Quote from: Moab on September 12, 2023, 09:20:42 PM

Quote from: majorhavoc on August 29, 2023, 07:23:41 AMHad to search "Preparedness Mind Map" because I wasn't familiar with that term. Interesting.

Ok. This 30 day thing is very cool.

Can you link to image or post a .pdf? That is incredible.

If you right click and then 'Open image in new tab' it's much larger.  It's also available from several websites as a poster if you search on "Preparedness Mind Map."  Here is a link to one of them:  https://fortunefavorstheprepared.com/product/preparedness-mind-map-16x20-copy/

Day 12 - Labels - organize, organize, organize!

This is something that I've been trying to keep up on, actually labeling which cords go with which items!  I'd gotten behind lately, so I spent some time tonight printing out labels and attaching them to all sorts of power cords.  This wasn't just power stations, but was also a few others items that were sitting around (dash cam, Garmin GPS, etc.).  The picture doesn't even show all of them, just a selection of what I got around to tonight.

You cannot view this attachment.

The mesh bags were how the cords came for the two Rockpals power stations that I haven't reviewed yet.  I have a bunch of colored tags sitting around and I picked ones that correspond to the case color on each power station so that it's easy to tell which bag goes with which station.  Inside the bags, the power brick and the cigarette plug both have individual labels on them too.

I still need to do more labels, mainly for cords that go with various flashlights (I'm talking about your magnetic chargers Olight!), as well as power bricks for battery chargers and such.  Not to mention that once I get around to building my storage shelves in the basement, I'll have to make labels for all of the totes that go in there, but that's a later project!

Quote from: EBuff75 on September 12, 2023, 10:29:36 PMDay 12 - Labels - organize, organize, organize!

This is something that I've been trying to keep up on, actually labeling which cords go with which items!  I'd gotten behind lately, so I spent some time tonight printing out labels and attaching them to all sorts of power cords.  This wasn't just power stations, but was also a few others items that were sitting around (dash cam, Garmin GPS, etc.).  The picture doesn't even show all of them, just a selection of what I got around to tonight.

You cannot view this attachment.

The mesh bags were how the cords came for the two Rockpals power stations that I haven't reviewed yet.  I have a bunch of colored tags sitting around and I picked ones that correspond to the case color on each power station so that it's easy to tell which bag goes with which station.  Inside the bags, the power brick and the cigarette plug both have individual labels on them too.

I still need to do more labels, mainly for cords that go with various flashlights (I'm talking about your magnetic chargers Olight!), as well as power bricks for battery chargers and such.  Not to mention that once I get around to building my storage shelves in the basement, I'll have to make labels for all of the totes that go in there, but that's a later project!

Thanks for the heads up on the diagram.

I need to do this label thing. I replaced all my pouches and heavier dry bags and containers many years ago with lightweight, black, silnylon bags. Even tho they are different sizes. I still forget what is in each. 

The other thing I have been working on the last year is inventory. I've started an inventory of everything in the 4 different bug out bags we have. One, to keep track of what still needs to be added or upgraded. But also because some items are split up between bags. The tent, rainfly, poles etc for one. Same with food.

Like I know each bag has a cutting tool. But its helpful to know which one and where in the bag. As I continue to upgrade or exchange things between bags. Otherwise 6 months later when you want to add or swap something out. You've long forgotten which one is in each bag, or where its at. Which means emptying every bag until you've found what your looking for. A long tedious process of unpacking and repacking. 

Quote from: EBuff75 on September 12, 2023, 10:29:36 PMDay 12 - Labels - organize, organize, organize!

This is something that I've been trying to keep up on, actually labeling which cords go with which items!  I'd gotten behind lately, so I spent some time tonight printing out labels and attaching them to all sorts of power cords.  This wasn't just power stations, but was also a few others items that were sitting around (dash cam, Garmin GPS, etc.).  The picture doesn't even show all of them, just a selection of what I got around to tonight.

You cannot view this attachment.

The mesh bags were how the cords came for the two Rockpals power stations that I haven't reviewed yet.  I have a bunch of colored tags sitting around and I picked ones that correspond to the case color on each power station so that it's easy to tell which bag goes with which station.  Inside the bags, the power brick and the cigarette plug both have individual labels on them too.

I still need to do more labels, mainly for cords that go with various flashlights (I'm talking about your magnetic chargers Olight!), as well as power bricks for battery chargers and such.  Not to mention that once I get around to building my storage shelves in the basement, I'll have to make labels for all of the totes that go in there, but that's a later project!

