas, cell phones would still turn on, etc. In the book "One Second After", things were orders of magnitude worse. ALL solid state electronic devices were affected by a massive EMP (electromagnetic pulse) caused by a terrorist's nuclear bomb. Cars stopped running; cell phones quit; no radios, TV, or even land line phones were working. Planes fell out of the sky and crashed because of EMP induced control and instrument failures.

Those who have ever read the 1950's novel "Alas Babylon", which dealt with a fictional nuclear exchange between the US and Russia, will immediatly recognize elements of that writing style in "One Second After". Like "Alas Babylon", this book serves as a warning to the wise about an all-too-possible future. Indeed, the book contains a forward section by Newt Gingrich, and "was cited in Congress as a book all Americans should read" according to the blurb on the rear cover. Regardless of one's political persuasion and general opinion of the man, and his rather faulty description of what an EMP actually is, Mr. Gingrich makes some valid points in his Forward.

The story deals with a retired military man and recent widower living in North Carolina in a small town. John Matherson already had plenty to deal with raising his children alone and teaching at the local university. Then one afternoon the EMP hit. For some time people didn't realize the extent of what had actually happened. Cars simply stalled on the highway through town; the electricity quit and all telephones went dead - so there was no communication from "the outside". Gradually it dawned on people that something very serious was afoot. During the ensuing weeks, people ran out of food and medicine. Within days, people in hospitals and nursing homes died due to life support systems failing as generators - if still working - ran out of fuel. Criminals went out and stole food; junkies wanting a 'fix' stole medicines from the local nursing home. Without giving away the whole plot here, one can guess the story covered all the things that would likely happen to individuals, towns, and the country overall, during and after such a catastrophic event.


My 'Take-Away': Given the nature of my local community (it DOESN'T function AS a community with neighbors who are 'awake' and connected with each other), as well as my recent several months' work experience as a licensed nurse's aide in a long term care facility, both the movie and especially this book have certainly given me considerable pause for thought. Fully half the people I care for would NOT survive a week without electrical power, refrigeration, and medicines - all things supplied in one way or another via our nation's electrical grid. EVERY nurse, aide, EMT, paramedic, doctor, etc. would have the terrible moral decision to make between caring for family v.s. slogging it out as best as one can at the hospital, nursing home, etc. to care for patients and/or residents where they work. Everybody would have to make that universal decision as to how much they will do to help unprepared neighbors who come begging for a can of food, medicine, etc., as well as what they will do to defend their property against theft.

Truly, one owes to one's self to read "One Second After", think about one's own situation, consider what they would do in a grid-down disaster scenario, and HOPEFULLY make at least some rudimentary preparations.

Casting Aluminum

During my work on my Master's degree, I was extremely fortunate to have access to a complete machine shop and foundry through the school. The students there can take a "Materials and Processes" course that teaches the rudiments of welding , lathe and vertical mill, metal forging and casting. I actually obtained special permission to take this undergraduate level course as an elective during my last semester of graduate work. As soon as I complete this post, I will be uploading a video I took of an actual pour to my YouTube site.

Below is a photo of the C-clamp I machined into a finished project from a casting I also made.

Here is the direct linkto the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4t1URw4iiA


And here is the link to my main YouTube site:
www.youtube.com/user/KarlsLabReport

My New YouTube Video Site

Along with this blog, I now have a companion video site called "Karl's Lab Report" on YouTube. You can find it here:
www.youtube.com/user/KarlsLabReport

I plan to post various technical, how-to, and other videos to the site that I feel will be of interest to my viewership.

Please stay tuned for more details.

Shortwave Radio Converter

I built this about 27 years ago to receive international shortwave broadcasts through a car AM radio. This circuit tunes the 9.5 to 10 MHz and 12 - 12.5 MHz shortwave bands. Back in the day I would listen to the BBC World Service, Radio Canada, Radio Moscow, Deutsche Welle, Radio Australia, and many others. Radio France gave excellent reports on the radiation cloud that rolled across Europe from the Chernobyl mishap in 1986. Several times daily, they would read off a list of all the major cities in Europe, along with the radiation levels in each one. I was "glued" to my radio following the progress of this. The information was of good enough detail and quality one could actually plot it on a map, graphically monitoring the progress of the situation.

The VFO and mixer circuits were taken from the 1979 issue of the ARRL Radio Amateur's Handbook. I built them from the publshed schematics, then tweaked some of the component values for better performance. The VFO coils are wound on glass 3AG fuses that had their elements removed. I heated the end caps with a soldering iron, removed them, took out the fusable element, and glued the caps back on. Then I wound the coils using #28 magnet wire, using the metal caps to solder the wires onto. I used Bohning "Fletchtite" archery glue to secure the windings so they wouldn't move. The variable capacitors were very old, surplus units bought I-can't-remember-where. Looking at the left-hand-side of the photo: The control on the left-hand front of the box is the band selector switch. Next to that is a variable capacitor used to tune in stations. On the rear of the box (in the right-hand-side of the photo) there is a solitary variable capacitor used to tune the antenna for whichever band one is listening to. The whole unit is built in modular form - the VFO has its own board and the mixer is on a separate board. This allowed me to develop and refine the system one module at a time. The VFO is built using "ugly" or "dead-bug" type construction. Its circuit board was made by scoring a copper-clad circuit board with a knife into a grid pattern. The mixer board was actually laid out, then etched using ferric chloride solution.

After many years of sitting unused in an RV, being subjected to all kinds of temperature extremes and even a roof leak, this little device still works. Not only does it still work, the tuning has held calibraton!!! It is within 5 or so KHz of where it was when built. This attests to the quality of the components I used to build it, as electronic components generally drift in value with age.

If I can ever find the original schematic I drew, I'll post it in a future blog entry.

Within the past several years, I have heard China Radio International, Radio Australia, various Spanish-speaking stations, etc. on this unit. Regrettably, the BBC has gotten away from broadcasting quality news programming on shortwave, instead focusing on satelite broadcasts aimed at various target audiences - telling them either what they want to hear or whatever the Powers That Be WANT folks to hear.

To use the converter, simply tune the car radio to an empty spot on the AM dial between 1.40 and 1.55 MHz. Connect the converter between the external antenna and the antenna input on the radio. The converter runs on the car's 12 volt supply; an internal zener diode regulates the supply voltage for the circuit to 9 volts. Use the band selector switch to choose the band to listen to. Reach around the back of the box and turn the peaking control for maximum signal. Then simply tune the right-hand front panel control to tune around for a station. The lower band - the 9.5-10 MHz band, offers the WWV time station from Ft. Collins, Colorado. These WWV signals are very useful not only for checking your watch, but also the RF and audio signals provided are extremely accurate and may be used for equipment calibration. WWV may be heard on 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz - these broadcasts are done around the clock, 365 days a year. Again I mention those because they are an excellent way of checking the calibration and even the operation of a shortwave radio. Basically, if you can't hear WWV, you will likely NOT hear much else, either.

Soon, in a future post I will delve into the features to look for when buying a shortwave receiver and what to listen for on your radio.