I use a silver permanent marker. It's quicker and more permanent IMO. I have a big box of those adapters and got fed up with looking at the device amps and voltage and then searching thru the box matching up the amps/voltage/and connection. I don't have too much problem with the cords but you can mark on them too, black or silver.

Quote from: MacWa77ace on September 13, 2023, 08:43:09 AM

Quote from: EBuff75 on September 12, 2023, 10:29:36 PMDay 12 - Labels - organize, organize, organize!

This is something that I've been trying to keep up on, actually labeling which cords go with which items!  I'd gotten behind lately, so I spent some time tonight printing out labels and attaching them to all sorts of power cords.  This wasn't just power stations, but was also a few others items that were sitting around (dash cam, Garmin GPS, etc.).  The picture doesn't even show all of them, just a selection of what I got around to tonight.

You cannot view this attachment.

The mesh bags were how the cords came for the two Rockpals power stations that I haven't reviewed yet.  I have a bunch of colored tags sitting around and I picked ones that correspond to the case color on each power station so that it's easy to tell which bag goes with which station.  Inside the bags, the power brick and the cigarette plug both have individual labels on them too.

I still need to do more labels, mainly for cords that go with various flashlights (I'm talking about your magnetic chargers Olight!), as well as power bricks for battery chargers and such.  Not to mention that once I get around to building my storage shelves in the basement, I'll have to make labels for all of the totes that go in there, but that's a later project!

I use a silver permanent marker. It's quicker and more permanent IMO. I have a big box of those adapters and got fed up with looking at the device amps and voltage and then searching thru the box matching up the amps/voltage/and connection. I don't have too much problem with the cords but you can mark on them too, black or silver.

These cords don't get beat around too much, so the labels should stay on fairly well.  If it were for something like tools that were getting banged around, then I'd probably do it differently. I use colored paint markers for things like mags, keys, or even on assembly poles for my outdoor projector screen (they all look the same, so I color coded them for each side of the screen to make it easier to figure out how many to use).  In fact, I discovered recently that some of them have gone missing and I really need to buy replacements.

And an explanation about the colored tags.  I bought those a huge bag of those a while back to use on various preps.  It's not the "Colors of Prepping" that the Urban Prepper does, but was more to differentiate between similar looking bags.  I've still got another few hundred of them ready to go.  Hopefully that will be enough to last me! 

Quote from: MacWa77ace on September 13, 2023, 08:43:09 AM

Quote from: EBuff75 on September 12, 2023, 10:29:36 PMDay 12 - Labels - organize, organize, organize!

This is something that I've been trying to keep up on, actually labeling which cords go with which items!  I'd gotten behind lately, so I spent some time tonight printing out labels and attaching them to all sorts of power cords.  This wasn't just power stations, but was also a few others items that were sitting around (dash cam, Garmin GPS, etc.).  The picture doesn't even show all of them, just a selection of what I got around to tonight.

You cannot view this attachment.

The mesh bags were how the cords came for the two Rockpals power stations that I haven't reviewed yet.  I have a bunch of colored tags sitting around and I picked ones that correspond to the case color on each power station so that it's easy to tell which bag goes with which station.  Inside the bags, the power brick and the cigarette plug both have individual labels on them too.

I still need to do more labels, mainly for cords that go with various flashlights (I'm talking about your magnetic chargers Olight!), as well as power bricks for battery chargers and such.  Not to mention that once I get around to building my storage shelves in the basement, I'll have to make labels for all of the totes that go in there, but that's a later project!

I use a silver permanent marker. It's quicker and more permanent IMO. I have a big box of those adapters and got fed up with looking at the device amps and voltage and then searching thru the box matching up the amps/voltage/and connection. I don't have too much problem with the cords but you can mark on them too, black or silver.

I'm going to buy one of those. Much more economical. And a variety of uses. I used magnetic tags in my ammo cans. I think permenant marker would be better. Its portable too. 

I have a label maker, but I can't find the adapter to plug it in. 

Quote from: MacWa77ace on September 13, 2023, 12:28:18 PMI have a label maker, but I can't find the adapter to plug it in. 

Oh, the irony! 

I ain't " done" much the last few days. Go to work, get home, eat, shower, sleep. Only things i have done are random thoughts during the work part of my day. Like tonight plan to go to walmart this weekend grocery shopping and what to get and get " extra" of. Also i guess i lost my replacement battery terminal's so i need to grab 3 sets of them this weekend.

Day 13 - Recharge car jump starter packs

I had a CERT meeting this evening and sort of ran out of time to do much tonight.  So I pulled out the jump starter packs from both vehicles and have them charging right now.  

The GooLoo GP4000 from the truck was showing 75% and is charging at the blistering rate of 12 watts. The FlyHi (no longer available) from my car was initially showing less than 25%, but after being plugged in for just a couple of minutes at the ultra-super-mega-stupendous charging rate of ... 0.15 watts, is now showing 75%.  I would guess that the battery level indicator is off and that it's almost fully charged, which is why it's going so slow.  Both of these have been pretty good about holding a charge for long periods of time.

If you're interested in a jump pack, the GooLoo jump starters are on-sale on Amazon right now.  My GP4000 is on sale for $90 between an Amazon Deal and a $10 coupon.  The smaller GP3000 is even cheaper at $66 from the Amazon sale.

Quote from: EBuff75 on September 13, 2023, 09:33:20 PMDay 13 - Recharge car jump starter packs

I had a CERT meeting this evening and sort of ran out of time to do much tonight.  So I pulled out the jump starter packs from both vehicles and have them charging right now. 

The GooLoo GP4000 from the truck was showing 75% and is charging at the blistering rate of 12 watts. The FlyHi (no longer available) from my car was initially showing less than 25%, but after being plugged in for just a couple of minutes at the ultra-super-mega-stupendous charging rate of ... 0.15 watts, is now showing 75%.  I would guess that the battery level indicator is off and that it's almost fully charged, which is why it's going so slow.  Both of these have been pretty good about holding a charge for long periods of time.

If you're interested in a jump pack, the GooLoo jump starters are on-sale on Amazon right now.  My GP4000 is on sale for $90 between an Amazon Deal and a $10 coupon.  The smaller GP3000 is even cheaper at $66 from the Amazon sale.

Whats the mah on the 3000? I trust your research on electronics. This looks like a good unit for a very decent price. Going in my shopping list. 

Quote from: Moab on September 13, 2023, 11:36:30 PM

Quote from: EBuff75 on September 13, 2023, 09:33:20 PMDay 13 - Recharge car jump starter packs

I had a CERT meeting this evening and sort of ran out of time to do much tonight.  So I pulled out the jump starter packs from both vehicles and have them charging right now. 

The GooLoo GP4000 from the truck was showing 75% and is charging at the blistering rate of 12 watts. The FlyHi (no longer available) from my car was initially showing less than 25%, but after being plugged in for just a couple of minutes at the ultra-super-mega-stupendous charging rate of ... 0.15 watts, is now showing 75%.  I would guess that the battery level indicator is off and that it's almost fully charged, which is why it's going so slow.  Both of these have been pretty good about holding a charge for long periods of time.

If you're interested in a jump pack, the GooLoo jump starters are on-sale on Amazon right now.  My GP4000 is on sale for $90 between an Amazon Deal and a $10 coupon.  The smaller GP3000 is even cheaper at $66 from the Amazon sale.

Whats the mah on the 3000? I trust your research on electronics. This looks like a good unit for a very decent price. Going in my shopping list.

I can't find that number for the GP3000, but their website claims that the upgraded model (GT3000) is 22800mah and another site has the same number for the GP3000.  Take those with a large grain of salt though.  When Project Farm tested these battery jump starters, he found that almost all of them only delivered about 50-75% of their claimed mah.  The GooLoo GP4000 was one of his picks, with the GP2000 farther down the list.  Since the GP3000 would fall in between those, it would likely be a decent option. 

The caveat is if you have a diesel engine.  Then you'd probably want to go toward the higher output ones, as diesels take a bit more to get going.

Well, it turned out to be good timing on the sale.  After letting it charge overnight, my old FlyHi was still showing 75% and taking a charge.  However, when I unplugged it and tried to turn it on, no dice.  I plugged it back in, unplugged it. tried plugging things into the USB and 12v outputs, and nothing.  Looks like it's dead. 

So I ordered another GP4000 to put in the car.  Definitely glad that I checked and found this issue now, rather than discovering it sometime later when I needed the jump starter!

Haven't been up to much prepping wise.  Nothing worth reporting yesterday.  Today I did a few things for hurricane prep.  Picked up a few last minute items at the store and started freezing water bottles so I can bulk up the thermal mass in my fridge.  I'm almost certain to lose power Saturday.  The question will be for how long.

13,929 steps.

Quote from: majorhavoc on September 14, 2023, 07:26:21 PMHaven't been up to much prepping wise.  Nothing worth reporting yesterday.  Today I did a few things for hurricane prep.  Picked up a few last minute items at the store and started freezing water bottles so I can bulk up the thermal mass in my fridge.  I'm almost certain to lose power Saturday.  The question will be for how long.

13,929 steps.

That sounds like some important "prepping wise" stuff right there.  Getting the last minute preps in place prior to a major weather event is pretty much the sort of stuff this entire forum is about!

Day 14 - Rule #32 (Enjoy) The Little Things

Zombieland is still one of my favorites, and that clip is appropriate to today's post.  You see, it's not one big thing, it's a bunch of little ones that I've been accumulating over the past few weeks.

It's easy to lose track of that final few percent of a project.  The one last bit of trim that you ran short of when finishing a room, or painting that one spot that nobody can really see, or organizing the junk drawer after getting done cleaning the rest of the kitchen. 

So I've been consciously trying to finish up those little things. 

In late August, I removed the tint on the front windows of my truck so that it's legal to drive here in Michigan.  Great, but even though I'd scrubbed the windows with regular glass cleaner, there were still a bunch of streaks.  So I picked up some Invisible Glass spray and went back to those windows tonight to finally get all the streaks cleaned up so that I can see clearly at night.  I've also had a recurring issue with the volume knob in the truck not working well, so I pulled it off and sprayed it with contact cleaner, rather than just cursing whenever it jumps around during use.  Much better!

Day 1, where I didn't have enough 9v batteries for all of my alarms?  I bought more rechargeables, received them, but I also took the time to check and make sure that they're all working and then charge them up.  No sense in replacing partly used batteries just yet, but they're all ready to go as soon as I need them.

Day 5, I replaced all the interior lights on the truck with LED, but it started raining before I could finish up putting the replacements into the puddle lamps.  Finally put those in a few days ago so that everything from the kit is finally done. 

Day 8 was the winter heating prep for my Mr. Heater Big Buddy.  I picked up more gas bottles to replace the ones that I'd used last year and also ordered some accessories, including a storage bag.  Everything has arrived, so I packed it all up into the bag (other than the gas bottles, which stay in the garage) and tucked it away for use.
You cannot view this attachment.

I ordered a few items for future preps, which probably won't get done this month.  One was to buy a Retekess TR110 multi-band pocket radio.  It's about the size of a deck of cards, but covers AM, FM, SW, Weather, Air, Ham, VHF, UHF, and CB and is destined for a bag update.  I also ordered the compact molle pouches that @majorhavoc posted about, to use for a first aid kit. 

And tonight I finally did something that I've been neglecting since I bought my house 18 1/2 years ago - I went out and searched the front yard with a metal detector to find my water shutoff!  (if you're interested, it's 6ft south of the walkway up to my front door, right next to the house side of the sidewalk, under about 2-3" of grass and dirt)  I did see one neighbor looking at me through their front curtains.  Apparently it's weird to see someone using a battery powered work light and digging around in their yard with a shovel at 9pm... 

None of these were big things, but the big things are made up of lots of little things.  And sometimes, those little things are easy to miss!

Quote from: EBuff75 on September 14, 2023, 08:30:15 PMDay 14 - Rule #32 (Enjoy) The Little Things

Zombieland is still one of my favorites, and that clip is appropriate to today's post.  You see, it's not one big thing, it's a bunch of little ones that I've been accumulating over the past few weeks.

It's easy to lose track of that final few percent of a project.  The one last bit of trim that you ran short of when finishing a room, or painting that one spot that nobody can really see, or organizing the junk drawer after getting done cleaning the rest of the kitchen. 

So I've been consciously trying to finish up those little things. 

In late August, I removed the tint on the front windows of my truck so that it's legal to drive here in Michigan.  Great, but even though I'd scrubbed the windows with regular glass cleaner, there were still a bunch of streaks.  So I picked up some Invisible Glass spray and went back to those windows tonight to finally get all the streaks cleaned up so that I can see clearly at night.  I've also had a recurring issue with the volume knob in the truck not working well, so I pulled it off and sprayed it with contact cleaner, rather than just cursing whenever it jumps around during use.  Much better!

Day 1, where I didn't have enough 9v batteries for all of my alarms?  I bought more rechargeables, received them, but I also took the time to check and make sure that they're all working and then charge them up.  No sense in replacing partly used batteries just yet, but they're all ready to go as soon as I need them.

Day 5, I replaced all the interior lights on the truck with LED, but it started raining before I could finish up putting the replacements into the puddle lamps.  Finally put those in a few days ago so that everything from the kit is finally done. 

Day 8 was the winter heating prep for my Mr. Heater Big Buddy.  I picked up more gas bottles to replace the ones that I'd used last year and also ordered some accessories, including a storage bag.  Everything has arrived, so I packed it all up into the bag (other than the gas bottles, which stay in the garage) and tucked it away for use.
You cannot view this attachment.

I ordered a few items for future preps, which probably won't get done this month.  One was to buy a Retekess TR110 multi-band pocket radio.  It's about the size of a deck of cards, but covers AM, FM, SW, Weather, Air, Ham, VHF, UHF, and CB and is destined for a bag update.  I also ordered the compact molle pouches that @majorhavoc posted about, to use for a first aid kit. 

And tonight I finally did something that I've been neglecting since I bought my house 18 1/2 years ago - I went out and searched the front yard with a metal detector to find my water shutoff!  (if you're interested, it's 6ft south of the walkway up to my front door, right next to the house side of the sidewalk, under about 2-3" of grass and dirt)  I did see one neighbor looking at me through their front curtains.  Apparently it's weird to see someone using a battery powered work light and digging around in their yard with a shovel at 9pm... 

None of these were big things, but the big things are made up of lots of little things.  And sometimes, those little things are easy to miss!

That pocket radio is decent. It was on my top 5 list. But the Tecsun sold by Countycomm is better. And cheaper if you buy it on Amazon. I did a very deep dive on these awhile back in the Communications section. This thread does not include all of my subsequent research. But if you compare their specs the Tecsun is better. Countycomm also sells excellent accessories. The main and very important difference has something to do with shortwave iirc. But I could be mistaken.

https://ufozs.com/smf/index.php?topic=1270.0

Here is an excellent review on swling.com. But read the comments. The 368 a big jump up from the 360. There are other reviews of it on swling as well.

https://swling.com/blog/2021/07/tecsun-pl-368-an-everyman-review/

This is the Tecsun PL368 for $79.99 on Amazon.

Tecsun Digital PL368 AM/FM/LW/SW Worldband Radio with Single Side Band Receiver (Black) https://a.co/d/b68X8JW

Or the previous model for $50.

Tecsun PL-360 Digital PLL Portable AM/FM Shortwave Radio with DSP, Black https://a.co/d/6XO7TJl

Check Countycomm. They make a deak stand that is a handy puck and several other things. Like spare bats. Here it is on their site. It may be worth buying directly from countycomm. As you want the one with the latst firmware. But I think the Amazon one is sold with the latest firmware. I would confirm that with the Amazin seller.

https://countycomm.com/products/countycomm-gp-5-ssb-general-purpose-radio

Quote from: Moab on September 14, 2023, 08:56:40 PM

Quote from: EBuff75 on September 14, 2023, 08:30:15 PMDay 14 - Rule #32 (Enjoy) The Little Things

Zombieland is still one of my favorites, and that clip is appropriate to today's post.  You see, it's not one big thing, it's a bunch of little ones that I've been accumulating over the past few weeks.

It's easy to lose track of that final few percent of a project.  The one last bit of trim that you ran short of when finishing a room, or painting that one spot that nobody can really see, or organizing the junk drawer after getting done cleaning the rest of the kitchen. 

So I've been consciously trying to finish up those little things. 

In late August, I removed the tint on the front windows of my truck so that it's legal to drive here in Michigan.  Great, but even though I'd scrubbed the windows with regular glass cleaner, there were still a bunch of streaks.  So I picked up some Invisible Glass spray and went back to those windows tonight to finally get all the streaks cleaned up so that I can see clearly at night.  I've also had a recurring issue with the volume knob in the truck not working well, so I pulled it off and sprayed it with contact cleaner, rather than just cursing whenever it jumps around during use.  Much better!

Day 1, where I didn't have enough 9v batteries for all of my alarms?  I bought more rechargeables, received them, but I also took the time to check and make sure that they're all working and then charge them up.  No sense in replacing partly used batteries just yet, but they're all ready to go as soon as I need them.

Day 5, I replaced all the interior lights on the truck with LED, but it started raining before I could finish up putting the replacements into the puddle lamps.  Finally put those in a few days ago so that everything from the kit is finally done. 

Day 8 was the winter heating prep for my Mr. Heater Big Buddy.  I picked up more gas bottles to replace the ones that I'd used last year and also ordered some accessories, including a storage bag.  Everything has arrived, so I packed it all up into the bag (other than the gas bottles, which stay in the garage) and tucked it away for use.
You cannot view this attachment.

I ordered a few items for future preps, which probably won't get done this month.  One was to buy a Retekess TR110 multi-band pocket radio.  It's about the size of a deck of cards, but covers AM, FM, SW, Weather, Air, Ham, VHF, UHF, and CB and is destined for a bag update.  I also ordered the compact molle pouches that @majorhavoc posted about, to use for a first aid kit. 

And tonight I finally did something that I've been neglecting since I bought my house 18 1/2 years ago - I went out and searched the front yard with a metal detector to find my water shutoff!  (if you're interested, it's 6ft south of the walkway up to my front door, right next to the house side of the sidewalk, under about 2-3" of grass and dirt)  I did see one neighbor looking at me through their front curtains.  Apparently it's weird to see someone using a battery powered work light and digging around in their yard with a shovel at 9pm... 

None of these were big things, but the big things are made up of lots of little things.  And sometimes, those little things are easy to miss!

That pocket radio is decent. It was on my top 5 list. But the Tecsun sold by Countycomm is better. And cheaper if you buy it on Amazon. I did a very deep dive on these awhile back in the Communications section. This thread does not include all of my subsequent research. But if you compare their specs the Tecsun is better. Countycomm also sells excellent accessories. The main and very important difference has something to do with shortwave iirc. But I could be mistaken.

https://ufozs.com/smf/index.php?topic=1270.0

Here is an excellent review on swling.com. But read the comments. The 368 a big jump up from the 360. There are other reviews of it on swling as well.

https://swling.com/blog/2021/07/tecsun-pl-368-an-everyman-review/

This is the Tecsun PL368 for $79.99 on Amazon.

Tecsun Digital PL368 AM/FM/LW/SW Worldband Radio with Single Side Band Receiver (Black) https://a.co/d/b68X8JW

Or the previous model for $50.

Tecsun PL-360 Digital PLL Portable AM/FM Shortwave Radio with DSP, Black https://a.co/d/6XO7TJl

Check Countycomm. They make a deak stand that is a handy puck and several other things. Like spare bats. Here it is on their site. It may be worth buying directly from countycomm. As you want the one with the latst firmware. But I think the Amazon one is sold with the latest firmware. I would confirm that with the Amazin seller.

https://countycomm.com/products/countycomm-gp-5-ssb-general-purpose-radio

One of my requirements was that the radio have the NOAA weather band radio, which the Tecsun doesn't have.  I still have that radio on my list as well (and yes, I've ordered things from CountyComm in the past ), but the Retekess had the weather band, was smaller, and I got it on sale for $55! (I also received an email from them that they're sending me a free antenna adapter of some type, which wasn't even mentioned in the original sale)  Since it's intended for an EDC bag that's already limited on size/capacity, the smaller the better for the radio, and the Retekess is the size of a deck of cards. 

Interestingly, both radios use the same battery: a BL-5C 3.7v 1000mah lithium-ion rechargeable.  I've already got some spares that I bought for another Retekess radio (a V115 that I've had for a couple of years) that uses them too.

Quote from: EBuff75 on September 14, 2023, 09:40:25 PM

Quote from: Moab on September 14, 2023, 08:56:40 PM

Quote from: EBuff75 on September 14, 2023, 08:30:15 PMDay 14 - Rule #32 (Enjoy) The Little Things

Zombieland is still one of my favorites, and that clip is appropriate to today's post.  You see, it's not one big thing, it's a bunch of little ones that I've been accumulating over the past few weeks.

It's easy to lose track of that final few percent of a project.  The one last bit of trim that you ran short of when finishing a room, or painting that one spot that nobody can really see, or organizing the junk drawer after getting done cleaning the rest of the kitchen. 

So I've been consciously trying to finish up those little things. 

In late August, I removed the tint on the front windows of my truck so that it's legal to drive here in Michigan.  Great, but even though I'd scrubbed the windows with regular glass cleaner, there were still a bunch of streaks.  So I picked up some Invisible Glass spray and went back to those windows tonight to finally get all the streaks cleaned up so that I can see clearly at night.  I've also had a recurring issue with the volume knob in the truck not working well, so I pulled it off and sprayed it with contact cleaner, rather than just cursing whenever it jumps around during use.  Much better!

Day 1, where I didn't have enough 9v batteries for all of my alarms?  I bought more rechargeables, received them, but I also took the time to check and make sure that they're all working and then charge them up.  No sense in replacing partly used batteries just yet, but they're all ready to go as soon as I need them.

Day 5, I replaced all the interior lights on the truck with LED, but it started raining before I could finish up putting the replacements into the puddle lamps.  Finally put those in a few days ago so that everything from the kit is finally done. 

Day 8 was the winter heating prep for my Mr. Heater Big Buddy.  I picked up more gas bottles to replace the ones that I'd used last year and also ordered some accessories, including a storage bag.  Everything has arrived, so I packed it all up into the bag (other than the gas bottles, which stay in the garage) and tucked it away for use.
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I ordered a few items for future preps, which probably won't get done this month.  One was to buy a Retekess TR110 multi-band pocket radio.  It's about the size of a deck of cards, but covers AM, FM, SW, Weather, Air, Ham, VHF, UHF, and CB and is destined for a bag update.  I also ordered the compact molle pouches that @majorhavoc posted about, to use for a first aid kit. 

And tonight I finally did something that I've been neglecting since I bought my house 18 1/2 years ago - I went out and searched the front yard with a metal detector to find my water shutoff!  (if you're interested, it's 6ft south of the walkway up to my front door, right next to the house side of the sidewalk, under about 2-3" of grass and dirt)  I did see one neighbor looking at me through their front curtains.  Apparently it's weird to see someone using a battery powered work light and digging around in their yard with a shovel at 9pm... 

None of these were big things, but the big things are made up of lots of little things.  And sometimes, those little things are easy to miss!

That pocket radio is decent. It was on my top 5 list. But the Tecsun sold by Countycomm is better. And cheaper if you buy it on Amazon. I did a very deep dive on these awhile back in the Communications section. This thread does not include all of my subsequent research. But if you compare their specs the Tecsun is better. Countycomm also sells excellent accessories. The main and very important difference has something to do with shortwave iirc. But I could be mistaken.

https://ufozs.com/smf/index.php?topic=1270.0

Here is an excellent review on swling.com. But read the comments. The 368 a big jump up from the 360. There are other reviews of it on swling as well.

https://swling.com/blog/2021/07/tecsun-pl-368-an-everyman-review/

This is the Tecsun PL368 for $79.99 on Amazon.

Tecsun Digital PL368 AM/FM/LW/SW Worldband Radio with Single Side Band Receiver (Black) https://a.co/d/b68X8JW

Or the previous model for $50.

Tecsun PL-360 Digital PLL Portable AM/FM Shortwave Radio with DSP, Black https://a.co/d/6XO7TJl

Check Countycomm. They make a deak stand that is a handy puck and several other things. Like spare bats. Here it is on their site. It may be worth buying directly from countycomm. As you want the one with the latst firmware. But I think the Amazon one is sold with the latest firmware. I would confirm that with the Amazin seller.

https://countycomm.com/products/countycomm-gp-5-ssb-general-purpose-radio

One of my requirements was that the radio have the NOAA weather band radio, which the Tecsun doesn't have.  I still have that radio on my list as well (and yes, I've ordered things from CountyComm in the past ), but the Retekess had the weather band, was smaller, and I got it on sale for $55! (I also received an email from them that they're sending me a free antenna adapter of some type, which wasn't even mentioned in the original sale)  Since it's intended for an EDC bag that's already limited on size/capacity, the smaller the better for the radio, and the Retekess is the size of a deck of cards. 

Interestingly, both radios use the same battery: a BL-5C 3.7v 1000mah lithium-ion rechargeable.  I've already got some spares that I bought for another Retekess radio (a V115 that I've had for a couple of years) that uses them too.

At $55 I like it. Countycomm used to sell a shortwave radio that was the size of a deck of cards. I had one it was great. You might consider storing it with some disecant(sp?). To keep it dry. I only used mine a few times. But it was stored in my pack for years. And died.

I know the noaa problem. I don't know why alot if radios don't include those freqs. I have a scanner. So I use that for noaa.

After my research I decided I wanted the Uniden Home patrol scanner. It does trunked pokice stations without having to kniw anything about it. You just diwnload the latest siftware. And it picks up all the trunked police stations. It also has a complete range of freqs. But its like $450.

I used to be a scanner head. Before trunking came along. I had a pretty advanced set up for the time. As I was a working PI. I could videotape someone talking on their cellphone. And include the audio from the phone call on the videotape. I also got local pd car radio traffic. So I knew whenever there was a cop in the area. Their radio would immediately come up on my audio. And I could hear what they were saying.

But the funnest thing was listening to the hams talk shit to each other. I heard the greatest come back ever on ham radio one night. While sitting on surveillance. But it was very dependant on its delivery. This one guy was fed up with some other guy. He said "Come on up to my place. You'll be pickin' teeth out of your shit for the next three weeks.".  I laughed for a good half hour from that one. But you had to hear it from the redneck that said it. It was funny as hell. Thise guys would sit and talk shit to each other all night. 

You get bored while on surveillance.

Day 15 - Recharge. All. The. Batteries...

*sigh*  Okay, you might be aware that I have a bit of a thing for lights, power stations, rechargeable batteries, and everything under the sun that uses rechargeable batteries.  I'm not done yet (as the recharging will extend overnight and into tomorrow), but I've got most of them recharged now.  What all did that entail?  *ahem*

• Recharged assorted lithium-ion batteries: 18650, 26650, 21700, 14500, 16340, 9v
• Recharged any flashlights / pistol lights that use built-in chargers for the internal batteries
• Recharged all the NiMH batteries:  lots and lots and lots of AAs and a few AAAs, plus some D cells.  The D cells are the ones that it takes forever to recharge.  This is partly because they're 10,000mah each, but it's mostly because I have 8 of them and only 2 adapters for my Gyrfalcon-88 charger (which is the only one of my chargers that they'll fit into). 
• Recharged all the power stations (I'm up to 10, plus the Marbero, which barely counts)
• Recharged all the battery-operated work lights - 4 of the Warsun / innofox, the one on the tripod, two magnetic cabinet lights, two other work lights (similar to these), and one more like this
• Recharged all my USB power banks (I think I counted 15)
• Recharged several "light bulbs" / hangable lights
• Recharged my Milwaukee power tool batteries (M18 and M12)
• Recharged BL-5C radio batteries
• Recharged 4 plasma lighters
• Recharged 2 fans
• Recharged night vision "binoculars" (I haven't done a review on these yet; that might be a future item)
• Recharge camera batteries (misc proprietary batteries for each camera)
• Recharge 5 Rovyvon keychain lights (plus the copy that NT2C sent me!)
• Recharge two Bluetooth speakers
• Recharge earbuds & 2 Bluetooth headsets
• Recharge EcoXGear portable speaker / PA system
• Recharge wireless microphones and receiver

Aaaand, I think that's it.  I'm still finishing up a bunch of the AA batteries and the D-cells will take half the weekend to finish up, since I can only charge 2 at a time.  I've thought about trying to build additional adapters out of some scrap sheet metal, but it's one of those things that I've never gotten around to, mostly because I know it'll be a major pain to get them exactly the right size/shape to work. 

I'm not counting anything that just stays on the charger, or my phone (which I try to keep between 50-85% as much as possible), or the jump packs that I just recharged the other day.  Some of the lights above (flashlights, batteries, and work lights) were in my vehicles and came inside to be recharged.  I'm still waiting on the two Letour work lights to finish charging and then I'll move them back out to the vehicles. 

I use a cheap roll-top desk in my bedroom as a charging station so that I can close it at night to block all the blinking and beeping and flashing lights!  I can't take it anymore!!
blinking and beeping and flashing lights!  I can't take it anymore!!  Ah, sorry.  Anyway, it helps me to sleep if I can block all those out.  It was quite the mess of batteries, cords, and chargers earlier tonight!

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And did I miss any?  That's almost a guarantee, although I did my best!  Most of the lights in my bags use lithium primary (disposable) batteries.  I need to go through my bags as well, just to check expiration dates and such, but that's another day.